Have you ever driven your car on a road while when its headlight alignment was poorly managed and you barely see anything present in your vicinity at the road? Did you know earlier that the car headlights which are aimed too low can greatly reduce your visibility especially at night, similar to those headlights which are aimed too high and affect others’ visibility.

Moreover, if your headlights are directly pointed on the ground, then the light gets reflected by the road and it causes a shiny glare on the road which affects the driver’s ability to see fat down the road very negatively.

While, on the other hand, if your vehicular headlights are somehow pointing too high and throwing massive light, then they could be brightly shining the space in front of your car, reflecting off nothing and making them particularly useless. No doubt, that is dangerous too as in this way your fellow road beings will not get informed of your upcoming approach and road movement.

Both these are the most significant reasons that nowadays headlight alignment causes numerous NCT failures.

Light Beams of Headlights

Headlights usually throw two common types of light beams, each one of them functions differently and plays its own part during driving on a busy road. These light beams’ emittance and exposure majorly depend on the right headlight alignment though. Both these are discussed in detail below:

1.    Low Beam

A low beam of the headlight is also known as a dipped beam, meeting beam, or passing beam. It frequently provides an equal distribution of light over the road, which particularly includes lateral and forward illumination. However, there always exist some limits of lights’ direction and reflection towards the eyes of other road fellows in order to control glaring issues. Furthermore, this beam of light is specifically intended for use and turned on whenever there are some other vehicles ahead on the road from your car, regardless of the fact whether they are oncoming or have overtaken your car from behind.

2.    High Beam

Contrary to a low light beam, there exists a high range beam. It is also referred to as the main beam, full beam, or particularly the driving beam. It radically provides a center-weighted bright distribution of light. Moreover, they produce significant glare without considering the amount of control to prevent the eyes of other road users to dazzle. That is why such beams of light are merely suitable to turn on and use when you are moving along on a bare road.

What effect could incorrectly aligned headlights have?

Headlight alignment of your car is crucial for your safety on the road. If improperly aligned, they can pose serious threats to your life, thus increasing the probability of road accidents and fatal injuries. Moreover, they could have the following negative effects:

1. Reduce the battery life of your vehicle
2. Dazzle incoming drivers and make them unable to see you
3. Cause an accident or fire
4. Wear out the front headlight bulbs prematurely.

Possible Consequences of Improper Headlight Alignment

When the headlights are not working in their most appropriate condition, or they are seriously misaligned, then they may be a reason for severe accidental cases. The following are some of the possible consequences you may have to face due to misalignment:

1. Your headlights wattage could be reduced majorly affecting your vehicle badly
2. Visibility of the road could be lowered or extremely increased
3. Headlights can become overheated and get burnt
4. Oncoming road drivers’ eyes could get dazzled and they become unable to see you

If in case, you find your headlights are misaligned and you want to prevent yourself from such accidents and harmful effects, then it is suggested to visit your nearby tyre centre of a reliable company like Rathdowney Quick Fit as soon as possible.