Ways To Clean Dull Car Headlights
20 July, 2021
Car headlights are essential elements needed when you are driving, especially at night or under rainy conditions. Car headlights will not work optimally when the headlights are dull or blurry. Therefore, this time we will provide tips on how to properly clean car headlights yourself without the help of professionals.
Several things that can cause this condition, ranging from mold caused by accumulated dirt, lamp voltages that are too high to parking too long in direct sunlight. The condition gets worse if the car owner never performs maintenance and cleans the car headlights properly.
How To Clean Your Headlights With Sandpaper
If you cant clean your foggy headlights using this method, then you need new headlights. For this method, you will need three different grits of sandpaper 400 to start, then 600, then 2,000. The lower the number, the more abrasive the sandpaper. You will also need some warm water. Make sure your headlight is clean before you start.
Dura-Gold Premium Sandpaper
Tape Off The Headlights
Youll be sanding in a minute, and its important that you sand only the lenses and not the surrounding paint or trim. So use the painters tape to completely block off the headlight and protect the rest of the car. When your hand slips and you accidentally run rough sandpaper over the painters tape, youll be glad you took the time to do this.
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Cleaning Headlights Affected On The Inside
If there is evidence of water or dust inside the headlight, it can be a bit tricky to solve the problem, but heres a rough outline of what you need to do.
- Take the headlight off the car. You can go to auto forums or search YouTube to find the way of taking the light off the car.
- Once the light is off the car, heat the joint between the lens and the body of the headlight with a heat gun to soften the adhesive holding the two parts in place and gently remove the lens.
- Clean the inside of the headlight with a low lint cloth, making sure you remove every last bit of dirt and moisture.
- Close the headlight by applying silicone or any other sealant to completely seal the headlight to prevent dust from getting in in the future.
- Install the headlight back onto the car.
How To Fix Foggy Headlights With Toothpaste
You can attempt to clean and restore your headlights with toothpaste. Toothpaste containing baking soda is especially effective.
Begin by cleaning your headlights with Windex or a combination of soap and water. Then, using a gentle cloth, apply a small amount of toothpaste to the still-wet headlight, and scrub it until youve removed the protective coating once you do, apply a sealant. Toothpaste can be an effective abrasive for cleaning headlights that are moderately dirty or foggy.
Now that you know how to fix foggy headlights, take that knowledge and restore your foggy headlights.
This blog post was contributed by Fix Auto Sacramento, a leading industry expert and collision repair shop servicing Sacramento County.
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Rub Sandpaper With Water
Too good for hygiene products? The sandpaper method requires only a bit more effort but can shave away more grime from your headlights. Follow the same steps above by cleaning your headlights with soap and water, drying thoroughly, and taping around the lights.
Apply a bit of water to the sandpaper , then work it in circular motions around the headlight, followed by a horizontal path. Do this lightly pressing too hard can scratch the housing.
How To Clean Headlights With Bug Spray
Yes, you heard us right. We even have a way for how to clean headlights with bug spray. There are certain chemicals in bug spray that not only remove dirt but some of the UV damage that can happen to outer layers of plastic headlights. This technique is ideal for slightly cloudy headlights.
- Clean cloth
Spray the bug repellent onto a clean cloth. Rub the cloth onto the headlight lens using some force. The more severe the cloudiness is, the harder youll need to scrub.
After a couple of minutes of rubbing, use a spray bottle to mist the lens with water. Wipe the plastic headlights with some paper towels.
Its essential to keep the repellent away from the car paint because the chemicals in the spray may damage the paint. If you are concerned about getting the bug spray on the paint, line the headlights with painters tape.
You can also try to clean headlights with WD40. Spray some of the cleaner on a rag and rub at the foggy headlights. A little scrubbing should remove any fogginess and leave your headlights shiny clean once again.
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The Need For Professionals Car Light Restoration And Replacement
With the use of high-quality car headlight cleaning and restoration wipes and a car light restoration kit, professionals can swiftly assess the damage to the headlights and provide timely car headlight restoration service. Furthermore, before the automobile headlight cleaners begin the repair job, they will explain why the headlights are not working correctly.
