If Cleaning The Headlights Didnt Work
If your cars headlights still dont shine brightly after youve cleaned them, there could be something else causing them to be dimmer than usual. For example, exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun over a period of time can cause a car headlight lens to become cloudy, or there could be condensation on the inside of the headlight. There are restoration kits out there that can fix these for you though, if the problem is severe or persistent, you may need to replace the headlight itself.
Wet Sand The Headlights:
The next step is to wet sand the headlights as described in the video above. It is really important to determine the grade of sandpaper based on the amount of fogging on the headlights. If you use the kit, youll use sanding discs.
The key is to progressively step up the grit . Ive always found using a side to side pattern then swapping to an up and down motion with the next grade works best. This helps to reduce scratches.
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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Ways To Restore Your Headlights
If your headlight covers look hazy and naff, then try out these budget fixes that’ll get them looking like new!
Allowing your headlights to get cloudy not only reduces the amount of light that they let through, it also makes your car look nasty and will decrease its perceived value. So, if you dont want to be that guy , then get off your seat/gaming chair and do something about it.
In most cases, youll need no more than a few dollars or pounds to get your lights shining bright again, but remember that some fixes are more permanent than others
How To Clean Your Headlights With Uv Coating
This is a great way to clean and restore your foggy headlights permanently. This will cost you around $10 per headlight. The other methods with home remedies such as vinegar, baking soda, toothpaste, or the 3m kit work great, but they are not permanent. Your lights will eventually become hazy and oxidized. Im about to show you the only permanent method that doesnt require any maintenance such as adding wax or adding a sealer every so often. Not only do hazy oxidized headlights look bad, they also decrease the value in your car. So not only will you make your car look better, but youre actually going to help increase the value of the car by fixing your headlights.
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How To Apply The Wd
To defog your headlights using WD-40 as your headlight lens restorer, follow these easy steps:
However, like every other product ever on the market, the Wd-40 has several sides its coin:
Pros:
- Effective in removing dried stains on certain surfaces
- Easily accessible
- Can be used on more surfaces than just headlights
- Easy to use.
Remove Cleanser With Brush
Using circular motions, work your way around the surface of the headlight gently with your brush. Remember, the cleanser youâre using is abrasive, so be careful not to gouge into the plastic surface. You should see the yellowness or fogginess disappearing from the lens as you work your way around it.
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How To Clean Foggy Headlights Using A Headlight Restoration Kit
These kits can be expensive, but theyre effective and safe for restoring headlights. Use them as directed typically, youll just need to apply the cleanser and rinse. A kit may also come with waxing compounds to protect the lights. With any method, use soft cleaning cloths made of microfiber. These are gentle and can help to prevent scratching. They also typically dont leave stray fibers behind. Learn how to restore your headlights.
Keeping your headlights bright is just one important component of car maintenance. If your headlight goes out, learn how to replace a headlight to keep your car safe and in good working order.
Using Baking Soda As A Homemade Headlight Cleaner
When it comes to DIY home remedies, one of the best ways to clean yellow headlights is with baking soda. Yup, the very one thats sitting in your pantry. Not only will it clear up foggy headlights, but itll also help when youre cleaning paint off your fog lights. Just be careful to keep it away from your paint job lest you want the baking soda mixture to clean that right off your car, too.
Materials needed:
- Clean cloth
Instructions:Put about five tablespoons of baking soda in a bowl and mix in enough warm water to form a paste. After youve given your headlights a basic cleaning, apply the paste to the headlights with a corner of your sponge. Go on, be generous. Polish your headlights with the clean cloth, using more of those small, circular motions.
The baking soda acts as a buffing agent, soaking up the oxides and clearing up your yellowed plastic headlights. And because the baking soda does most of the work, you dont need to apply an excessive amount of pressure when polishing. Repeat this step as often as needed until you see the results you want.
Be careful not to rub any of the baking soda solvent on your paint around the headlights, as the baking sodas abrasiveness could tarnish your paint job. When your headlights look brighter, rinse them off, then give them one last wash with dish soap and warm water. Finally, dry your headlights, turn them off and stand back to enjoy your handiwork.
