Mazda 3 - Awful headlights

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Thu 18 Sep 2025 15:17
Mazda 3 - Awful headlights - CheerfulChuck

Hi all,

Would appreciate if anybody has met with this issue before, the headlights on this Mazda 3 are unusable due to extremely dull light. Bulbs have been changed, the outside of the headlight has been polished, and have been advised it may be an aged projector lens.... It does look frosted when the lights are on, however they both do and quite uniformly, so my question at the moment is whether they could be actually supposed to be frosted? If they should be clear obviously new headlights units should solve the issue but it's a huge cost without being sure of the problem.

Photos here:

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Many thanks for any thoughts

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Thu 18 Sep 2025 18:38
Mazda 3 - Awful headlights - elekie&a/c doctor
Projector headlights are generally very poor compared to conventional reflector types . The lenses are not clear , you can’t see the bulb from the front . I’ve had them on an x type jaguar and a corsa C . Both were very poor . Not sure if new lights would improve the situation. Not sure if these were ever fitted with xenon or led lights .
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Thu 18 Sep 2025 18:44
Mazda 3 - Awful headlights - CheerfulChuck

Thanks for your reply - no xenon/led lights have been used that I know of. It's so poor I am considering getting rid of the car as they are not functional, sad as I enjoy the car otherwise.

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Thu 18 Sep 2025 19:12
Mazda 3 - Awful headlights - mord

That does seem a little like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, its perhaps worth trying some better bulbs than the 50p specials one finds in the local petrol station.

Ive had good results with Osram Nightbreakers and Philips Xtremevision bulbs before (the Phillps I found to have a longer life than the Osrams). Can usually pick these up for around £20 a pair.

Could also try led replacements as these tend to work well with projector lenses, retaining a good beam cutoff pattern. They're, ahem, technically not road legal, but its unlikely anyone would ever notice.

What year/model is your car so that we know what bulb types it needs?

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Thu 18 Sep 2025 19:47
Mazda 3 - Awful headlights - CheerfulChuck

Sadly upgrading the bulbs hasn't made much difference :( would rather stay road legal (though honestly these shouldn't be!)

Edited by CheerfulChuck on 18/09/2025 at 19:47

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Thu 18 Sep 2025 20:37
Mazda 3 - Awful headlights - Adampr

They shouldn't be all milky like that. The lenses have oxidised. What year is it? Have you looked for someone that might be able to refurb them or thought about having a go yourself?

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Thu 18 Sep 2025 22:13
Mazda 3 - Awful headlights - Big John

Over my driving career I've had generally had poor experience of projector headlights with standard halogen bulbs.

Mrs BJ's 1999 FIat Punto with projector headlights owned from 3 years old were always pretty awful. I can't remember the bulb type.

My Skoda Superb mkI owned from 18 months old were also always pretty bad. Projector lens units H7 halogen bulbs and I tried brighter bulbs(Osram Silverstar) that made a slight improvement but still not great, Bulb life then became poor which was a pain as it was a difficult job to replace bulbs. Later in life they also needed the plastic front polishing.

My Skoda Superb mkII owned from 14 months old also with projector lens units H7 bulbs were ok to be honest.

The point I'm trying to make is the headlights may have always been poor. Some implementations are poorer than others.

PS measure the voltage at the bulb to double check electrical things on the way eg relay contacts/wiring.

Edited by Big John on 18/09/2025 at 22:21

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