I-Team

Dangerously Dim

A CBS4 I-Team Investigation

Learn How Fading Headlights Could Make Your Drive Dangerous

MIAMI (CBS4 News) ― The Florida Attorney General's Office now wants to hear from you if the headlights on your car have become dangerously dim.

Bad weather, flooded roads, and dark, crowded highways are a constant problem on South Florida's increasingly mean streets. In many cases, the only thing keeping us safe when the road's dark or dangerous is something most drivers take for granted: our headlights.

A CBS4 I-Team investigation found a growing number of motorists driving with headlights that may not even meet state or federal safety standards. It's a problem affecting hundreds of thousands of headlights on virtually every make of car and truck, foreign or domestic.

Aging plastic headlights, after as little as two or three years on the road, are becoming so "cloudy" they actually output less light than is needed to legally do their job.

Marvally Leyva of Hialeah believes her headlights are growing dim, but she doesn't know why. She takes good care of her old car because she doesn't want to buy a new one.

Leyva was surprised when the foggy lens on her headlights was pointed out. "Yeah, it's true," she said. "I never noticed it till you pointed it out. Wow. Actually this looks very foggy!"

Auto industry insiders say she's not alone.

Auto restorer Mike Patrick thinks as many as 70% of the cars on the road may be operating with aging plastic headlights that put out less light than when they were brand new. Patrick believes "it's getting worse, and I hate to say it, it's because the automakers are finding ways to cut costs to keep more money in their pockets so they're using probably a less quality product to build it"

All car headlights were once made from glass, but the new, high-tech plastic lenses weigh less than glass, and are more impact resistant. However, when you start checking out some older cars that used traditional glass headlights, you can clearly see the glass stays clearer for a lot longer.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, headlights have to clearly illuminate the roadway for at least 150 feet. FHP Lieutenant Pat Santangelo said "The bottom line is it is a safety problem; it is a safety hazard to have this type of lens."

Santangelo says that type of safety hazard can get you pulled over and ticketed.

"If it's obviously not as bright as it should be, that individual can be pulled over and issued a citation for unsafe equipment."

If you're driving a car or truck with dimming headlights, it can be a serious problem, one which the CBS4 I-Team demonstrated with the assistance of lighting expert Marty Siegal. Using a standard light meter and a white panel, the I-team positioned a number of cars at 150 feet, some with clear headlights, some with older, clouded lights.

Siegal measured the light output to see how close it came to the state standards. With an aging headlight, you could see with the naked eye the light seemed dimmer than other cars, and the light meter confirmed that.

"They look pretty brownish yellow. the look defiantly weak," said Siegal. "This is actually 7/10ths of a foot-candle, it's very, very dim; it's almost nothing"

Siegal then tested a second car, with lights which were not fogged or clouded. Again, the difference was apparent to the naked eye, and the light meter confirmed that.

"Color wise this appears to be much brighter," Siegal observed. "You have twice as much light. The other was 7-10ths, this is 1.4 (foot-candles), it's twice as much light."

While we could measure the light output with a meter, the state doesn't do that. It uses a subjective standard; if the light looks dim, Santangelo said, a trooper can issue a ticket based on his or her opinion.

So, what can drivers do about the problem? Auto restorer Mike Patrick says faded headlights can be temporarily cleaned up for a year or two, and has developed a method for doing so, using chemicals, which he is trying to market.

Patrick says the job must include a final acrylic re-surfacing that keeps the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays from damaging plastic headlights even more.

There are many methods advertised on the internet for clearing cloudy lights, but they offer varying degrees of effectiveness. Some mechanics have even suggested sanding the lights with a fine-grit sandpaper, but Patrick warned against that, saying while the lights might clear temporarily, the expensive plastic could be damage to the point of eventual failure.

The expense of replacing those lights, either because you've damaged them or because they have become too dim to do their job, has attorneys paying attention.

Coral Gables attorney Ralph Patino says he's hearing from more and more frustrated car owners facing big bills, trying to replace plastic headlights that are no longer covered by their manufacturers' warranty.

"In order to replace one of these headlights it's very, very expensive and the manufacturers know it." Patino thinks it's a profit item for manufacturers. "Absolutely, to replace this is $300-$400 and multiply that by 2 for each vehicle" Patino sees the losses to consumers "in the millions."

Patino is now researching the possibility of filing a nationwide class action lawsuit against the auto industry and headlight manufacturers.

"This can result in an automobile accident," he said. "it was not designed to be opaque a year or two after its manufacture."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the fading headlights are a maintenence issue for car owners, not a safety defect or a recall issue. However, at least two consumer groups are poised to take action to address dangerously dim headlights.

If the plastic headlights on your truck or car have become cloudy, call the Attorney General's Office at 1-866-966-7226 to file a complaint.

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