Benefits After Cleaning The Headlights And Its Lens
- It will improve the appearance of your car The car that earlier used to look dull and dirty can look brand new just by cleaning its headlights. Whats better than this.
- It will improve your safety Before everything, safety is what really matters. While driving one has to be sure that the vehicle in which theyre traveling is free from any kind of technical issue.
- It will improve night vision There are places which are so dark during the night where if we dont have our headlights cloudless then the chances are that we may face some difficulty while driving. This is where proper and clean headlights come to our rescue.
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Top 8 Ways To Clean Foggy Headlights:
- With a toothpaste
- Coca-Cola
- Dish Soap
It is very important to have clean headlights while driving, especially at night. You want to make sure you have good visibility in order to avoid accidents. You dont have to spend money to clean your headlights, you can do it with some household items. Please note that the cleaning done with the household items is not Permanent. But dont worry, I have included a permanent cleaning method in this article. As a bonus tip, you will find how to fix your headlight with moisture in it. You can basically find every information about your headlight maintenance in this article. Lets get started:
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Scratches On The Surface
With deep scratches, the basic steps for cleaning car headlights dont resolve the problem. Instead, this type of problem takes more elbow grease and time to completely eliminate the issue.
Grab several sheets of grit sandpaper and wet the pieces. Before sanding, apply a compound solution to the sandpaper. Use these to smooth over the section that is scratched, switching out each sheet when finished. If this doesnt completely eliminate the scratch, buff the area where you applied the compound. This should finish filling in and sealing the scratch.
The best way to avoid scratches on headlights is utilizing a scratch-resistant compound on a regular basis. A coat of wax also helps to prevent any road debris from sticking to the plastic surface and creating scratches.
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How To Clean Headlight Covers
Joyce Morse
With time and normal use, the plastic used in car headlight covers can become clouded and foggy. When your headlights become foggy, you cant see as well at night and others arent able to see you as clearly or as far away. Cleaning them ensures your lights are bright and capable of illuminating the area around you adequately. Here’s how to clean headlight covers:
Cleaning Car Headlights With Coca Cola
First things first, start the cleaning process by wiping away the dirt from your headlight lens with a clean towel or a microfiber cloth. You can also decide to give your car headlights a thorough wash with an automotive soap and sponge to ensure you have a clean and dry surface to work on.
Once you are done, open a can of Coca Cola drink and apply it on your headlight lens. . You can turn the Coca Cola drink into a spray bottle or soak a sponge or a towel with the Coca Cola drink and apply it on your foggy looking headlights.
Leave it for about 10 minutes and wipe your headlights with a clean towel. If you still have some sticky Coca Cola stains on your headlight lens, you can wash your headlights with automotive soap and warm water. If after washing the Coca Cola off and your headlights still look foggy, you might want to try repeating the process as many times as you can to get your desired results.
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How To Clean Your Headlights For Mild To Strongly Affected Headlamps
If your headlights are too much for toothpaste to handle do not worry. You just need to bring out the bigger guns. The theory here is simple. You need to remove the layer of affected plastic, shine the headlight, and prevent future degradation as best as you can.
Youll need the following things for this:
- Three to four low lint wiping cloths
- Fine-grit car polish
- Soapy water with a sprayer
- Plastic/vinyl gloves
Heres how to clean your headlights that are more than mildly foggy:
- Spray the headlights with soapy water and wipe them off to remove any stains or dirt.
- Apply car polish on the headlights and rub it into them with a wiping cloth do it for at least five to ten minutes.
- Spray the headlights with soapy water and clean them to remove any excess polish.
- Apply car wax on the headlights so that they are protected from future damage.
If you try this method and this too fails, you need to take out the bigger guns. Lets see what you can use to clean headlights that do not respond to anything.
How To Clean Headlights
This article was co-authored by Chad Zani. Chad Zani is the Director of Franchising at Detail Garage, an automotive detailing company with locations around the U.S. and Sweden. Chad is based in the Los Angeles, California area and uses his passion for auto detailing to teach others how to do so as he grows his company nationwide.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, several readers have written to tell us that this article was helpful to them, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 2,005,305 times.
