Is your car’s headlight turning yellow? Are the headlights not providing enough light making it difficult for traveling at night? The reason why your headlight might be fading over time is due to oxidation. The process of oxidation makes the lens of the headlights dull due to the porous property of polycarbonate.
The headlights turning hazy is not good for the safety as the faded headlights offer less light which in turn diminishes the vision of the driven further leading to accidents and damages.
Restore headlights
Apart from this, it even affects the aesthetics of the vehicle and decreases its value. Well, you need not worry about it, because there are many solutions one can opt, to restore the headlights permanently. And the good news is that you need not be a professional to do so. The solutions can be effectively pulled by the amateurs.
The role of headlights in your vehicle is incredibly important as they assist you to see the road clearly at night and even help others to know your presence. This article shall inform you about the importance of the headlights, the signs of headlight failures, and how you can restore these failures. Read further to learn about the step by step process of restoring the headlights permanently.
Importance of headlights for your vehicle
Importance of headlights for your vehicle
Headlights are the safety-related component of your vehicle, with the primary role to illuminate the roads and provide safety while driving. When it is night or during the cold times of the year when you are experiencing bad weather which is tampering with your driving. You need good light to be able to avoid the hazards that could occur on your way.
Apart from the hazards, the lights are equally important to detect the signs of any cyclist, pedestrians or any other road users. Thus, it becomes to install good headlights in your vehicles for your safety as well as for others.
Signs your vehicle is facing headlight failure.
The headlights being an indispensable lightning component is designed with different tools not only to surpass the lack of light at the night but also to alert the other vehicles while engaging in transportation.
So, before learning about the steps to restore the headlights permanently it is important to know about the signs of the headlight failure. The following are some signs of failure that your car LED headlight might face:
- When the flashing light appears: there is a possibility that multiple headlights or blinking happen which can be due to contact blind and the light switches. Thus, this can cause a short circuit inside the phase, core, or in the wiring of the battery.
- Light does not appear: there is a possibility that the bulb does not lit, this can be due to the headlight burning, thus it needs to be changed.
- The occurrence of incandescent light: this majorly happens when the bulb stucks or the ability reflector is diffused. Thus proper cleaning is required to ensure perfect illumination.
- The headlight does not lit: this happens when the generator is not able to rise up fast or operate long leading to a dull lamp. This might even be the cause of a battery voltage regulator being out of power.
Thus, it becomes important for the drivers to know about these signs, as they would be able to prevent any mishap before its Occurrence.
How to Restore the Headlights Permanently?
This method is effortless and needs not take more than a day. It is cheap and would surely last for a few years. There is no requirement of removing the lights, but if you want you might do so plus there is no complicated job that is required to perform.
The Tools you require to complete the process of restoring the headlights.
There are certain important things you require while working on to restore the headlights; these include: rubbing alcohol, spray bottle of water, can of UV-resistant clear coat (headlight restoration kit), sandpaper, tape, garbage bag, or plastic bags, and scissors.
How to Restore the Headlight bulbs
The process to Restore the Headlights:
- The first step includes preparing everything for further processes. The foremost being, tapping around the headlights so you might not accidentally scratch the body of the vehicle. After tapping, it is time to start sanding, but keep in mind to spray some water before so as to lubricate the surface. You can start with a 600 grit sandpaper, but if you think that the level of oxidation is high, you might start with a 400 grit sandpaper.
- You should sand in a circular motion and keep spraying the water using your other hand. After sanding, use the sandpaper horizontally. If you have used the 400 grit, it is time to repeat the process with 600 grit sandpaper.
- After doing this, you should clean the surface by rinsing it with water and then drying it off using a paper towel to remove the sanded-off plastic component. After this, it’s time to rub the headlights of your vehicle with ultra-fine 2000 grit sandpaper and rewash and cleaning it simultaneously.
- Now, pour some rubbing alcohol onto the towel and rub it on the headlights. This is said to be the final cleaning step and will remove any oil residue from the lights.
- Now, it’s time to apply the clear coat. But before doing this, it is important that you cover the bonnet, bumper, and wings of your vehicle with a plastic or garbage bag before spraying the solution onto it. Here, you need to apply at least three layers of the coat with 5 minutes time gap between every coat.
- After applying the coat, let this UV coat settle for a day before taking out the plastic sheets and the tapes. You can either leave it as it is or use wet sand or the superfine 3000 grit sandpaper, the process for which would be similar as above.
- Finally, apply some wax to the lights. For this, you need to scrap some amount of wax on the microfibre towel and rub the surface of the light with it. For better efficiency, it is important to use the best RV wax for the fibreglass. After, this clean and wipe the surface again with a clean towel
Other Methods to Restore the Headlights
Usage of Toothpaste to Restore the shine of the Headlights: the most easily available ingredients like toothpaste and baking soda can prove effective to get rid of fizzy headlights. And they have even proved the cheapest options as all you need is toothpaste or baking soda. All you need to do is mixing both the ingredients and rub the mixture onto the oxidized headlights.
To enhance the results use the old toothbrush, as the harder, you rub, the more visible results you might achieve. Let the mixture dry and after drying wipe it using warm water and cloth. This would surely make your headlights clearer. This method might even be turned into a permanent solution to restore the headlights.
Usage of Distilled Vinegar and Baking soda: This is another cheap trick you might use. For this, you need some cloth and two jugs. One of the jugs would be filled with baking soda, and the other jug would be filled with white vinegar. After filling them in different containers, pour the vinegar into the baking soda to make a solution. Remember both the ingredients contain different pH levels and have different natures.
The vinegar is said to have acidic properties while basic soda is alkali in nature, due to this while mixing, the solution might fizz up. To restoring the headlight you need to rub the solution on the surface, you can use a cloth to rub the solution properly on the surface. Here baking soda reacts vigorously to get rid of oxidation on the headlights.
One needs to rub the solution properly to get the desired results, you can wipe it off later with a clean cloth and apply wax over it, to make it look more clean and shiny. All you need to do is polish the wax properly on the surface of the headlight. Let it dry for some time and then take the dried wax off with the help of a clean cloth. You would surely enjoy the clarity and the shine would be restored again.
Bottom Line
Thus, with some easy tricks, you can easily restore the headlights permanently at home, without spending a hefty amount. Though you might be required to do hard work this hard work of yours would surely equip you with clean and shiny headlights, providing you with the accurate lightning to safely drive at night.
Yes! There can be many adverse reasons for the headlights being oxidized and hazy and this might even be perilous to drive with such headlights at night. But, with the easy tricks provided above you can remove the problems attached with the headlights and have clean lights. As besides being reliant and easy to use these tricks are even cost-effective, stopping you from burning your pocket.
