Why would the headlights of a 1995 Ford Contour become too dim for safe driving at night?

Answer 1

Headlight DimmingHere is advice:

• If the lenses are cloudy due to abrasion, buff them with medium to fine compound.

• Couple of things: headlight lenses may become cloudy due to abrasion, salt, etc., and need to be replaced. Or a bad ground is also common. If you have daytime running lights, also check to see if you are running on headlights, or just your DRL's.

1. The interior of the bulb becomes clouded with age and use. Provided the bulb does not break with jarring, the light output does dim. Replace the bulbs in pairs if you need to. If this does not correct the situation, purchase or borrow a multimeter and set it for the voltage range. The voltage to the bulbs should be from 13.5 to 14.5 volts. Compare it with the voltage terminal across the battery. Anything lower and you have a voltage drop, either from a bad ground or from old switches. What can a layman do in this case? 1. Find the ground point, disassemble the connection and clean it with something abrasive like a wire brush. 2. Find a replacement wiring harness. They range in price from 25.00 to 90.00. You connect them to the bulbs, one of the bulb connectors and two power wires to the battery. They will provide a new wire path to the bulbs and the result is that the bulbs will shine as bright as new. They -may- also allow you to upgrade the bulbs to a higher wattage. Check your local laws regarding this before attempting this.

• Also I would like to advise you to try this first before doing anything above. Does your headlights have interchangeable bulbs inside take a look at your plastic headlights lens if so you go to Walmart or an auto parts store and buy this stuff called headlight restore that comes in a chrome plastic bag that says permanent headlight restore its about $17.00 at Walmart ( BUT YOUR LENSES MUST BE PLASTIC NOT GLASS BECAUSE THIS WILL NOT WORK ON GLASS LENSES AND IF THEY ARE ITS BEST TO REPLACE YOUR HEADLIGHTS WITH SILVER STAR ULTRAS FOR BEST RESULTS )and do exactly what it says to do on the bag but take your time with it and do one headlight at a time spend about 30 minutes on each headlight and the results will be remarkable you will see the inside of the lenses clearly and your lights will be much brighter and it will bring the value of the car up because it makes it look like there new and it will make it safer to drive at night .

• But if you do not have the money to do so as i listed above and if you have some of this items I'm going to list this will also help for a short period of time until you can afford to do so from above. 1. You need light grit sand paper that can be used wet or dry. 2. A good size bowl of water OK now you need to wet the sandpaper and go side to side do not go in circles or up and down keep the sand paper wet while doing this going side to side pour water on the lens as sand once it feels harder to sand add more water while sanding once you have sanded all of the lenses for 10 to 20 minutes depending on how bad they are continue until you can see clearly thru and to where the lenses are slick and smooth rinse them off and go to the next step. 3. Get a towel to clean off the residue and one to dry off. 4. An electric buffer Or A mini applicator and apply 4 to 5 coats of good quality car wax I prefer turtle wax because it will last longer than most. 5. Let each coat dry to a haze and clean off with a clean rag or towel and now your done. This may sound like allot of work but it is very simple to do this is what i use to do until they came out with the permanent headlight restorer in the chrome bag and trust me it works when you don't have a whole lot of money. Just take your time with it and don't sand it very hard do it easy because i know you want to do it right the first time.