The basics of headlight bulbs and lenses – the benefits of vision on Wonder Lake roads

The lense of this headlight is all foggy.

Vision is not overrated, especially when driving on a Wonder Lake road at night. If you can’t see well, you’ll have a harder time reacting to an emergency. For instance, if a dog runs across the street in front of your car, and you’re doing 55 on East Wonder Lake Road (we won’t tell the police you were speeding), will you have time to avoid hitting the dog? Or, at the last minute, will you try to avoid the dog and spin out and into a tree?

Obviously, headlights are essential to good vision at night. If your headlight bulbs burn out, obviously, you want to replace them. But with what?

Chances are, you’ll be in good shape if you replace a burned-out headlight bulb with the OEM option. OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. This is the bulb that is recommended for your vehicle. If you go into a dealership’s parts department, or an auto parts store, they can look up the OEM bulb, or provide you with an aftermarket version that is about as good.

This headlight is coated with toothpaste
as the car owner clears the fog out
of the headlight lense.

Some people like to upgrade their headlights. The Original Equipment Manufacturer option may call for a Halogen or an LED bulb. You, however, may prefer a brighter HID, or High-Intensity Discharge bulb. The clerk at the auto parts store can cross reference to find the appropriate HID bulb for your car.

You may also want to put brighter bulbs in your car’s headlights. Be cautious doing this, though. For one thing, car’s come with high beams and low beams. Low beams work better in some situations, such as when driving in fog. More importantly, high beams can blind an oncoming car. And, if that oncoming car loses control, it may come across the road into you.

If you install a bulb with higher wattage, you may blind oncoming drives even more. Most cars have 55- or 65-watt bulbs. You may install a 100-watt bulb. You’ll see better but, quite possibly, at the expense of other drivers.

This is what the headlight above looks
like after the toothpaste is cleaned off -
ready for Wonder Lake roads.

Another thing you can do to improve the efficiency of your headlights so you can drive safely on Wonder Lake roads at night is to ensure that the lens is clear. Over time, the lenses that cover your headlight bulbs will grow foggy. There are numerous products you can purchase to clear the fog out of your car’s headlight lenses. They all rely on abrasives to give your headlight lenses that smooth, clear finish again.

For instance, you can use toothpaste. Brush the toothpaste on with a toothbrush, wait for the paste to dry and then clean it off. You may be startled at the difference. In one Youtube video, a young man even compares Crest to Colgate for cleaning the fog out of headlight lenses. It appears they both worked just as well.

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