Peeling headlight covers

[FANGO]

I just recently acquired a roadster with peeling headlight covers. The car is under warranty. Brought it in, and they told me the only fix is to replace the headlights, and quoted me the $2,600 cost of upgrading to Xenons. I mentioned I had heard it's possible to get them fixed/replaced under warranty, and I believe they told me they don't do that anymore. What's the most recent someone has gotten the headlights swapped out? It's only 2 months since the last posts in this thread...

Have looked into just sanding the stuff off, would simply waxing them and keeping them waxed stop from having the plastic yellow? The car is parked outside, I have not yet bought a cover, but was going to get a covercraft custom cover soon, just not sure which material I want to get.

 

[wiztecy]

I just recently acquired a roadster with peeling headlight covers. The car is under warranty. Brought it in, and they told me the only fix is to replace the headlights, and quoted me the $2,600 cost of upgrading to Xenons. I mentioned I had heard it's possible to get them fixed/replaced under warranty, and I believe they told me they don't do that anymore. What's the most recent someone has gotten the headlights swapped out? It's only 2 months since the last posts in this thread...

Have looked into just sanding the stuff off, would simply waxing them and keeping them waxed stop from having the plastic yellow? The car is parked outside, I have not yet bought a cover, but was going to get a covercraft custom cover soon, just not sure which material I want to get.

CPO car? Possibly there's some fine print that say's cosmetic / headlight peeling is not covered. I know if I had purchased the extended warranty, since I owned the car while it was under the original warranty, that Tesla indicated they would have covered my peeling headlights.

A quick inexpensive fix is to get as much of the peeling off and then cover the headlight lens with the paint armor shield.

 

[jbadger]

I just recently acquired a roadster with peeling headlight covers. The car is under warranty. Brought it in, and they told me the only fix is to replace the headlights, and quoted me the $2,600 cost of upgrading to Xenons. I mentioned I had heard it's possible to get them fixed/replaced under warranty, and I believe they told me they don't do that anymore. What's the most recent someone has gotten the headlights swapped out? It's only 2 months since the last posts in this thread...

The Fremont location supposedly was working with a vendor who had a fix for the peeling headlights. They told me I would be the first to have it done as the demo vehicle, but I have not received a follow up for over a month. I'll follow up and see why it fell through.

Update: Got a response that they are going to schedule me in for them to apply the fix. I'll take before / after photos and report back with how it goes.

 

[strider]

Timely thread resurrection. My warranty runs out on 11/2 and I noticed in the last week my left headlight is peeling. Right seems fine. I did the ddmtuning HID update a long time ago and have been happy with the results. I'll be taking my car in for it's annual and final check before warranty runs out to have this looked at towards the end of October so we'll see what they do for me.

jbadger, so you had yours replaced with the halogen lights and Tesla is working with you on a preventative cure so they won't peel again? Or did you decline to have yours replaced since you were out of warranty? I thought folks said you could just have paint protection film applied to it to prevent peeling if it hadn't already started?

 

[FANGO]

The Fremont location supposedly was working with a vendor who had a fix for the peeling headlights. They told me I would be the first to have it done as the demo vehicle, but I have not received a follow up for over a month. I'll follow up and see why it fell through.

Update: Got a response that they are going to schedule me in for them to apply the fix. I'll take before / after photos and report back with how it goes.

Can you also give us information about who you talked to, how you got the fix, what we should tell our local service center, whether we have to go to Fremont, etc?

Or just details on what gets done, if it's something we can do on our own?

 

[strider]

So I just got my car back after it's final annual before the warranty expired. My left headlight had begun peeling. Tesla replaced them w/ factory HIDs so it would appear the rumors about no more halogens are true. They saved my aftermarket HID bulbs so if anyone wants them let me know.

So my question to the list is, do we know for sure that the factory HIDs won't peel or should I plan to have PPF installed onto my new lights? Should probably get it done anyway for scratch/rock chip resistance but curious about peeling v2 now that I'm out of warranty.

