Is purchasing a new car with the adaptive headlight technology still beyond your reach?

Adaptive headlights are designed to reduce glare to on coming traffic as well as the driver in front of you and to project light in the direction a driver is going, before he gets there, such as cornering or turns in the roadway. 



Watch this video from C-Net on Cars about Adaptive Headlight Technology:

To learn more about how the newer Adaptive Headlight Technology works, download a pdf from the: ILIM laboratory at the Robotics Institute for the study of Illumination & Imaging.

Technical notes & Studies on Adaptive Headlights PDF


Thank you
By Scott Summerson

Of all the headlights I have restored, the vehicle age ranges are 6 to 16 years old, and researchers citing a survey of parents in May of 2014, show that 60 percent of teenagers drive cars from 8 to 11 years old on average. So distorted headlights could very well be a contributing factor to the following crash stats.

Reference: USA Today - Study Finds Half of U.S. Teen Drivers Killed in Crashes Had Old Cars!

Although the condition of a vehicles headlights are rarely mentioned in auto crash reports; poor visibility is mentioned quite often, usually relating it to poor or no street lighting.

Since there are laws governing the projection and distance of automotive headlights, I just cant understand why these cases of "poor visibility" aren't investigated more!

Anyway, we all know that most teens don't seem to take us seriously about our concerns regarding their driving safety, because in general kids are fearless! Many of us remember when we got our first car, some of us drove in ways that could have gotten us killed; That's what scares us the most about our children driving, we've been there, done that!

Of course good Brakes, Tires, working Headlights & Taillights, Windshield Wipers & clean windows (Mirrors) as well as clean headlight lenses; and every vehicle should have a Roadside Emergency Kit! These should be top priority for everyone's driving safety!

So it's left up to you, the parent to teach them good driving habits and to provide the safest environment for your children to drive in, and hope for the best!

Reference these articles below, for more information about the safest New and Used vehicles on the road today; Jan. 2015.

• The Safest Cars of 2014 - SafeMotorist.com 

• 71 Top Safety Picks for 2015 - by iihs.org

Download the full Teen Crash study on pdf  from www.iihs.org : 
http://www.iihs.org/frontend/iihs/documents/masterfiledocs.ashx?id=1513

Stay Safe!

I just can't understand why our government will not publicly recognize the growing problem with our automotive headlight surface corrosion.

Since they finally changed the standard from glass sealed-beam to the more versatile acrylic / polycarbonate headlight assemblies, and set the standard for optimal projection of the lights on high and low beams for driver safety; as well as creating laws against the application of any product that could distort or shorten the distance of the light projection, but does not specify natural build-up, which can be much worse than applying say a tinted film over your lenses.

(In my opinion this law should be revised).

Yet they only require auto manufactures headlight assemblies to last 3 years without becoming cloudy or hazy; after that our government doesn't seem to care or recognize that oxidation build-up is becoming more and more hazardous to everyone including pedestrians!

I have been reading more and more news reports about pedestrian fatalities from motor vehicles and attributing many of those accidents to low lighting conditions causing poor visibility, in areas where there are no street lights.

Never specifically  mention about whether or not the vehicles headlights were clear or cloudy or the possible cause of the poor visibility!

Below is a excerpt from a publication titled:

Driving After Dark
by Kenneth S. Opiela, Carl K. Andersen and Greg Schertz

I mean if our government does really care about our safety in a motor vehicle then why require manufacturers headlight clarity to only last a 3 years, when the average vehicle ownership period was 8 years before the economy crash, now predicted to be 10 to 12 years?

 And why don't police officers enforce or investigate these scenario's? Could the vehicle headlights be the cause of the poor visibility? ABSOLUTELY YES!

How many accidents or fatalities is it going to take before they wake-up and smell the coffee?

Frankly I'm surprised that the Insurance Companies haven't cashed in on this!

Within 5 to 7 years many vehicles on the road today have lost at least 20% of the light projection from their headlights starting to oxidize; that means at least 20% less visibility of potential obstacles on the road in front of you which shortens your stopping distance.

And clouded headlights will cause glare to oncoming vehicles because the light can no longer be focused and creates a shorter, broad area of light.

Well, I guess that's it for this rant, just questions that haven't been answered.
by: Scott Summerson

Thank You and Stay Safe!
Created by Scott Summerson

My Thoughts About "Liking" Business Pages on Facebook.

Hello everyone, Scott here, I am posting today to say a little bit about "Liking" business pages on facebook, well if you are like me, we always hesitate before liking someones business page because we may think; what kind of post am I going to get from these people? Are they going to spam me to death?
 
I don't know about you but I see it quite a bit where about 90% of the posts from some local Small Businesses are all about pushing their product or service, with very little helpful content, just a product and product info, or a bunch of before & after photo's of what ever service they provide.
 
Sure, they should provide examples of their products or services, that's why their in business.
But for many, that's all they post!
 
Facebook is a Social Network, in a casual atmosphere, and I don't think that people like the constant daily bombardment of ads telling people whats best for them. I don't care for it, so I can only assume that I'm not alone in this respect.
 
Unfortunately in the on-line business world, we not only have to keep our followers happy, we also need to keep the search engines happy, if we wish to succeed on-line. One big way of doing this is by staying on-topic with our posts.
But many businesses take this quite literally, and focus all posts on their specific product or service.
 
This can backfire on them resulting in people first turning off "Notifications" and ultimately "Un-Liking" the page all together. Facebook "Likes" and Followers have very little value if people turn off "Notifications" and never see any of your posts.
 
So, my topic is "Automotive" and I share and post related content in all areas of automotive, Safety, Care & Maintenance, DIY Auto Repair, Car & Truck Festivals & Events, Giveaways, Funny Stuff, Automotive News, and New Automotive Technologies as well as Local Events.
 
