I've noticed my headlights on my 2016 CX-5 Touring are starting to fog. They work fine and have good light spread, but I stay up on my maintenance rather than let it fade. I've polished plastic headlamps numerous times over the years with differing results. Sometimes the initial polish will work, but because the factory finish is gone, they have to be repolished regularly.

Does anybody know of a good after market set of headlights for this generation CX-5? I like the looks of the car with the ones on there but a slight change won't bother me.

 

I have, and have friends that have purchased headlight assemblies from E-bay.
They fit good but the bulbs are cheapies.
Most of the headlight treatments either don't work well or don't work at all.
YouTube has some videos on this but replacement might be the best route. Up to you.
Check YouTube for changing headlights as well. The whole front of vehicle may have to come off.
UGH!

My 2¢

 

Mazda doesn't seem to be as bad as GM. The bulbs can be changed in the car. I looked at that before I bought the car. It took me nearly 5 hours start to finish to change the bulbs on the GF's Equinox.



Only one was burned out but I replaced both as I didn't want to do that again. This was one of many reasons that NO GM vehicles were considered when I bought the CX-5. GM just doesn't consider field servicing. They used to be my favorite to work on back in the 60's and 70's.

 

Had a GMC Terrain previous. Cleaned headlights (to some degree) with chrome polish. Did it carefully
so as to not make things worse.
GM doesn't seem to be able to make a good 4 cylinder engine, they've had problems with 4 cyl. since way back in the
60s. Love my CX-5.

My 2¢

 

The 1960's weren't too bad for 4 bangers from GM. My sister did buy one of the first Vegas off the line though. Steel rings in an aluminum bore. Chrysler made an aluminum slant six in the early 60's and it worked just fine. It had steel bore liners. Her Vega was traded in at 30,000 miles and was getting 100 miles to the quart of oil. Dad taught her like me to maintain our cars. She traded it in on a '75 MGB and got 7 years out of the original battery on that one.

The GM 4 banger from the Vega was given steel sleeves in '75. That motor was used into the early 2000's and was really reliable. GM just has a habit of using the customer as quality control. Which is why a Mazda, a Dodge and a Ford are in my driveway.

 

2016.5 CX-5 GT, here. Have mildly "polished" the headlight assemblies a couple of times this past year. A mild polish with a microfiber cloth. In my own case, it turned out to simply be built-up crud that was hazing the lens. Have cleaned numerous headlight assy's on prior vehicles, and never yet had an issue with cleaning followed by mild (emphasis: mild) polishing. But then, I generally keep up with it.

The Meguiar's PlastX cleaner/polish ought to do you well. Applied two or three times annually, with mild pressure basic crud and hazing can be corrected without going too far into the surface. In <5mins per cleaning, IMO it's worth seeing if that'll do it. If nothing else, it avoids the expense of new light assemblies and the work to swap.

 

Eventually it will come to the point when you get foggy headlights it'll be cheaper to buy new vehicle

 

Not in this market. I've been offered $2000 more for my '16 than what I paid for it 2 1/2 years and 50,000 miles ago.

My concern for polishing my headlights is once I start, I'll have to keep at it

 

Question for the group. Has anyone tried applying PPF to the headlights AFTER polishing them? If so would this prevent them from fogging again? I always have PPF applied to my cars when I buy them - including the headlights. I have not had fogging issues. Just a thought.

 

Oxidation of the plastic is the main reason.
UV clear coat (film or spray) will help but that also breaks down over time and needs to be reapplied.