About headlights and fog lights:
The front lights on your vehicle are important to your car’s driveability and safety at night. They allow you to see what is in front of you and allow other drivers to see you coming. Functional headlights are often required in order to pass a Warrant of Fitness.
The headlights cast two beams of light from the front of the car. These lights can be configured to shine low-beam or high-beam. The low beam and high beam settings use different bulbs or bulb filaments, with the high beam bulb being much brighter, allowing it to shine further ahead.
As the name suggests, fog lights help you to see in the fog. Since fog hovers close to the ground, the fog lights shine downwards, illuminating the road beneath the fog. This allows for increased safety during foggy weather.
Learn how your car’s headlights work >
Causes of headlight/fog light failure:
Bulbs due for replacement – The bulbs in your lights will eventually need to be replaced. Bulbs can blow over time due to the constant vehicle vibrations and heating and cooling of the headlight / fog light bulbs.
Blown fuse – The lights in your vehicle are connected to fuses. In the event that a fuse is blown, your lights will stop working due to a lack of power.
Bad relay or wiring – The relay is like a switch which opens and closes circuits. Damage to the relay and its surrounding wiring can affect the connection between the headlight / fog light bulbs and the rest of the car.
Physical damage – A collision with another object can cause your vehicle’s headlights or fog lights to crack or lose connection with the rest of the car. In this case, the whole light assembly may need to be replaced.
Headlights / Fog Lights Adjustment – overtime headlight bulb filaments can move and sag causing the headlight beam to no longer be aligned correctly. This can mean that your headlight beam can shine too high (even on dip / low beam) which can blind oncoming drivers, or can shine too low which means that you struggle to see all of the road ahead.
Another common headlight adjustment problem is that they headlight beam shines too far to the left or right of the vehicle, which also makes it harder to see and drive at night.
The same can be true for your fog light adjustment.
How important is a headlight/fog light fix?
Headlights are essential to driving at night. They allow you to see your surroundings and allow other drivers to see you. We recommend that you keep your headlights in good condition, getting them fixed/changed immediately if a problem occurs. The are also mandatory to be working correctly for a Warrant or Fitness (WOF).
Fog lights are a helpful accessory to have, improving your vision of the road in foggy weather. Although they are not as important as headlights, a service/replacement will help you in situations where you have to use fog lights.
Headlight and Fog Light Replacement in Hamilton
At Grimmer Motors, we offer a variety of vehicle lighting services. This allows you to remain visible, improving your vehicle’s safety. Working lights will improve your vehicle’s driveability and allow it to pass its next Warrant of Fitness (WOF).
We can change/fix the following lights:
- Brake lights and tail lights
- Headlights / fog lights / park lights
- Indicator/turn signal lights
- Interior vehicle lighting
- and much more
For vehicle lighting fixes that will last the test of time, contact Grimmer Motors today!