I just had a paint job done on my bumper and part of the hood. When I got the car back there were cracks in my headlights starting from the side bottom of each light..one about a half inch on the passenger side and the other around 4 inches long. The headlights are on a 2003 body style.

I'm in a fight with the dealership which they are telling me they didn't do it. I am particular about every aspect of my car and I know for certain they were not there when I took it in as I inspect the thing every day and had just finished polishing them that weekend.

Can anyone tell me what might cause these cracks? Is there a such thing as being put back in too tight causing them to crack? They do admit to taking the lights out...and the light with the 4 inch crack now has a major amount of clear coat peeled off when it was fine before. Like I said...I had just finished polishing them this past weekend and took her in to get done Monday morning

 

That is not cool!
I believe your headlights are not bolted in if there anything like the 94-98 style, just a plastic square clip holds them in. To take them out you push the 4 sides and it pops out....but could be wrong this is the 94-98 style so 99-04 could be different.

1LOW03GT might have the answer for this since he owns a 03.

 

...if it was an insurance job, I would have taken it to North's...they are incredibly about everything..it makes things easy..next time..

 

I paid for this out of my own pocket..car was never in an accident...just some minor scrapes I wanted taken care of. There is no sign of impact from the surface of the headlights...almost look like stress cracks.

 

was this at a ford dealer or just some body shop. The 99 and up have to clips that slide out and the light pops out just thinking that maybe if it wasnt a dealer they may have tryed to pry them out the lights

 

This was a ford dealer. Thing is..the clear coat was peeled off as well...its a nasty mess. Looks like a chemical softened the clear coat as parts of it was still peeling and soft. As well, there is no sign of an impact on the exterior part of the plastic of the headlight..its like an internal crack as the exterior part is smooth...no chip.

 

Just curious which for dealer?

 

I'd rather not say until I find out if they are going to cover both lights. They agreed to cover one but when I mentioned the other..the person got miffed and said the dealership wasn't responsible for the damage to either one and that it didn't happen at the dealership so only the one would be replaced.... he insinuated I was lying that the second light was cracked so I took it right back up to the dealership and showed it to another employee who confirmed it was cracked. I have over 30 people who saw both lights this weekend prior to me taking it in for the paint job.

I hope this gets resolved really quick.

 

Got any pics to see exactly what the cracks look like,where they are,and see how the protective film is coming off.
There is no way to really crack them,but the peeling of the protective film could have been from some chemicals.
It almost sounds like your headlights were swapped out!!!
Only with age they will lose their proctective film,and peel if they weren't touched by chemicals,and cracks could appear over time by way of age cracking from the elements of being outdoors,unless they were hit,droped,ects......If not,then someone their is got to be an idiot,and shouldn't be working at the dealership as a tech if your headlights where mint,and then damaged by them,cause i can tell you right now,the '99 to '04 headlights are idiot proof!

Here is a video to show you how easy these headlights can be removed.....
http://www.americanmuscle.com/mustan...o-install.html

 

I have pictures of that side of the car from April 18 and of April 26 to show that the lights were in excellent shape...and yes..I do have a picture of what it looks like now but do not know how to post a picture in here. When I try to insert a picture, it asks for a web addy.