If your once-crystal clear headlights now look like they’re covered in wax paper, it’s safer to learn to clean and buff them up yourself to maintain the life of the vehicle. Learning to inspect the headlights to figure out the degree of damage will help you learn how to approach the task. Then you can learn to abrade the wear and buff them to a new shine.
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Cleaning Extremely Hazy Headlights
If your car headlights are covered with lots of yellow or white coating after the above two methods, this one will be more than enough. Heres what you need for this method.
- A spray bottle full of soapy water
- Sandpapers, 400, 1000, and 3000 grit
- Low lint wiping cloth
- Car wax
This method might seem to be too daunting to undertake, but it is simple. Remember, we are just removing the affected layer and sealing the headlamps against further damage.
- Spray the headlights with soapy water and clean them to remove any dirt or stains.
- Sand the headlights with 400 grit sandpaper to remove the layer of oxidized material that is causing them to be foggy. Make sure you use adequate amounts of soapy water when sanding the lights down.
- Then switch to finer sandpapers and sand the headlamps until they are smooth to the touch.
- At this stage, the headlamps will appear rough and scratched, and extremely hazy, but that is a part of the process.
- Apply car polish on the headlamps and rub them. This will return the shine to the headlamps.
- Apply car wax or a thin film of clear coat to seal the headlamps and prevent any future discoloration/haziness.
By Step Procedure For Cleaning Your Headlights With Wd
Things you need for cleaning your headlights and backlights eternally to make them look like before, take out a fresh and smooth part of towel the WD-40 spray and nothing more!
Are you amazed to see how you may clean your headlights eternally using just two normal things? Yeah, it is genuinely possible. Just follow me:
- Take out a fresh towel or a hard tissue to soak more liquid
- Get a bottle of Vinegar
- Get the WD-40 spraying tin
Step 1
You have to start from Vinegar and look at its result. Then, we must go forward to use WD-40 and see the outcome ourselves.
Okay, If you are ready with the Vinegar, pour ¼ of the liquid of it in a bucket and wet your towel through the vinegar liquid to get a hard clean upon the cars headlights. Do it as much as you can.
To get the best result, wash the vehicles light through the Vinegar for 20 minutes and see if you had an opportunity to see or not. I guarantee you its not as clean as your expectation, right? It is still blurred to see and not suitable for the car.
See the full guide: 2 Ways To Clean Headlights With Vinegar
Step 2
Now its the high time to implement the best spray ever to clean up your vehicles headlight in a second! Dont trust me? Follow my steps and take a look, please. Thank me later!
- Take a tissue, or a soft towel fits to wash car disks
- Spray WD40 liquids upon the towel
- Now scrub your hands around the headlights and keep doing it over the whole rust parts.
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How To Clean Your Headlights With Wd40
Many people think that WD40 can be used only on metal. Many people dont know that WD40 can be used for cleaning as well. WD40 will clean your foggy headlights without damaging the plastic. You will need some other household items besides WD40. Lets start:
I have an more detailed article on how to clean your foggy headlights with WD40. Check it out here.
WD40
Why Are Clean Headlights Important
Pay attention to the output of your headlights. Is it bright, yellowed, or clouded? Cloudiness or yellowishness in your front lights can lower or redirect whats being emitted.
If this is the case, then you are putting yourself and other drivers at risk for visibility-related accidents. No matter the time of day or season youre in, your headlight lenses need to be well-maintained to prevent this. A little proactive effort now goes a long way you may not even have to call automotive professionals with all the great DIY methods available to you on how to clean oxidized headlights!
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Use Toothpaste And Baking Soda
The mixture of toothpaste and baking soda works like wonder in cleaning glass material mostly. Since the mixture is dry and sticky also requires less water, it is perfect for cleaning headlights from inside.
Using too much liquid might cause some disputes which you definitely do not want.
Mix toothpaste along with two teaspoons of baking soda and apply the mixture on the headlights, if possible use a toothbrush as well for better application and scrubbing of dirt.
Keep the mixture for a few minutes but do not let it dry because that will make it hard for you to clean it up.Do not wash it with water instead take a cloth, dip it in water and squeeze out the excess water.
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With the cloth slowly wipe off the toothpaste and soda mixture to get shiny, and squeaky clean headlights like you had when your car was brand new.
