Cloudy headlights on a nearly 20-year-old car

Q. I have a 2006 Toyota Solara with 200,000 miles with cloudy headlights. I’ve tried all the commercial remedies for the headlights, with poor results. I once replaced the headlights on a Honda Civic. It was challenging, but successful. Replacement headlamps for the Solara are about $200 each. Ouch! What if I replaced the bulbs with higher intensity bulbs?  This is what I think my options are, since I don’t drive the car as much: Donate it to a charity, sell it for peanuts, or knuckle under and spend the big bucks and fix it.

A. I have a 15-year-old car with cloudy headlights and found the Sylvania headlight restoration kit worked pretty well. It is a bit of work, and you do need to closely follow the directions, but I found the end results were worth it. Brighter bulbs which have a shorter life likely won’t do much good. Think of shining a flashlight through sunglasses. Even the light from brighter bulbs will be filtered by the headlamp lens. I would also stay away from LED bulbs; they can cause issues with the car’s electrical system, and are not legal for on-road use. If you like the car and it runs well, and you drive it at night, I would spend the money on the replacement lamps. You are correct – a good set of lamp assemblies that meet OEM quality are pricey, $175 each online, and are a bit of work to install. Still, $400 to see better at night, to me, is money well spent. 

Q. I have gently used Bridgestone Blizzaks 225/55 R18 winter tires that are no longer needed for a car we relocated to Florida. Another vehicle we have, a 2023 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX-Prestige has 235/60 R18 tires on it. I’d like to run the Blizzaks on it for 3-4 months so I looked up the percent difference in speedometer and odometer readings. They aren’t significant to me for that period of time, and I wanted to know if there were any other issues you could think of that might be a problem running the slightly smaller tires. I’d actually just like to mount the snow permanently on basic/inexpensive wheels. Tire Rack only has a fitment in 17-inch steel.  They have much fancier wheels showing to fit the car at 18 inches. The specs I found for the OEM wheel are 7.5J x 18 ET 51 with an offset range of 49-53 and a 5 x 114.3 bolt pattern. How critical is the offset range (only a few fall into it) at 7.5 wide? Lastly, besides Tire Rack, any ideas to find inexpensive wheels?

A. The speedometer difference is only 1-2 miles per hour at lower speeds and should not cause any issue. The other issue may be with the sidewall and overall height. The Kia Sportage, which has a bit of a stiff ride, will become harsh with the smaller tires, due to less sidewall height. Regarding the wheels, in addition to the cost of the wheels you will also need to clone a set of tire pressure monitors for the winter wheels. On some cars if the TPMS system shows an error it won’t allow the all-wheel-drive or traction control systems to work properly. Regarding wheels, perhaps try eBay motors or a salvage yard and get the stock wheels. Obviously the 17-inch steel wheels won’t work with the 18-inch tires, so you would need fancier replacements. Regarding the offset, it is a bit of trial and error. Blizzacks or other dedicated winter tires are great, but in this case if it were my car I would sell the winter tires and either get the proper fit or see how the car performs in winter with the standard tires and the AWD system.

Q. I was wondering if you could recommend a trickle charger for a 2001 Mercedes SLK Kompressor that will be spending the next few months hibernating in an unheated and untended garage. I enjoy your column and thank you for your time and attention.

A. There are many battery charger maintainers, but two that I can easily recommend and also use are the Battery Tender by Deltran (Battery Tender Junior and the larger unit). Both work quite well and don’t require any additional attention. The other is by CTEK, which is also a “smart” battery charger and a very well-designed product.

Q. I bought a 2023 Nissan Frontier a week ago with 24,000 miles on it. It was apparently first put in service in early 2023.  With all the cold in the morning, I am noticing it is making a “tinkling” sound when I turn it off that continues for a short time. I don’t think this is normal. I am bringing it into the dealership for other work next week and asked them to listen to it. What could be causing this? The sound reminds me of the electric base board heaters warming up.

A. Great analogy with the baseboard heater because I believe it is the same noise. It is more than likely the heat shield on the catalytic converter expanding and contracting as it heats and cools. This is quite normal and happens on many vehicles. 

John Paul is AAA Northeast’s Car Doctor. He has over 40 years of experience in the automotive business and is an ASE-certified master technician. E-mail your Car Doctor question to [email protected]. Listen to the Car Doctor podcast at johnfpaul.podbean.com.