How To Use Toothpaste To Clean Your Headlights

The last thing you need when you're driving in the rain, snowfall and fog of winter is dirty auto headlights.

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

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

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

How to clean car headlights with toothpaste:

If the headlights are only slightly foggy, you lot can effort and restore them using an abrasive, like toothpaste, and lots of scrubbing. First, clean the headlights with Windex or soap and h2o. And so, using a soft cloth, rub a fingertip amount of toothpaste onto the wet headlight. (Toothpaste with blistering soda works best.) Start scrubbing. Keep the surface wet and apply more than toothpaste as needed. In one case 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, expect for one that contains several grades of sandpaper, a plastic cleaner/smoothen, polishing cloths and a protective coating. I kit commonly has enough to make clean two headlights.

Noble has the following advice when using a DIY headlight restoration kit:

Follow the manufacturer'southward directions. Don't improvise.
Don't rush through it. Depending on how foggy headlights are, this could have xv-20 minutes per headlight. Call back, you're rubbing away years of oxidation AND the original protective coating.
Every bit you sand, run your hands over the moisture headlights. If you feel rough spots, sand until smooth.
Be conscientious non to scratch the auto's pigment while sanding. Some kits recommend taping around the headlights to help. Simply exist careful: The record itself may lift off the pigment on some older cars.
Keep it wet. Use a spray bottle, a saucepan of water or a hose to wet surfaces while sanding.
Trust the kit. The headlights will look hazy afterwards sanding simply they'll be clear after applying the coating.
Make certain the headlight is completely dry before applying the protective sealant.
Allow the sealant to dry for several hours — improve however, overnight — earlier using the car. You don't want bugs or clay sticking to your newly restored headlight.
Some kits require reapplication of protectant every i-3 years, depending on weather condition, temperature extremes and if the car is kept inside a garage or not.

Make sure to practice caution when using DIY kits; if yous're not besides familiar with how to restore headlights, yous could run the run a risk of ruining them completely if you utilise a kit, according to Alex Murenko, the owner 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 only half-dozen months later on, they're going to start yellowing again because the original coating from the manufacturer is already wearing off," he said. "Once yous polish them, there's no more blanket, then now you're back to exposing the headlights to natural elements similar rain, snow, the sun, the dirt."

Get to a professional

Instead of tackling the chore yourself, Murenko recommends drivers take their headlights restored by professionals.

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

The next time you find your headlights starting to become dull, go along these tips in mind!

This story was originally published Nov. ix, 2022.