I've tried sorting through a dozen headlight threads and have come out more confused than I started. Here's the problem. My headlight lenses are crap. I have the outside polished up nicely, but they are cracked and pitted. Also, the inside of the lenses have issues. Looks like the plastic has degraded or separated and they look like garbage. Both headlights will have to be replaced. The car has factory xenon lights with washers. I have read various accounts of my options here and need some clarification.

I am not tied to the xenons. I don't really drive at night. Can I swap for any of the aftermarket lights (such as the Spec-D, Helix, or Spyder) most of which are halogen. I don't care if I lose the washers either. I've read on a number of threads that they are plug n play. I've looked at my wiring harness and what I can see on each manufacturer's website and they look the same. Before I waste $3-400, can someone positively confirm one way or the other?

My other question is, has anyone ever tried the headlight restore method on the inside of the lenses? I'm not thinking it would work so well, and I'd at least want to know I had a back up set before I tried. I could probably buy a few more years out of my existing HLs if it worked, but I'm not optimistic about that.

 

i never tried a head light restore on the inside, i personally have spec-d lights, and they are halfway decent, i enjoy them more than the stock halogens, more focused. very plug and play, 3 bolts, and plug in.... and aiming of coarse

i would imagine that there is a slight wiring difference in the xenon lights to halogen, hard to say for sure, somone else may be able to chime into that. unless they use the same connector for the halogens as for the igniter/ballast.

and im sure you can always upgrade the spec-d for xenon, open both up and transfer the projector lenses and housings.

i know there are primarilly two different styles, the 3 light and the 2 light, i have the 2 light

but the 3 light is cheaper, ussually can be found on the bay for 170

 

Like the Helix ones because they look like the 7/2004 Xenon OEM MINI design but are halogen. Also come in different color / finish options for the look you want. For fixing the old ones and separating the lenses, it will take some work. Search joey mods.

Very easy plug n play. You just need to get the halogen bulbs H7 you like / color and gtg. Also manual levels and nice sharp US cutoff on the lights, see pics.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ight-help.html

Al chrome ones look just like the factory with the chrome. As well as the others, they just did not come in black from the factory.





Thanks

 

Thanks. Those are actually the exact ones I am considering. I have done the Joey mod on other lights and are okay with the physical removing of the lenses. The problem is with polishing the inside of the lenses. I'm not sure it would even fix the problem and would likely make it worse.

So as long as I have the right bulbs it should be ok. Do those assemblies (Helix) not come with bulbs? Just want to make sure I order everything at one time.

 

I polished the outside, never seen the polish job on the inside.

On the Helix lights above, they don't come with bulbs , you will need 4 H7 bulbs for the set. 2 upper low beams and two lower high beams. They are linked above also.

Thanks

 

Last I heard, the inside of the plastic is very soft and easily marred so I assume polishing would probably just make the inside of the plastic opaque. If I were to attempt this due to "fogging", I would probably go at it with intentions of spraying something harmless on it, then rinsing it off with water and then using a hair dryer or air dryer to prevent spots/damage.....

 

Sorry to revive this thread but I have found a good deal on a new in the box set of OEM halogen headlights. Two questions, I've read that the aftermarket lights have some quality/durability issues so I wonder if I would not be better off going with the OEM lights. And would the OEM lights be plug and play?

Again, no issues going from xenon to halogen as I don't drive at night much and if I do happen to be out on a dark and stormy night in the boonies, the rally light kit should see me safely through

 

I can tell you the ebay headlights suck at night. I've recently driven two different customers cars that got them and was amazed at how bad they were. So the OEMs can't be a bad option if the price is right. Otherwise we have some nice aftermarket ones that do work pretty well.

 

The OEM halogen are nice and would plug and play, the Helix / Depo ones we carry that are linked above are very nice and they mirror images of the factory ones just minus the xenon and motors. They also have a very sharp clean cut off light on the projector. Check our pics.

Good luck on whatever you decide.

 

Thanks for the responses. I actually just ordered the Helix projectors from you guys at ECS. Turns out the OEM ones were "OEM quality" and a little research on the retailer raised enough questions for me to avoid them.

 

You are welcome. Thanks for the order.