When a car’s headlight goes out, replacing the bulb can be a no-brainer — whether you get professional automotive assistance or decide to tackle it yourself.
But when the headlight cover itself gives you trouble, it can be much more costly to replace the assembly (with estimated costs ranging from $30 all the way up into the thousands).
So when headlights fog up, from dirt, road debris, and clogged water vapor, it can be tempting to put car maintenance on the back shelf.
However, it’s not something drivers should put off, especially when foggy headlights make it so much harder to drive safely at night.
Fortunately, for car owners who want to cut costs — and live sustainably — there’s a hack you can try at home that simply takes an orange, a bit of baking soda, and some elbow grease.
Bee, a British Puerto Rican TikTok creator, came across the orange-and-baking-soda hack online, and decided to give it a try herself.
“Okay so this is crazy,” Bee said in the TikTok video, showing viewers the front of her car.
“Look at what they looked like before,” Bee said, pointing at her right headlight. “Horrible and yellow.”
Bee then swiveled the camera over to her left headlight, which was noticeably cleaner.
“I saw this hack that if you use an orange and some baking soda, you can get it to look like this,” Bee said.
She proceeded to share the process on camera, sprinkling a handful of baking soda on the open face of half an orange and scrubbing it generously against the dirty headlight.
In less than a minute, as the acidic reaction worked wonders, both headlights looked as good as new.
“This is crazy, it works!” Bee exclaimed, before going back in to wipe it clean with a microfiber towel.
So next time you’re struggling to see when you drive at night, see if your headlights just need a little TLC (and vitamin C).
Check out Bee’s full video below:
Header images via Bee @simplybiancaalexa / TikTok
