What are the point of headlight wipers?

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa) 03/26/2014 at 15:55 • Filed to: None

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These things. Volvos have them, some other cars have them, I don't understand them. When would you need to use this?

Carl (@stuffcarlsays) > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 15:57

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To clear road salt/dirt/spray off the headlamps in inclement driving weather.

jkm7680 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 15:57

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There isn't really a point to them, Haha.

I don't see the huge difference that they make.

RazoE > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 15:58

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to wipe your headlights, silly

RacecaR > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 15:58

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Well as Sir Mix A Lot says, "The wipers on my lights make the word a bit clearer."

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Carl (@stuffcarlsays) 03/26/2014 at 15:58

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I can understand dirt, if the wipers are strong enough to actually move it, but I just don't see anything else really affecting the headlight strength enough that you'd be concerned enough to have an expensive mechanism like this in place.

Nibbles > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 15:58

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Visual proof that you spent more on your car than the next guy

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Nibbles 03/26/2014 at 15:59

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This probably has the most truth out of all the replies I've seen.

jariten1781 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 15:59

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The ones I've seen just operate every X times you use the windshield washer. I guess the assumption is if enough crap is getting on the windshield that you have to continuously use the washer fluid it would also negatively affect the lights output.

Mercedes Streeter > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:01

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At least they're better than the headlight sprayers found on some models...as if a light spray of washing fluid is going to clear whatever was apparently hindering your vision...

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > jariten1781 03/26/2014 at 16:02

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The ones on my Benz (an '87) only operate if the headlights are on, and you hit the washer spray control. Because that's when it would make sense. Also Germany.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:03

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Mud. Lots of mud.

As I've never taken my '87 Benz mudding, I can't say how useful its headlight wipers are. (They wipe once when you have the headlights on and hit the washer spray.)

offroadkarter > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:03

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In europe if your car has factory HIDs it is required by law that you have a device to clean the lenses to prevent glare. In the US we don't have this regulation so only european cars usually have it.

Carl (@stuffcarlsays) > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:05

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I've had many Saabs with the same system, they were quite failure prone. The washer line that ran to the headlights rarely had enough oomph to throw enough fluid at the headlights to make a difference when the arms actually worked. Now the high-pressure jets on the other hand, those worked the balls!

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 03/26/2014 at 16:06

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Yeah, but it's not like you're going to be taking a nice car like a higher-end Volvo with one of these somewhere it's going to get covered in mud and gunk. I could totally see these on some trucks though.

twochevrons > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:07

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I think that some kind of headlamp cleaning mechanism is required by law in Sweden (and maybe other parts of Europe, too). There will be wash sprayers too, and they come on whenever you trigger the windscreen wash/wipe. Some other cars omit the wipers and just have high-pressure spray nozzles that pop out of the bumpers instead.

Especially in areas where they salt or grit the roads heavily, road spray can build up a nasty cloudy haze very quickly. I couldn't quite see the use of them either, until I moved to Minnesota!

Textured Soy Protein > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:07

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Once I was driving my Grand Cherokee from Chicago to Madison, WI at night, a couple days after a snow storm. The weather was fine but the roads were covered in salty runoff from all the accumulated snow, so the salt was spraying all up on everyone's cars. So much salt built up on my headlights that I thought the bulbs had burned out. I had to pull of at a gas station and use the windshield squeegee to clean them off.

AMC/Renauledge > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:12

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In Sweden, where it snows constantly, road grime packs its way into the snow and turns everything into a slushy, muddy, grimy mess. Also, plenty of people take nice, higher-end cars places where they can get dirty. Why else does Volvo have AWD and XC models? Why does Range Rover exist?