 

[jbadger]

Can you also give us information about who you talked to, how you got the fix, what we should tell our local service center, whether we have to go to Fremont, etc?

Or just details on what gets done, if it's something we can do on our own?

I was in talks with Brian Phillips at the Fremont SC. I never ended up getting it done at Tesla because i've got an ongoing email chain where they say they will do something and never follow through.

I'm having Dietsch Werks in San Jose sand off the current coating and replace it with a 3M protective finish.

 

[FANGO]

I was in talks with Brian Phillips at the Fremont SC. I never ended up getting it done at Tesla because i've got an ongoing email chain where they say they will do something and never follow through.

I'm having Dietsch Werks in San Jose sand off the current coating and replace it with a 3M protective finish.

Interesting, I have the exact same email chain going.

 

[jordanthompson]

My headlights are out of warranty, peeling, and I have already added the HID bulbs, so I am looking at "fixing" the peeling instead of any other option. It has been suggested to me to do the sanding (with 1200 grit sandpaper) and then wrap them with a clear wrap (like a body wrap.) The wrap place would prefer the lights out of the car (so they can wrap around the corners). I noticed that the top of the lights (lenses?) look removable (if you pop the hood and look at the light closest to the center of the car, you will notice clips on the lights.) I am wondering if anyone has removed the lights themselves and/or just the lenses and could offer some advice?

 

[dhrivnak]

I was told by a ranger one has to remove the wheel and pull out the headlight assembly from under the wheel well.

 

[asgard]

I was told by a ranger one has to remove the wheel and pull out the headlight assembly from under the wheel well.

I believe wiztecy has pulled out the entire headlight assembly.

 

[wiztecy]

I believe wiztecy has pulled out the entire headlight assembly.

Yes, I pulled mine out and did the TRS HID projector upgrade. TRS pulled my clear lenses apart from the light assembly, I looked and gave it an attack but felt like I definitely was going to cause some damage. They had to remove the clear lens in order to remove the original Halogen Projector and replace it with an H1 Xenon HID projector. I asked Andrew @ TRS about any tricks to separate the clear lens from the light assembly and below is his response:

==============

Andrew@TRS: "The housings need to be heated to be split. I think I used the standard 265F for 7 minutes to get into them. You can go with your kitchen's oven to heat the entire housing at once, just make sure no wires or rubber are touching the wire racks."

Me: "Thanks Andrew, as for reassembling do I need to re-heat them to make the waterproof seal and / or add new sealant?"

Andrew@TRS: "Exactly right, Dennis. We recommend removing all of that stock sealant and replacing it with fresh new butyl sealant: OCI Butyl Rubber Glue - Accessories from The Retrofit Source Inc "

==============

Feel free to contact these guys about the peeling issue, they may have a solution for you on how to permanently fix it. They're great guys that I highly recommend.

As for removing the headlights, you have to remove the inner fender, pulling it out you have to tug and bend so that takes some messing with at first. Do the drivers side first, its the hardest, there are 3 nuts that hold down the headlight assembly to the roadster. One nut on the drivers side is very hard to access since there's some crazy can with hoses there. I couldn't figure out what that contraption is used for..... Also be careful of a long wire, looks like a speedo cable. Don't tug on this and if you hit/tug on it, remember that you did. I tugged on this passenger side cable that inside above the inner fender and when I keyed the car on to test the lights, I had all types of TPMS and TC errors. Since I knew I tugged on that odd cable and knew the TPMS sensor is up there I went back and snugged the connection. The cable gets fatter in one place where there's a connection. After re-seating that all the errors went away.

