Skip to the end if you're only interested in my observations.
I unfortunately didn't take any pictures so you'll have to take my word for it. My sister drives a hand-me-down 2005 Toyota Camry that's been in the family since it was purchased new in 2005. The car is parked outside so the headlights have gotten a bit cloudy from sun damage. I looked at various headlight refinishing kits from 3M and the like but it seemed as though all of them only yielded temporary results since they invariably removed the protective hard-coat from the lights. This lead me to look at replacing the headlights.
I priced out a set of OEM Toyota lights which came to over $200 each plus tax or shipping, depending from whom I bought them from. Feeling I could perhaps do reasonably well with aftermarket lamps, I did some research and found that DEPO-branded lights were received favorably by people who had used them, and the price was right- around $75 each. I bought the non-CAPA versions since thinking that would be the version most people would buy themselves and that the quality would be acceptable, if not good.
The lights came relatively quickly and I opted to go ahead and install them in my garage. I marked off the edges of the beams from the factory headlights on the garage door for both comparison and alignment, and then proceeded to replace only the driver's side headlight. Fitment was good although not great and it was a bear to seat the light properly in the car and get the screw-holes to match-up with the corresponding holes in the car. Upon turning on the lights I immediately noticed a lot of light scattered above where the original light's output had been. Hoping it could be improved through aligning the light, I raised the beam slightly until the outline of the bulk of the light matched the factory lamp. There was still a lot of stray light where it should not have been, as well as the beam from the headlight being more narrow than the factory lamp. Disappointed in the lights, I opted to return them to the seller for a full-refund.
I'm now going to simply refinish the headlights with the 3M kit and get some sort of protective film to prevent future damage to the lamps.
What have your experiences been with aftermarket lights? Do they mirror my own?
I unfortunately didn't take any pictures so you'll have to take my word for it. My sister drives a hand-me-down 2005 Toyota Camry that's been in the family since it was purchased new in 2005. The car is parked outside so the headlights have gotten a bit cloudy from sun damage. I looked at various headlight refinishing kits from 3M and the like but it seemed as though all of them only yielded temporary results since they invariably removed the protective hard-coat from the lights. This lead me to look at replacing the headlights.
I priced out a set of OEM Toyota lights which came to over $200 each plus tax or shipping, depending from whom I bought them from. Feeling I could perhaps do reasonably well with aftermarket lamps, I did some research and found that DEPO-branded lights were received favorably by people who had used them, and the price was right- around $75 each. I bought the non-CAPA versions since thinking that would be the version most people would buy themselves and that the quality would be acceptable, if not good.
The lights came relatively quickly and I opted to go ahead and install them in my garage. I marked off the edges of the beams from the factory headlights on the garage door for both comparison and alignment, and then proceeded to replace only the driver's side headlight. Fitment was good although not great and it was a bear to seat the light properly in the car and get the screw-holes to match-up with the corresponding holes in the car. Upon turning on the lights I immediately noticed a lot of light scattered above where the original light's output had been. Hoping it could be improved through aligning the light, I raised the beam slightly until the outline of the bulk of the light matched the factory lamp. There was still a lot of stray light where it should not have been, as well as the beam from the headlight being more narrow than the factory lamp. Disappointed in the lights, I opted to return them to the seller for a full-refund.
I'm now going to simply refinish the headlights with the 3M kit and get some sort of protective film to prevent future damage to the lamps.
What have your experiences been with aftermarket lights? Do they mirror my own?