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > AMC/Renauledge 03/26/2014 at 16:14

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Fair enough, but I've seen executive saloons with maybe 4 inches of ground clearance and headlight wipers. I was more thinking of those sorts of things.

crowmolly > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:17

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Reminds me of this:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/82…

Sn210 > offroadkarter 03/26/2014 at 16:23

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Yep, I've got a buddy in Ireland who just had to rebuild his washers to pass inspection

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > AMC/Renauledge 03/26/2014 at 16:24

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Why does Range Rover exist?

Because it could. See also the platypus.

Jagvar > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:26

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On the Phaeton, it's even more complicated. Instead of wipers, there are washer nozzles that come out of the bumper and spray each headlight with a high-pressure stream of water, one at a time. First the left, then the right. Then the wipers automatically engage to clear any water that may have hit the windshield.

Overengineering at its finest.

gabdere > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:28

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Keeping the headlights clear during a snowstorm... Pretty cool IMO.

Lumpy44, Proprietor Of Fine Gif > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:29

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In Canada, there has been times when driving at night where I have to stop and clean my headlights off every 20 minutes. Gravel , salt, mud all kick up when it is raining/melting. Wish I has these!

BoulderZ > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:51

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I never noticed a problem on my truck, but I wish our Jetta had them. We don't salt our roads in CO, but we do use mag chloride liquid de-icer. It does a nice job with the road surface, but the spray on windshields is really dirty, and kind of sticky. Strange stuff. I've found it noticeably dims the lights, way worse than the fogging/plastic degradation. A 15 minute commute through town, and clean lights look like someone sneezed brown goo on them. I think the Jetta's lights are both lower and a bit more sloped than the glass old-school ones on my truck, so more hits and more sticks. I make it a point to clean them off frequently during snow season, but a washer/wiper feature would be nice. With traffic now, I imagine it would be nearly a requirement for the I-70-to-ski-every-weekend folks.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 16:55

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To keep this from happening.

I've got GMC truck that used to suck on winter trips because of this. It had separate beams for high and low, and when on high beam the lows would turn off. After driving for a while on wintry roads the high beams would have a coat of ice on them and would be useless.

EDIT: Well shit, when I try to edit the picture shows up. Might show up if you hit the embiggen button too.

DarkGemini > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 17:21

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I don't have wipers, but my Discovery II has headlight washer jets that have enough pressure to take off skin. They do a great job of clearing the headlights while driving in snowstorms or offroading through mud.

sellphones2493 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/26/2014 at 19:18

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I've been confronted with the idea of removing them a few times now, and I realized how much I like them. Despite them being on Benz's, I still view them quintessentially Swedish and quirky.

According to some, Swedish Winters are harsh enough that these do an o.k. job of removing salt/grime for better visibility. That being said, S60/V70 R headlamps are awful enough to start, that this is completely irrelevant (Volvo made the brights just the low-beams at a different angle. Because, Volvo).

Michael H > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 03/27/2014 at 18:57

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Winter driving in a lot of places will leave a layer of salt and road grime that the light can't pass through after a surprisingly little amount of driving. I had a S class with the wipers and they were a useful feature for sure.

BigHarv > Mercedes Streeter 03/31/2014 at 12:42

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I wish I could find out! Jag didn't include the sprayers on my NA model car, and I've had zero visibility because of it in a snowstorm. Not fun, to say the least. I mean, the sprayers sure work on my windshield...

BigHarv > jkm7680 03/31/2014 at 12:44

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You've never had your headlights get covered in grime at night then. Man, driving down a dark highway in a snowstorm, and having a wet salt/dirt/snow mixture coat your car? You want headlight wipers.

jkm7680 > BigHarv 03/31/2014 at 13:27

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With my old Jetta, my lights got grimy quickly, but I never felt the need for headlight wipers on it.

BigHarv > jkm7680 03/31/2014 at 13:49

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I don't think about it often, but man, when you want them, you reallllly want them.

Kinda like KFC for me, I guess.

jkm7680 > BigHarv 03/31/2014 at 13:51

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Hahahaha, now I want headlight wipers... And KFC.