I do this because it offers my followers a variety of useful content related to the auto industry, instead of the same old ads over and over. This makes for a lot more work on my part, but I'm happy to do it!
 
I don't know, maybe I'm just a lousy salesman? I can design websites, and I can restore headlights, and.... apparently I'm a poet as well. LOL
 
Anyway, on average I only post an ad once or twice a week, and every now and then I will post a request of my followers to tell me what kind of post they would most like to receive from me. It's mostly about keeping my followers happy, and of course reminding them of my services as well.

Please feel free to leave a comment about your thoughts on this matter.
 
Thank You for your time!
By Scott Summerson

Good vision and range of view is imperative while driving, under any and all weather conditions.

So keeping your windshield clean and your whipper blades maintained and clean should be a no-brainer.

Windshield washer fluid is very important in maintaining the outside of your windshield, (plain water doesn't get it). Microscopic airborne contaminants like oils, road grime and other pollutants are constantly bombarding your windshield and water will not cut through asphalt or oil residue, in fact plain water can make it worse by smearing!

With most people the inside of their windshield gets the least attention, and even I am bad for this as well, but the fact remains that glare is one of the worst issues day or night when it comes to our vision while driving.

We all know the scenario where the sun or a light has hit your windshield from the right angle, and there it is, that dirty film and streaks from when you whipped it with whatever you could find the last time it was fogged up. And the film on the inside of your windshield will make the fogging worse, if the inside is kept clean, then it won't fog up as easy or as bad, and lets your defroster do it's job better & faster.

That film can cause a lot of glare issues when light hits that dirty film it reflects off of it and causes it to stand-out and obscuring the view beyond. And that temporary blindness, even for a couple seconds can absolutely result in an accident; it's no different than the slower reaction time of a drunk driver, or the few seconds that someone looks down at their cell phone.

Driving at 45 mph you travel 66 feet per second; so in say 3 seconds you will have traveled 198 feet!

That's 2/3rds the length of a football field! Anything can happen in that distance!

So Stay Safe and Keep it Clean!

By Scott Summerson

I just wanted to repost some information that I think everyone could use and it's nice to have quick links there when you need them. These three websites contain loads of information on automotive Recalls, Auto Defects, Lemon Laws, Crash Stats, and places to submit complaints about a vehicle safety issue or defective part or whatever vehicle related issue, and a whole lot more!
And the last paragraph at the bottom is for Trouble-Shooting Auto Repair issues as well as Legal, Medical, Technical (PC), and much more! Enjoy!

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

The Center for Auto Safety:

http://www.autosafety.org/


Auto Recalls For Consumers:

http://www.arfc.org/


File a complaint:

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/


Also, I have used this site on 3 occasions for my Dodge Ram electrical issues, and I received the answers I was looking for from experts in the field. They have saved me a ton of money because so far I have been able to fix everything myself so This is My Go To site when ever I have mechanical issues with my vehicles. Consider this a review. www.justanswer.com. 

Go here for many more auto & safety resources 


Review and research links offered by Scott Summerson

Although I have not run across this problem yet, as this is old news, but a fellow headlight restoration company “M & J's Headlight Restorations” located in Towson, Maryland is still finding cases of the 2003 – 2007 Toyota Highlander HID daytime running light / High Beam light bulbs overheating and melting the headlight lens and lens casing. M & J's are leaving notes on the vehicles they see while out & about that appear to have evidence of this issue.
You can read more about their ongoing research and view photo's here.

I looked up some more information on this Toyota Highlander Headlight issue for those of you who either have or know someone that has one of these vehicles.

Auto Recalls For Consumers:

To File a complaint about a vehicle issue:

www.safercar.gov

I hope this information will help someone.
By Scott Summerson

Ever flash your headlights at an on-coming vehicle on a two lane road because of the glare, only to find that when they flash back the glare gets worse?

Well, your first thought would probably be that their headlights are out of alignment.

Many times, if one headlight is glaring more than the other, this is more than likely the case.

However, If both of the oncoming vehicle's lights were fairly even in their glaring projection (ruling out a truck that is jacked up really high) the odds are that the vehicle's headlights are in poor condition, covered with oxidation, foggy or clouded, and in need of restoration.

Their headlights have become a hazard to you! Not to mention that the other driver's direct line of sight is severely impaired as a result.

When auto headlights become oxidized and clouded the light projection becomes distorted by reflecting backwards back into the headlight assembly off the back of the oxidation or clouded area on the lens, causing what light that is forced through the lens to be widespread with no focused direction, and your left with ( Bright & Brighter ). The focused projection between high & low beams will become useless.

NOTE: It is recommended that when dealing with oncoming traffic on a two-lane road you should always focus on the white line on the right hand side of the road in front of you when passing oncoming traffic, the reason being that statistics show drivers tend to drift toward the direction they are looking in, hence facing the very real possibility of a head-on collision!

Usually these accidents involve only the driver side front quarter panels on both vehicles, in fact, this happens so often that Insurance companies specifically conduct test on driver side to driver side head-on impacts of all new and earlier model vehicles to determine the safety risk factors of those vehicles.

Many believe that poor vision, glare and drift factors are major contributors in this sort of collision.

So far I have been blaming the other guy's headlights for this very real accident scenario, so lets put ourselves in that position, have you noticed anyone flashing their headlights at you when your low beams are on?

If so, then consider checking your headlights for clarity, it doesn't take much distortion to cause glare or impairment of vision while driving at night.

If you want to buy your own headlight restoration kit and do-it-yourself, that's fine, just do it, and don't procrastinate about it!

You could be saving the lives of your family and or other families by taking the time and a reasonably small investment for your safety.

By Scott Summerson

Thank You!