Do not drive at night with fogged, smeared headlights unless the possibility of getting into an incident appeals to you. The prospect of incident increases as vision decreases. The longer moisture and other goo is left to sit inside the headlamp casing, the more likely the lights are to burn out. This in turn makes it much more likely that you’ll be caught with a “fix it” ticket from police force. Thankfully, it’s not difficult to deal with this small problem before it becomes a larger one.
Car headlights fog up – wanna fight about this?
Water will discover its way to the inner recesses of your headlights, reports Popular Mechanics. Cooler temperatures produce the miracle of condensation, and all your car’s surfaces can be subject to the wet touch. That very same cool moisture gets to the headlamp mechanism, which is vented to compensate for pressure differences so that cracking doesn’t occur. Generally, when morning temperatures rise, the moisture inside the headlights evaporates. An automobile parked in a shady spot may need some additional help from the hands of the owner, however.
Fogged car headlights, prepare to become banished
If you’re a Grey Poupon-style car owner, then just turn on the headlight defogger. However you don’t have a butler reading this blog to you, let’s be realistic.
Right out of the gate, search for a Technical Service Bulletin for your auto, says Popular Mechanics. This handy little doc will unveil possible upgrades, for instance whether there’s an upgrade to your factory headlight fixture, which is probably cheap and no frills.
If there is no upgrade to pursue, get down to DIY basics. Just a little condensation is no big deal. Just drive around with the car headlights for a couple of hours and they will more than likely burn off what’s in the headlight fixture. Go for a drive within the country for amusement and condensation annihilation. But what if the headlamp’s a gusher? Then you have to take out the fixture. Within the washing process, deal with any mud, hornets or death-dealing spiders that may cross your path. Dump the water and critters, add some rubbing alcohol to the housing to clean the surfaces, then let the whole thing dry for a couple of hours within the sun before re-insertion. Last however not least, park your car facing south from now on for maximum sun exposure in the northern hemisphere, says Popular Mechanics.
Additional reading
Popular Mechanics
popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/repair-questions/how-to-prevent-foggy-headlights
