Huncowboy

We have noticed these very small cracks on one side of the headlight. They run for a good 5-6 inches long on the edge of the light. The other headlight has them also but only for half an inch. We think we have not hit anything but you never really know. It does not look like damage from an object anyways because the paint along it has no damage. We life in FL and during the day the car does sit outside on the sun for hours, so I am starting to think this may be from the heat. Has anyone else seen these?

By the way, the car is always hand washed, and the light has no protective cover.

gota911

My 997.2 has different headlights so I can not relate directly to the 991 headlight construction, but the picture "appears" to show delamination or bubbling of the gray color coating beneath the plastic outer layer and not cracks in the actual plastic.

Again, I am basing my observations on a two dimensional picture, and not the actual three dimensional headlight.

LexVan

Clearly a warranty issue. Take your car in ASAP.

Ask them to upgrade you to the new black headlights.

Huncowboy

It is 3D. I will definitely take it in next week. I am just wondering if someone else had this issue already. I figured others must uave had this before me.

Drizute

I had exactly the same cracks on a BMW X5 after about 6 months from new. I took it in and was told by the Service advisor, "my family has a detail business we see this all the time it's from the orbital polishers damaging the headlights, we are not paying for it" !! I have ALWAYS detailed my own cars and never used a polisher on the headlights..... Had to go to regional director for BMW to get it resolved. I was one of the first to get the new X5 subsequently found out a bunch of cars came in with the same thing and it was an issue with the glass. Fight for it is all I can suggest, I went out and looked at my 2012.5 c2S didn't notice anything.

BradB

Clearly you are abusing the high beams. Warranty denied!

chuck911

The orbital story is BS. In the first place a random orbital cannot do this. Secondly a direct drive polisher could easily heat and cut through the paint there, but it would never look like this. It would look smooth. This is peeling, and you can even see areas where the paint is bubbling up but not broken and peeling.... yet. Its a manufacturing defect causing the paint to not adhere to the substrate. Heat can cause this- heat guns are used to remove paint after all. So being in FL you are probably more likely to see this, and sooner. But its FL, Earth. Not Mercury. They need to replace it.

WCE

The cracking makes it appear to be more than a delamination issue. Maybe some jackass tried to pry out your headlights?
I DO have some minor edge delamination on my tailights (no cracking) which others have reported on this forum. I asked my dealer about it and of course they never heard of such a thing. I plan on having them take a look when my "service due" messages start really annoying me since I can't reset them and I do my own service!

plenum

Honestly at first glance I don't see any 'micro-cracks'. I see man-made damage to the very edge of the plastic lamp cover. Was there any Xpel or clearBra applied to front end? The pattern in that photo looks a lot to me like someone ran a blade down around the outer edge of the plastic, chipping it rather than breaking. The dark lines evenly spaced are the clue it is not a random cracking or snapping of the material. Marks like that don't happen randomly by themselves. And you are right, this is not something caused by an impact especially if you aren't seeing any damage to paint near that spot. This again tells me that someone was running something down around the outer edge of the plastic, between lamp and body, to either trim something or....

Don't take my comments as me saying this is something you did -- just my observation. I saw nearly identical markings on a 991 headlight after someone trimmed Xpel vinyl around the headlamp.

Good Luck.

dogshyne

you sound like you work for the dealer.

Huncowboy

There was nothing done to the headlights. I never do any modification to any of my cars. I do enjoy looking at mods, but I prefer mine 100% stock. Clear covers, etc... all garbage in my opinion.

UPDATE:
I finally had time to drop the car off today at Champion Porsche. Although they have not seen this before, they will replace both headlights under warranty. I honestly did not expect them to do this, especially after I have walked their lot and I could not find a single 991 with this issue. May be they know more. Needless to say, so far I am impressed with their customer service.

Weim911

Congrats. That's what a warranty is for. Probably just a random bad luck headlight. Sorry for the inconvenience and I'm glad it all worked out.

s996

Curious to hear about results of headlight de lamination . I was washing my car today and it have it on both headlights.

Huncowboy

Not much else to report. I have not had the issue since the lights were replaced.

Mech33

I just noticed this on one of my headlights as well.