How To Clean Headlight Lenses On Car

The last matter you lot need when you're driving in the rain, snow and fog of winter is muddy car headlights.

Before you spend hundreds of dollars replacing them, you should consider restoring them. You'll brand driving at night easier and safer — and salvage a few bucks, too.

According to Brian Noble, Northward America marketing manager for Sylvania Automotive, two factors contribute to foggy headlights: road droppings and UV rays from the sun. Both wear away at the protective blanket on headlights. To fix the situation, the damaged blanket needs to be removed and a new protective coating added.

Although experts say you should bring your car in for a professional headlight restoration service, here are some of the nearly common DIY methods we've seen for cleaning headlights.

How to make clean car headlights with toothpaste:

If the headlights are but slightly foggy, yous can try and restore them using an annoying, like toothpaste, and lots of scrubbing. Beginning, make clean the headlights with Windex or soap and water. So, using a soft fabric, rub a fingertip amount of toothpaste onto the wet headlight. (Toothpaste with baking soda works best.) Start scrubbing. Go on the surface moisture and use more toothpaste every bit needed. One time you lot've removed the protective coating, apply a sealant.

Yeah, toothpaste could be the answer! Getty Images

How to clean foggy headlights using a DIY headlight-restoration kit:

When choosing a restoration kit, look for one that contains several grades of sandpaper, a plastic cleaner/polish, polishing cloths and a protective coating. I kit usually has enough to clean 2 headlights.

Noble has the post-obit advice when using a DIY headlight restoration kit:

Follow the manufacturer's directions. Don't improvise.
Don't rush through it. Depending on how foggy headlights are, this could accept 15-20 minutes per headlight. Remember, you're rubbing abroad years of oxidation AND the original protective coating.
As you sand, run your hands over the moisture headlights. If you experience rough spots, sand until smooth.
Be careful non to scratch the automobile'south pigment while sanding. Some kits recommend taping effectually the headlights to help. But exist careful: The record itself may lift off the paint on some older cars.
Keep it moisture. Employ a spray bottle, a bucket of h2o or a hose to wet surfaces while sanding.
Trust the kit. The headlights will await hazy after sanding but they'll be articulate after applying the coating.
Make certain the headlight is completely dry out before applying the protective sealant.
Allow the sealant to dry for several hours — amend yet, overnight — before using the machine. You don't want bugs or dirt sticking to your newly restored headlight.
Some kits require reapplication of protectant every 1-iii years, depending on weather condition, temperature extremes and if the car is kept within a garage or not.

Make sure to practice circumspection when using DIY kits; if you're not as well familiar with how to restore headlights, you could run the adventure of ruining them completely if yous utilize a kit, according to Alex Murenko, the possessor of ONEighty, an automotive shop that offers headlight styling and restoration services in New York City.

"If they don't put the protective film on there, people can restore their headlights but six months later, they're going to commencement yellowing again because the original coating from the manufacturer is already wearing off," he said. "In one case you polish them, there'due south no more than blanket, so at present you're back to exposing the headlights to natural elements similar rain, snow, the sun, the clay."

Go to a professional person

Instead of tackling the task yourself, Murenko recommends drivers accept their headlights restored by professionals.

"We'll lightly sand down all the yellow and dust with a very fine sandpaper," he said. "When you sand information technology, information technology just becomes a matte finish. That's why afterwards we have to buff it and polish it. This restores the clarity and the polish. After nosotros vitrify and smooth, we put clear protection picture show on them to protect them from yellowing, from stone chips, from scratches."

The next time you notice your headlights starting to get deadening, keep these tips in mind!

This story was originally published November. 9, 2022.