 

[jordanthompson]

My headlights are out of warranty, peeling, and I have already added the HID bulbs, so I am looking at "fixing" the peeling instead of any other option. It has been suggested to me to do the sanding (with 1200 grit sandpaper) and then wrap them with a clear wrap (like a body wrap.) The wrap place would prefer the lights out of the car (so they can wrap around the corners). I noticed that the top of the lights (lenses?) look removable (if you pop the hood and look at the light closest to the center of the car, you will notice clips on the lights.) I am wondering if anyone has removed the lights themselves and/or just the lenses and could offer some advice?

I have finally completed my mission...
I had bought a headlight restoration kit (there are many to chose from, I think they probably are all the same) with the different levels of sandpaper abrasiveness. I wound up using #400 from my workbench (much rougher than came with the kit) to get the cancer off of the lights initially.

I then religiously went over the lights following the instructions in the kit to remove the heavy(?) scratches from my #400. Eventually I was happy with the results and put on the last layer of clear sealant.

I wasn't happy with the results(!): there still were tiny scratches left and even a little (faint) cancer was still there and they generally seemed cloudy to me.

I went to 2 Bit in Satellite Beach and had them put tint onto the lights (after I made a final pass with the sandpaper and even some headlight polish to remove the sealant completely.) The tint they chose to use was exceptionally heavy and went on relatively easily.

Here are the results (I am now very happy!) The tint was slightly dark, and successfully hid any cosmetic issues. The film also has UV protection, so I should have eliminated future issues with the headlights.

By the way, 2 Bit was able to do all of this work WITHOUT REMOVING THE HEADLIGHTS FROM THE CAR!!!!

Headlight restoration kit

Headlight polish

Installer adding film

Before (right) and After (left)

Finished

Finished

Before

After

Logo of Laminate company

Address of Laminate company

 

[Doug_G]

I fixed that for you - per your request. For the record, here's the deal:

The images were listed as "attached images" and shown at the bottom because they were attached to the message, but not "inserted inline".

To fix this sort of mess, Edit Post, Go Advanced, and click Manage Attachments.

 

[Mark77a]

Good stuff !! .. your car looks great .. well, 'bad'

Does the 'slight tint' noticeably affect the lighting efficiency/brightness ?

 

[jordanthompson]

Does the 'slight tint' noticeably affect the lighting efficiency/brightness ?

heh... it definitely affected it. Fortunately I don't drive that much at night, I installed the HID lights for both high and low, and the black really looks cool (so it was worth it to me.)

 

[ecarfan]

Just a data point: my 1.5 was built in April 2009. Headlights look perfect, no peeling. Car came to me last month with 12K miles and was reportedly kept indoors in a climate-controlled garage in Florida. At my house it lives in my garage, mild climate. I work at a variety of locations in the Bay Area, sometimes the car will be parked outside during the day. Perhaps I should have a protective film added to the headlights? Any suggestions?

Just upgraded the low beams with a DDM kit and have no plans to someday change to the factory Xenon units. Though someday it would be cool to have them converted to all LED.

 

[wiztecy]

Just a data point: my 1.5 was built in April 2009. Headlights look perfect, no peeling. Car came to me last month with 12K miles and was reportedly kept indoors in a climate-controlled garage in Florida. At my house it lives in my garage, mild climate. I work at a variety of locations in the Bay Area, sometimes the car will be parked outside during the day. Perhaps I should have a protective film added to the headlights? Any suggestions?

Throw the paint armor over those headlights before they begin to peel, its only a matter of time. That's the only way I've found to protect them by chance.

 

[ecarfan]

Any specific protection product you would recommend? Can I apply it myself? Have zero experience doing anything like that. Would I make a paper pattern and then cut the film out of a sheet based on the pattern?

 

[strider]

Any specific protection product you would recommend? Can I apply it myself? Have zero experience doing anything like that. Would I make a paper pattern and then cut the film out of a sheet based on the pattern?

I would take it to Auto Image in Belmont. It should be cheap and they can probably do it w/ scraps they have laying around. Let me know as I want to do mine. Even though I have the HIDs I'm nervous they'll also peel but we just haven't had them long enough for it to happen to anyone.