I have've driving for awhile now and it has always bothered me that why are there lines on the plastic headlight covers and nipple like objects on the edge of the glass ones. Can someone answer this for me. HaHAHA.

 

LMAO!!!

 

I think those nipple looking things on the plastic coveris where they injected the plastics mold.

 

The nipples use to be for storage, so they could stack the lights in containers for shipment and not get scratches of the face of the lens. That might still be their intent.

The lines are to diffuse the light and make the headlight itself more visible at different angles and to throw a bit more light out to the side of the car. It causes the light to refract and be visible on the lens itself. Think about it, if you shine a flashlight on a smooth clean place of glass, the light just goes right through it and doesn't illuminate the glass much. But if you shine that same flashlight through a dirty or scratches pane of glass, the glass pane lights up somewhat, because the different angles of refraction shoot the light out different directions. By causing the lens of the light to glow, you make it more visible to traffic that isn't in the direct path of the light and you cause that glow to illuminate more area around and nearer the light.

The molded lines are less needed now that they have computer design to aid them in shaping the reflector surface of the headlight, so they can better control the directions that the light goes.

 

Yep, the lines are there for beam pattern shaping. The newer cars that have clear lenses and chromed housings rely on the shaping of the reflector planes inside to create the desired beam pattern.

As for the nipples, most dealerships have special headlight alignment tools and many of them use the nipples to properly orient the aiming tools when they're mounted to the headlights, so that when the technician aims the lights, it's done right.

 

So, when I senak out to my car, late at night, and fondle the headlight nipples while I touch my *special* place, I'm just being creepy?

 

hmmmm, sounds pretty normal to me, I do it all the time!

 

Heheh, yep. No cause for concern. Only creepy if you're smeared in peanut butter and have your teddy bear out there to watch.