Dangers of driving a Volvo with cloudy headlights

You might have noticed in many vehicles, mostly the older vehicles where their headlights have become too cloudy or yellowish that you cannot see clearly through it. If you don’t know if such headlights are bad or not, then know that use of such headlight is not safe. These headlights continue to glow, but they do not glow to give a bright beam of light. Good headlights always provide a bright beam of light. So, you must be thinking how it can be harmful to use the cloudy headlights? So here I’m gonna discuss about the consequences of use of the cloudy headlights in Volvo.

The importance of good headlights and the causes of cloudy headlights

You know well why headlights are used. They are like the flashlights of vehicles which guide you while driving in dark. While driving in dark, the light from the headlights makes the things visible at the front of the car. This assists you while driving. But sometimes the headlights show such problem that is non avoidable, especially if you are driving during night.

The headlights would be unable to provide the light beam of good intensity. Generally, the problem arises due to faulty bulbs, damaged wires or the lens problem. Good headlights produce a bright beam light that focuses on the objects that are in front of the car. The headlights cast the beam which reaches a several distance from the car so that the driver can easily point out the obstacles and the rad and drive accordingly.

The headlight consists of a concave mirror which reflects the light from the bulb to give a bright beam and the lens allows the high intensity light to pass without scattering it. The lens is made out of plastic or polycarbonate instead of glass because these are light weight and durable the glass. But these materials have a demerit. Even if they do not easily break like glass, but it can become foggy with time. The headlights having the foggy or cloudy material make the light scatter and cannot provide a beam of light. This affects the visibility. And if the things are not visible, you cannot drive the car well.

Here are some causes of the headlights to become cloudy so that you can be careful to prevent the headlight issue.

Oxidation

The polycarbonate lens can simply get oxidized as they are exposed to the air for long times. Due to the oxidation, the lens develops some tiny white patches or cracks which collectively makes the lens to appear cloudy.

The moisture

The moisture can enter into the head light box and produce the vapors in it. This water vapors remain trapped in the box while the air becomes dry. These vapors make the headlights to become cloudy.

The chemicals and dirt

Various chemicals and dirt get coated over the lens of the headlights and make it appear yellow and cloudy

How the cloudy headlights can be dangerous?

The headlights become cloudy by the damages by the debris or by general oxidation or by accumulation of certain particles on them. When they get cloudy, they do not appear much brighter like before. This happens because the beams produced by the mirror of the headlights is scattered by the cloudy lens. The light rays are scattered in all directions instead of focusing on a certain place. This makes the headlights less bright. Such headlights cannot focus on the front of the car; hence the drivers would not be able to see properly the road for a long distance.

So, the drivers would not be able to drive confidently due to bad vision. When the drivers are in hurry, then they may not able to notice properly any obstacles, parked vehicles or a pedestrian on the road. This increases the chances of hitting with them and cause accidents that are very much life threatening. The road crashes that occur can be very dangerous for your car as well as for the people which can lead to serious injuries and even death. The road accidents during night have increased only due to the cloudy headlights.

Conclusion

Driving with the cloudy headlight is very much dangerous, deadly, so if you find this condition of your Volvo headlights, then get them replaced or cleaned as soon as possible.