Facts About Headlights

In the beginning, cars and trucks used incandescent or “sealed beam” headlights. Similar in design and function to your typical screw-in light bulb, they used a tungsten steel wire – or filament - sealed in a glass lens. When electricity passed through the filament it became so hot that it produced a steady and reliable source of light. As with home lighting, sealed beams had limitations. The brightness was limited and the light produced was not clean, natural-looking but a dingy tainted or yellow color. They also weren’t very efficient. The energy used to light the bulb actually produced 95% heat and only 5% light.

Next came the Halogen headlight. Around 1978, a brighter longer-lasting headlight hit the market. Although still an incandescent bulb, it was filled with an inert gas known as halogen which allowed it to burn brighter and last longer. This is still the most common style headlight in the industry. Early halogen headlights were sized and shaped like the old sealed beams which were either round or rectangular. This was convenient if you wanted to upgrade your lighting to the new halogens, but eventually the bulb and the headlight capsule or lens became two separate items. This allowed manufacturers to design the smooth streamlined headlights that are common today. The halogen bulb merely snaps into the back of the unit to provide the light source and is actually self-contained.

The latest technology regarding headlights deals with eliminating the tungsten steel filament that has been the common component of lighting since Thomas Edison. Such is the case with vapor lamps. Mercury and sodium vapor lamps are used in streetlights and at sports stadiums. But for automotive applications Xenon gas is the way to go. Xenon gas headlights produce a brilliant bluish light three times brighter than a halogen bulb, while using 65% less energy. The automotive industry has dubbed these style headlights “High Intensity Discharge” or HID headlights. While very bright, they use a special controller or ballast to create an arc between two points which excites the gas and creates light. To accomplish this, the ballast steps up the voltage from 12volts that the vehicle runs on, to 20,000 volts to ignite the xenon in the bulb.

Unfortunately, all of this high-tech magic adds to the price of having HID lighting. HID bulbs and ballasts can run hundreds of dollars to replace while a halogen bulb is twenty dollars or so. And don’t be fooled by imitations – HID produces a blue light but not every blue light is an HID.

How and When to Buy Tires

Aside from obvious failures such as a blow-out or an irreparable flat , how do you know when it’s time to replace the tires on your vehicle?
The answer is simpler than you may think thanks to an industry standard known as “wear bars.” Deep within the tread of every tire is a small ridge molded into the tire that indicates when that tire has reached its useful limit. The “bars” are located in several places around each tire and are aligned to create a line across the tire tread. An old tire trick involves using a penny. Hold the penny with Lincoln’s head facing down and toward you. Insert it into a worn area of the tread. If you can see all of the president’s head, the tires are worn out. Tires are officially worn out when the tread depth reaches 1/16th of an inch.
It is always best to replace all four tires at once. It ensures that the vehicle will ride and handle as it was designed for optimum safety and comfort - this is especially important if your vehicle is all-wheel drive. Traction control and computerized all wheel drive systems rely on all of the tires being exactly the same size and rotate at exactly the same speed. On a typical front or rear wheel drive vehicle you should at least replace your tires in pairs.
If you buy a new pair of tires the next question is where to have them installed. Old school logic had always professed installing the better tires on the front. Logically, the front tires handle the weight of the engine, steer, and provide most of the braking. This made good sense until engineers at Michelin proved that logical is not always practical. At their proving grounds Michelin demonstrated how having the better tires on the rear of a vehicle – either front or rear wheel drive – reduced hydroplaning and consequential oversteer caused by the rear tires losing traction. Hydroplaning is a condition that occurs when a tire cannot channel away the water beneath it and therefore loses contact with road by literally riding on a film of water.
Another thing to keep in mind is that all tires have a break-in period. Tires perform best after the first 500 miles of service. This is due to the use of various chemicals necessary during the manufacturing process that wear away after 500 miles or so.
The tire industry is extremely competitive so be sure to shop around before buying. Keep in mind that every tire manufacturer has several models of tires to choose from and then several variations of each model so be sure your comparing apples to apples.

Spring Cleaning

It’s time to take off the snow tires and wash the salt out of the fenders. Even if you don’t have to deal with such things, there are maintenance items that everyone should practice to get their car ready for summer.
If you live in an area of the country that gets cold and salt is used to keep the roads clear of ice, it is vitally important to ensure that no remnants of salt remain on your vehicle. Salt is highly corrosive and although manufacturers are using more man-made and galvanized parts, salt will cause any bare metal parts of your vehicle to rust away. Wash the car off from above and below. Many automated car washes offer an undercarriage wash which greatly helps to remove residual salt that may be trapped in nooks and crannies that would otherwise harbor the corrosive.
Protect the paint by applying a fresh coat of good quality wax. Wax helps to preserve the paint finish by providing a protective layer that keeps bugs, grime and dirt from sticking to the paint and also offers protection from the uv rays of the sun.
Get the oil changed, tires rotated and be sure to have the service agent check the coolant. Coolant is not just antifreeze – it also raises the boiling point of water it’s mixed with to keep your engine from overheating. Also, check the wiper blades since April showers also tend to bring work to the body shops.
Last, if your air conditioner has taken on a musty or moldy smell, ask you service agent about disinfecting the a/c system. There are several products available that work very well at killing the mold that often grows in the car’s ventilation unit.
As usual, make sure all the lights are working, the fluids are full and there’s air in the spare.