Vehicle lighting help – useful tricks and hacks

Safety First: Everything You Should Know about automotive lighting

Accurate and powerful lighting is one of the key constituents of a successful car driving. Properly chosen light systems illuminate the road, increase overall visibility for a driver and at the same time make the car visible from afar. They also signal the completion of maneuvering and stopping the car as well as perform other functions, helping to avoid potential dangers and increase overall confidence of a driver. 


Features and Functions of the Most Car Lighting Systems

You can count more than fifty kinds of lamps, bulbs, and LEDs in a modern car. Some of them illuminate the road in front and behind the car, others are designed to indicate the dimensions of the car or inform others about the intentions of a driver. Besides, there are also lights that illuminate the cabin and dashboards inside the auto. So, let us talk about different kinds of car lights, their features, and their functions.

First of all, the automotive lighting can be divided into two main types:

  • -External lighting, which is located on the outside of the vehicle;
  • -Internal lighting, which is located in the car interior.

External lighting devices include headlights, fog lights, turn signals, taillights, and license plate lights.

Headlights provide illumination of the road in front of the car and at the same time inform the oncoming transport about the dimensions of the car. The headlights usually house such light devices, as full beam and dipped beam headlights, sidelights, direction indicators, and daytime running lights. Turn signals of modern cars are also often placed here.

Dipped beam headlights serve to illuminate the road when there is oncoming traffic ahead. This light is not intense and asymmetric, which provides better illumination of the right side of the track and does not glare the other drivers.

Full beam headlights are also used to illuminate the roadway, but only if there are no moving vehicles in front. This light is brighter, allowing illuminating a greater distance in front of the car.

Fog lights ensure better illumination of the road in conditions of poor visibility caused by fog, rain or snow. They provide a wide light beam, in which the upper part is truncated.

Turn signals inform other drivers about maneuvering, such as turning, changing lanes, pulling to the side of the road to stop. They work in the blinking mode and give red light.

Taillights are located at the back of the car. This is also a unit of several lighting devices. Parking lights, brake lights, turn signals, and reverse lamps are accommodated into this unit. If the car has back fog lights, they are also included in the taillights unit or installed separately on the bumper.

License plate lights are used to make the car license plate visible at night.

Brake lights warn other drivers that you have applied brakes and are going to slow down.

Hazard lights are located at all corners of the car and serve as indicators. They have a blinking mode and are often used during stops to indicate the position of the car and warn other drivers that you are causing an obstruction on their way.

Interior lights are located inside the car and include a significant number of devices, such as a cabin light, luggage compartment and engine compartment lights, dashboard lights, and sidelights in the doors. It is believed that the internal lighting does not play a big role and is used just for the comfort of passengers. However, this is not entirely true, since each equipment is designed for a special purpose, which cannot but matter.


When does Your Car Need the Headlights or Taillights Replacement?

Improper lighting during night trips and bad weather conditions are the main factors in more than 60% of car accidents. That is why timely care and diagnostics of optics are extremely important for every vehicle.

Generally, there can be several reasons for the improper work of the headlight. Here is a list of the most common issues:

  • -Problems with contacts;
  • -Clogged or damaged lampshade;
  • -A light bulb doesn’t work (it has served its term or is broken);
  • -Clouding of the lens;
  • -Errors in the lighting adjustment.

After all, even the optics of the new cars sometimes require some care and driving lights replacement. The car headlights may dim, they need to be polished or cleaned or the bulbs may burn out.  All these problems should be solved immediately to provide safe and comfortable conditions for the driver and other participants of the traffic.


How to Upgrade the Lighting of Your Car?

Every driver is occasionally faced with the situation when it comes time to interfere in a car’s lighting system. This decision is caused either by a need to improve the defective light source or by a desire to find a more efficient solution for the vehicle.

Nowadays, custom tail lights are becoming more and more popular. Car, SUV or truck owners often want their vehicles to have distinctive features and differ from other vehicles on the road. They choose to equip their cars with the projector headlights or to replace their old headlights with the new HID, LED, xenon or halogen ones.

Unfortunately, the process of projector headlights replacement is not always simple and cheap. However, there is often no need to buy the whole car light units; it is possible just to change definite components. For example, you can change the type of bulbs or combine several types in one housing.

Overall, advances in car lighting technologies give us new solutions every day. It is up to a car owner to choose the best suitable variants for his vehicle; however, in pursuit of comfort, performance, and appealing appearance, we should not forget about overall road safety.