How To Clean Haze Off Headlight Lens

The last thing yous need when yous're driving in the rain, snow and fog of winter is dirty motorcar headlights.

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

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

Although experts say you lot should bring your car in for a professional person headlight restoration service, here are some of the well-nigh common DIY methods nosotros've seen for cleaning headlights.

How to clean automobile headlights with toothpaste:

If the headlights are simply slightly foggy, you can try and restore them using an abrasive, similar toothpaste, and lots of scrubbing. Outset, clean the headlights with Windex or soap and water. Then, using a soft cloth, rub a fingertip corporeality of toothpaste onto the moisture headlight. (Toothpaste with baking soda works best.) Start scrubbing. Proceed the surface wet and employ more toothpaste equally needed. Once you've removed the protective coating, apply a sealant.

Yes, 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 i that contains several grades of sandpaper, a plastic cleaner/polish, polishing cloths and a protective coating. One kit usually has plenty to clean two headlights.

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

Follow the manufacturer's directions. Don't improvise.
Don't blitz through it. Depending on how foggy headlights are, this could take 15-20 minutes per headlight. Remember, yous're rubbing away years of oxidation AND the original protective coating.
Equally yous sand, run your easily over the wet headlights. If you feel rough spots, sand until smooth.
Exist careful non to scratch the car's pigment while sanding. Some kits recommend taping around the headlights to help. But be conscientious: The record itself may lift off the paint on some older cars.
Keep information technology wet. Apply a spray bottle, a bucket of h2o or a hose to moisture surfaces while sanding.
Trust the kit. The headlights will look hazy after sanding merely they'll be articulate later applying the coating.
Make sure the headlight is completely dry before applying the protective sealant.
Allow the sealant to dry out for several hours — better all the same, overnight — before using the motorcar. You don't want bugs or dirt sticking to your newly restored headlight.
Some kits require reapplication of protectant every 1-3 years, depending on atmospheric condition, temperature extremes and if the car is kept inside a garage or non.

Make certain to exercise caution when using DIY kits; if you're not too familiar with how to restore headlights, you could run the risk of ruining them completely if you employ a kit, according to Alex Murenko, the owner of ONEighty, an automotive shop that offers headlight styling and restoration services in New York Metropolis.

"If they don't put the protective film on in that location, people can restore their headlights but half dozen months later, they're going to start yellowing again considering the original coating from the manufacturer is already wearing off," he said. "Once you polish them, at that place'south no more than coating, so now you lot're back to exposing the headlights to natural elements like rain, snow, the sunday, the dirt."

Go to a professional

Instead of tackling the job yourself, Murenko recommends drivers have their headlights restored by professionals.

"We'll lightly sand down all the yellow and grit with a very fine sandpaper," he said. "When you lot sand information technology, information technology merely becomes a matte finish. That's why afterwards nosotros take to buff it and smoothen it. This restores the clarity and the smoothen. Afterwards we buff and polish, we put clear protection film on them to protect them from yellowing, from rock chips, from scratches."

The next fourth dimension you notice your headlights starting to get dull, keep these tips in mind!

This story was originally published November. ix, 2018.