Ideas for Finding the Best Ford Headlights

Your Ford’s headlights are one of its most important safety features. They help you see in dark or foggy weather conditions, thus reducing the chances of putting in danger both yourself and other drivers and pedestrians. That being said, if you’ve noticed that your headlights are slowly fading, yellowing or are in any way damaged, you should look to replace them as soon as you can. But if you’ve never shopped for headlights before, knowing which ones to buy now will take some careful consideration.

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From simple halogen lamps to advanced LED lights, headlights have come a long way in a short amount of time. The three most popular headlight power sources you’ll find in Ford car parts stores include halogen lamps, LED and HID (xenon). Halogen lamps use a tungsten filament, and they’re usually filled with nitrogen and argon or iodine and bromine mixtures. These lights aren’t as powerful as LED, which are also far more efficient, emit less heat and can be arranged in various patterns. HID or xenon bulbs use two electrodes in a xenon-gas sealed bulb, allowing them to produce more light. These bulbs are better than halogen bulbs, but not as good as LED.

As far as headlights’ construction goes, they can be either composite and sealed beam, or reflector and projector headlights. Sealed beam headlights feature both the lens and the bulb in a single unit, whereas composite headlights have the reflector, filament and lens in separate units. If one of the components in a sealed beam headlight fails, you’ll have to replace the entire assembly. On the other hand, if any component fails in composite headlights, you’ll only have to replace that component.

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Reflector headlights take advantage of a chrome-plated surface which reflects the light from the bulb in order to project an intense beam. In these headlights, the beam pattern depends on the chrome piece that surrounds the bulb. Projector headlights feature a bulb in a projector bowl which reflects the light into a projector lens, which is located in a chrome-plated metal housing. Once the light hits a piece of metal, the light is projected on the road.

It’s recommended to replace both sets of headlights, even if only one is defective. Furthermore, if you frequently drive through terrain that can damage your headlights, consider buying headlight guards. You can find affordable guards at most Ford car parts stores, and they will help protect your headlights against impact from other vehicles, branches, animals or airborne debris.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.