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How To Clean Car Headlights On A Budget
If you cant quite stretch to a purpose-built cleaning kit and all the other equipment youll need for it, there are thankfully much more affordable ways to clear surface dirt of your car headlight lenses. For instance, if you already manually wash your car with car shampoo, you can use that along with a cloth and some warm water to wipe away any muck.
If you dont have any car shampoo on hand, any water-based cleaning product should do the trick just make sure that you make sure you buff or wipe off any excess residue, as youll need to break out the cloth and cleaning equipment again to remove the mark itll leave when it dries.
Its important that you dont use washing-up liquid or acidic cleaning products, as these can cause damage to the cars headlights and any other part of the car they come into contact with.
How To Clean Car Headlight Covers
Writer – John Linden
Have you ever noticed that over time, your headlights seem to get dimmer and dimmer? Even if the dimness isn’t severe, the fact that you’re experiencing dimness at all is a clear warning sign that your headlights are in need of a good cleaning.
Your headlights will accumulate dirt and grime as you operate your vehicle on a daily basis. The change is usually very gradual, but over time your headlights will begin to dim, and before you know it you’ll begin to notice a physical difference in headlight intensity.
Dim lighting typically occurs for two reasons:
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Keeping Your Headlights Clean With Preventative Care
At this point, your headlights should be clean and looking as good as new. Hooray! But how do you stop your headlights from getting dirty all over again? Preventative care is just as important as the act of cleaning.
There are three products you can use to keep your headlights clean for the long term:
- Film
- Protectant
- Sealant
These products will form a shield that protects your headlights from the harmful effects of UV rays.
Once you see that your headlight covers are getting dirty again, don’t wait until the situation gets critical. Clean them quickly. With constant upkeep and preventative products in place, your headlights will look like new every day.
How To Clean Your Headlights With Toothpaste
If you touch your headlights on the outside and they are not smooth, all pitted, that indicates that they should be polished out. So you want to make sure you use a toothpaste that has some grittiness to it and is an actual paste and not a gel. I usually use a toothpaste that has a baking soda and peroxide which will help get your headlight lenses clear. If your toothpaste isnt gritty, then you can add some baking soda to the toothpaste to clean foggy the headlights.
I have a more detailed article on how to clean your foggy headlights with toothpaste. You can check it out here.
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How To Clean Headlights From Cloudy To Clear
Using sandpaper to clean headlights might seem a bit counterintuitive, but its the professional way to restore your cloudy car headlights to crystal clear. And since a lot of us are at the brink of mind numbing boredom, now is the perfect time to take on this freakishly satisfying project.
Hey! Guess what guys??!! You can clean your car headlights with toothpaste! Says everyone, everywhere, all the time. Im calling bullshit. Toothpaste might gets some dead bugs off, the same way itll get dead bugs out of your teeth. But to really whiten and brighten either of them, you need to do a little work.
Herein lies the problem with social media. If an idea sounds plausible, practical and stupid-easy people are willing to share it, like it and pass on this super-secret bit of information with a knowing wink. Theyve done this with the toothpaste trick.
Even though theyve never tried it themselves.
So of course I had to try the toothpaste trick.
STUFF YOU WANT TO KNOW
Lifehack: Using Baking Soda And Vinegar To Clean Foggy Headlights
Another lifehack you can use to clean foggy headlights is by applying a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. Both baking soda and vinegar have been used for cleaning purposes for years. Before you get started, use some dish soap to clean the surface of your headlights and then apply a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. Mix the baking soda and vinegar in a small dish and then apply it in circular and side-to-side motions until your headlight is clean. You can also use baking soda and a damp cloth to clean hazy headlights.
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How To Clean Hazy Headlights
- May 2,2017
You may have noticed your vehicles headlights looked a little less-than-clean, but like most of us, you probably dont give them much thought until its late at night, on a poorly lit road and you cant see a single thing. Yikes.
Unless youve had the misfortune of your headlights burning out, there is a solution to your no-sight-at-night problem. Clean your headlights! Over the years, sunlight takes its toll on the plastics of your car, creating a hazy, oxidized layer. Meanwhile, dirt and little rocks on the road scuff up the surface, adding to the clouded cover. You wouldnt go driving around with a dirty windshield, and your headlights should get the same treatment.
