Headlights make a massive difference to your safety (and that of others on the road) when you drive. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), vehicles with headlights the IIHS rates as “good” are 20% less likely to be involved in nighttime crashes than vehicles using headlights with “poor” ratings.
These numbers demonstrate how important clarity in your headlights can be. Only you don’t have that clarity – your headlights are foggy or discolored, which obscures your ability to see the road. Let’s explore why these problems happen and what you can do about them.
1. Condensation Seeped Into Your Headlights
A combination of temperature and moisture could be the culprit if you have foggy headlights. Headlights can experience an internal condensation build-up when exposed to conditions that are wetter than usual. Think extremely humid air in hot conditions or a lot of rain.
That alone isn’t a problem, assuming your headlights are sealed properly. However, condensation can occur when the exterior of your vehicle – i.e., the outside temperature – is colder than the interior temperature of the headlights themselves. That temperature difference causes moisture buildup inside the headlight housing, creating the fog that blocks your beam.
You could solve this issue yourself, albeit temporarily. Removal of the headlight casing followed by a quick wipe with a clean cloth gets rid of the water, though it doesn’t solve the damaged seal issue. We recommend replacing the headlight seal and using the services of a headlight restoration mobile detailer in Gilbert to properly clean away the fogginess in your headlight lens.
2. Oxidized Plastic Materials
Oxidation occurs whenever any chemical or substance reacts with oxygen. Why is that a problem when it comes to your headlights getting foggy?
It’s all about materials – headlight lenses are usually made of a type of plastic, such as acrylic. When that acrylic becomes oxidized, it clouds over, creating the musty yellow material that you’re likely seeing in your headlights. Most headlight lenses now come with a special coating to slow down that oxidizing effect. However, even that isn’t a perfect solution as the coating will wear away with time.
That cloud is a problem because it obscures the bulb behind the plastic. Forbes offers an interesting before and after comparison of brand-new headlights to a set that has clouded over. The cloudy set only emits around 22% of the light of the brand-new set, essentially limiting visibility to about a fifth of what it should be.
Hydrogen peroxide can clear this issue, though that substance comes with an inherent risk. At a concentration of just 10%, hydrogen peroxide is corrosive to your skin, eyes, and the mucous membranes in your nose when inhaled. It’s often better to replace the headlight lens, especially if the bulb itself is still fine.
3. Sun Exposure
Just as constant exposure to oxygen can cause some headlights to discolor, so can sun exposure. Specifically, exposure to the ultraviolet (UV) radiation the sun produces. Only this time, the discoloration isn’t only caused by a chemical reaction. Don’t get us wrong – UV exposure can discolor some plastic headlight lenses and create the foggy look you see.
However, the real (and most long-lasting) problem is that UV light eventually causes the headlight lens plastic to become brittle, leading to small cracks forming. Tiny particles of dust seep into those cracks, getting stuck within them or traveling through to the inside of your headlight lenses and getting stuck. Left alone long enough, so much dust can gather that you get discoloration, especially if you live in a dusty or arid area.
Cleaning can help to reverse this latter form of discoloration. You won’t need a full car detail, as the combination of rinsing and using a heat gun to remove the grime from your headlights can do the trick. However, replacement is often a good bet in these situations. A brittle headlight lens won’t magically fix itself, meaning you’ll find yourself cleaning it regularly to get rid of the discoloration caused by dust.
4. Dirt and Chemical Buildup
Our final reason for foggy or discolored headlights is as much about the passage of time as it is an issue with your lens. After a few years of driving your car, you’ll have driven through so much dirt and debris that it creates a thin layer in front of the lens. That layer dims your headlight beam, leading to the low visibility and higher rate of crash problems we’ve already mentioned.
A headlight restoration kit can help here, as it gives you the chemical solutions you need to get rid of the dirt layer. Those kits can also counter the discoloration caused by UV exposure beyond the brittleness problem. If you don’t have that type of kit on hand, both toothpaste and baking soda can get the job done. Both cleansers are abrasive enough to get rid of the gunk layered up on your headlight lens without being so abrasive that they cause scratches into which more gunk can coagulate.
Give Your Car the Detailing Treatment
We’ve shared a few “home remedies” for dealing with foggy and discolored headlights. However, a full service mobile car detailer in Arizona service may be your best choice to solve the problem, especially if the rest of your vehicle is dealing with similar discoloration and grime issues. These professional services get rid of grime no matter where it is on your car, with your detailers also using the best cleaning materials for specific problems. When it comes to your foggy headlight lenses, that means they’ll have special headlight cleaning kits rather than using the often temporary home remedies we’ve mentioned here.
