If you’re the kind of driver who takes great care to preserve the pristine condition of your vehicle and upgrade it with aftermarket parts when there’s a specific need for a performance improvement, you likely shudder when you see a shoddy, poorly maintained car sputtering down the highway. One area in particular seems to trap the average driver, and that’s car lighting. For some reason, there are any number of cars on the road at a single time with broken or faulty headlights, tail lights so dim they can be hardly be seen, and more. So if you’re usually a sound maintainer of your car, but perhaps need a little help with lighting improvements, consider the tips below for performance lighting installation.
Working with Headlights
Headlights should be the focal points of any lighting upgrade on an automobile, primarily because they are the main visual aids drivers rely on in the dark. Even if your car’s stock headlights are still operational, there’s a chance they’ve faded in luminance to the point where they no longer adequately illuminate the road ahead. In such situations, you may want to replace those stock halogens with some HID headlights. For those unfamiliar with the technology, HID is short for High Intensity Discharge, and these headlights can last nearly ten times as long as standard headlights. Plus, with 3x the brightness and an upgraded peripheral vision range, you’ll be able to see both the road ahead and your immediate surroundings more clearly. The fact you can customize the color of the headlights and see road signs more clearly with better light reflection are only additional bonuses to these main facets.
Correcting Tail Light Problems
If you don’t do so already, you should take care to check on your car’s tail lights every so often. It’s hard to know when one or both of your car’s tail lights has dimmed or broken, unless someone driving behind you was kind enough to point it out to you. That way, you never have to worry about being pulled over unexpectedly, or taking a surprise rear end hit to your car because the driver to your rear couldn’t accurately judge the distance between your car and his. For brighter, more noticeable tail lights, you can try LED tails, which shine a vivid red and are hard to miss even in daylight. Even if you stick with OEM replacements, at least make sure the lights are operating at full luminosity at all times.
