If you have glasses, you know how difficult it can be to see when you get them smudged. People wearing contacts may have some experience if they get something on their lenses. Your car can suffer a similar vision problem.

Whenever you’ve driven in the darkness, perhaps you have found yourself flipping off your headlights quickly and then flipping them back on – because you suddenly weren't entirely sure your lights were even on.  Even if they were on, they may seem awfully dim.  If that has ever happened to you, your car may be a good candidate for headlight restoration.

What is headlight restoration? Think of it as cleaning your glasses with spray and wipes. Every once in awhile, your car’s “glasses” could use some cleaning – which takes more than using some spray and wipes. If you come into Alta Mere, our technicians and their tools can clean and repair your headlights and restore them to its former bright and shining glory.

This shouldn't be confused with changing the headlights.  Headlight lens restoration is making sure the plastic, glass or other material that encases the bulbs is clean enough for the light to get through. Headlight lens restoration isn’t a vanity project for your car. As you can imagine, if your headlights aren’t working well, that can be a major safety issue. Consumer Reports suggests that clouded lenses can reduce the effectiveness of your car’s headlights by as much as 80 percent.

So how does a car’s headlights get dirty? Unfortunately, there’s no one sure-fire strategy for preventing your headlights from getting cloudy, although keeping your car in the garage does help. Your headlights can become discolored or dull for a variety of reasons -- from being in the sunlight to driving in the elements. Your headlights can be pummeled by things like acid rain, or any chemicals that land on your headlights. Road debris can scratch up headlights. As you can imagine, it can all take a toll.

The good news is that headlight restoration is a relatively inexpensive fix. Due to the safety and importance of seeing clearly while driving at night, you may want to get your headlights restored once every year or two. That frequency may depend on how your headlights are functioning, how the environment treats them and how much night driving you and your car do.

The longer nighttime hours of winter are now here. It’s important to be able to see clearly at night, and if you often find yourself driving in what feels like the utter darkness of a tunnel, headlight restoration may be the light at the end.