However, store-bought kits can be pricey and often, they take longer than youd like to make your lights shine like new. Lucky for you, theres a quick and low-cost solution and its in your bathroom
The same product that keeps your pearly whites shining brightly will also clean your cars headlights. Toothpaste is a mild abrasive, meaning it naturally polishes items and fills in tiny scratches. This is ideal for your headlights and will leave them shining like new in a matter of minutes.
Rub Cleanser Gently Into Lens
Upon sprinkling the powder cleanser onto the wet headlights lens, you should see a paste begin to form. To make the paste more pliable, add just a little more water . Once a paste has been created, youll want to grab a new cloth or sponge and gently rub the cleanser into the lens. Because some ingredients in Bar Keepers Friend may etch or dull delicate surfaces, its important to not scrub too hard. Keep rubbing until you notice that the lens is evenly coated in the mixture of water and cleanser.
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How To Clean Oxidized Headlights Using A Polishing Compound Kit
Gather the correct materials – You will need the following to get started with cleaning headlights using a polishing compound kit: Car wax or kit-included sealant , Cloth, Masking tape, Mild detergent like dish soap or kit-included cleanser, Polishing compound, Sandpaper array , Water
Cover surrounding are with masking tape – Cover the surfaces immediate around your headlights with masking tape for protection from the abrasives in the polishing compound, and put on gloves if your skin is sensitive.
Wash and rinse – Dampen a clean cloth with water, add a mild detergent or cleanser included in your kit, then wash your headlights’ surfaces. Rinse with plain water.
Apply polishing compound – Apply the polishing compound with another cloth, using small, circular motions. Take your time up to five minutes per headlight to allow the compound to work properly.
Wet sand your headlights – Wet your coarsest sandpaper in cool water, then firmly rub the surface of each headlight in a back-and-forth motion. Ensure the sandpaper is wet at all times, dipping into water as needed. Repeat with each variety of sandpaper from coarsest to smoothest grade .
Rinse – Rinsing the polishing compound off thoroughly with plain water.
Apply car wax – Apply car wax or sealant for future protection, using a clean cloth and circular motions, followed by another rinse, if desired.
More Headlight Restoration Tips From A Different Perspective
There are valid arguments against clear coat but the arguments presented here dont stack up. At the end of this comment, Ill suggest what appears to be the best solution Ive seen.
Firstly, if your headlights are good, never use a solvent or abrasive on them or youll remove the protective factory coating and find yourself looking at these kinds of videos. This includes bug spray, other oils, toothpaste, cutting/buffing polish, etc.
The headlights are coated in a UV protective layer in the factory. This is a specialized solution that absorbs into the polycarbonate surface in combination with heat treatment. It is not a clear coat. Using a solvent or abrasive on your headlights will compromise this protective coating.
If your lights have gone murky or yellow then the factory protection is already compromised and thus you need to take action. You could buy new lights or try something else. Once at this point, there is a valid argument of what have I got to lose? to try something else. But, there is a lot of very bad advice out there which Id like to address here.
The common arguments against clear coats are generally two-fold: It interferes with the light refraction and can be more difficult to deal with in the future.
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Heavy Duty Headlight Lens Cleaner
One of the best foggy headlight cleaner methods is the wet sanding method. This technique uses different grit sandpaper to remove dust and grime from your headlights. Once the lights are clean, finish up with a gloss clear coat for protection against future UV rays and yellowing.
Take care to protect your cars paint. Use masking tape to secure trash bags across the hood and bumper of your vehicle, as well as any other exposed paint near your headlights.
Will Car Headlight Washers Keep My Headlights Clean
Many cars on sale today have built-in car headlight washers usually in the form of a retractable nozzle that pops out from the front bumper and squirts water onto the headlight. However, while these can help remove any loose dirt on your cars headlights, theyre not quite as effective at removing tougher layers of muck and grime that have built up on the lens.
Do also bear in mind that youll also need to make sure your headlight washes are also in tip-top working order for them to be most effective for instance, the nozzle jets themselves can get clogged up with dirt. As a result, its best to regularly check your headlight washers are in working order.
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