Well, after 5 years my lens are yellowed and cracking enough to allow moisture to get inside. I have polished the yellow out several times but now you can hear the plastic crackling when you try to put any small amount of pressure on it. I've looked and searched here for how to get to the bolts holding down the lamps. Hopefully you can just loosen the front bumper skin enough to work under it? Has anyone done it yet? Any pointers or ideas would be great, winter is coming quick and I'm gonna need those nice clear lens to see on the way to work and back.
Do you use inexpensive HIDs? Some say cheap HID bulbs do not use Quartz capsules that cut down on UV light emission that causes the yellowing effect of the polycarbonate headlight lens. Or is your problem due to actual sun exposure?
Front bumper removal is easy and takes 15 minutes if you are slow.....sun is the biggest reason for yellowed headlights. This happens to all new vehicles, since the days of glass lens have gone away. I still have a 92 Lexus with glass lens and they still look new. I wish they would go back to them. On a separate note, why don't rear tail lights that are wrapped in clear lens don't have the same issue of yellowing?
Have you sourced the headlight lenses/covers and butyl adhesive? Once you get them, it's pretty easy to get the bumper cover off, or loosen the top of the cover and tilt it forward to access the bolts holding the headlight assembly in. Then you bake the headlights to soften the adhesive holding the covers on and pry them off carefully.
I had already bought complete LH & RH units, wasn't going to try to take them apart. Removing the bumper cover is what I wasn't sure about how to do.
Here you go, link to removing front bumper cover. I think you can leave the bottom fasteners on though and tilt the cover forward enough to remove the headlight assemblies. Between the two links below, you should find everything you need: DIY: How to remove the front bumper from a 2012 3rd gen Prius | Balancing Act DIY HEADLIGHT REMOVAL AND HEADLIGHT BLACKOUT GUIDE AKA Baked Headlight | PriusChat
I too would love my headlights replaced. But i watched a video on replacing them and decided that was a job i didn't want to attempt. My clearcoat paint job is breaking down and just going to have them done when i get the car repainted.
Removing the front bummer is very easy. A little trickly holding it up to get a few bolts in to hold it. I had to remove mine to replace the lower plastic grill. There are a lot of screws and bolts though. It's tricky in the wheel well area. But if you take your time, it's doable.
