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Stupid aftermarket headlights/park lights


someotherguy

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So I really dig clear reflector style housings, tried to ignore that I knew they were gonna be crap. Got some from eBay (VIPMOTOZ) and they looked OK at first. Some of y'all have seen me post here in the past that I later noticed after installing HID's that the headlights had a weird smoky look to the lens, that appeared to be on the inside. Also the park lights didn't fit as well as I hoped; I had to space the retaining clip by jamming a screw into it on each side to keep them from just falling out of the grille. That worked fine but just irritated me a bit.

 

A few months later I noticed the passenger side park light fogging up all the time, fairly typical. It just finally began flaking the chrome off the reflector a couple weeks ago. Then all of a sudden without any history of fogging up, the driver's side park light fogged up and almost instantly began flaking the chrome!

 

At the same time I noticed a big spot cracking/peeling in the clearcoat on the driver's side headlight...yeah, the foggy look was really badly applied clearcoat. The lens is normal appearing underneath. They'd look fine once the clear is removed (and re-done so the lenses would last.)

 

But ya know what? Screw this aftermarket junk. I just ordered all OEM GM lenses on Amazon. Cost me $340 total for all 4 but that's cheaper than most places for OEM. Can't have my truck looking like ass because of some clapped-out lenses that aren't but 1.5 years old.

 

Richard

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I noticed the same thing the plugs don't even come close to fitting the way they should providing next to nothing for a decent seal if not falling out of the housing all together plus the front lens starts pealing like a sunburnt clear coat the plastic they use is so cheap that your lucky if you can install them without breaking off one of the tabs on the bottom of the headlights I also had one of the low beam shields break off of the passenger side low beam bulb after what I'm guessing is from hitting the occasional New England side of the road pot holes sucks they can't make quality stuff doesn't make me a repeat customer it makes me not wanna buy them ever again just can't beat oem quality last 10 years longer then the quality they are at it's pretty sad.

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You can see the "smoky" look overall, as well as the peeled clearcoat spot in front of the high beam -

 

06SS_071s.jpg

 

Totally fogged-up park lens that the chrome immediately flaked, that's all the sparklies down in the corner -

 

06SS_072s.jpg

 

Oh well. The whole set was like $85 shipped, get what you pay for, and sometimes less!

 

Richard

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You can see the "smoky" look overall, as well as the peeled clearcoat spot in front of the high beam -

 

06SS_071s.jpg

 

Totally fogged-up park lens that the chrome immediately flaked, that's all the sparklies down in the corner -

 

06SS_072s.jpg

 

Oh well. The whole set was like $85 shipped, get what you pay for, and sometimes less!

 

Richard

how did you get the LED blinkers to work? I've heard they give hyper flash issues, I'm trying to research this so when I decide to go this route on my SS I don't have double fast blink.

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http://www.silveradoss.com/forums/topic/88631-need-help-with-led-front-turn-signal-lamps/?hl=flasher&do=findComment&comment=986955

 

See posts #4, #13, #14 in there. Easy either way you go; LED flasher or simple hack to your existing one.

 

Richard

 

 

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Just bought my 3rd set of parking lower housings. This one from GM Direct. One of them got a few drops on first car wash. These were not cheap. OEM. I took it out and put a new load of black silicone around lens and used a good dose of duct tape around where the lamps plug in. It and the other one have been OK so far.

Original set worked with no leaks for years and finally started to fog and get hazy on the lens.

I bought two sets on eBay and first one lasted several years. Second set not so good.

It don't make shit whether the corners are clear or amber as far as I can tell. They will all leak. Oh and I put some silicone on the lamp sockets.

Never have been able to tell for sure where it gets in at but it seems like the duct tape and silicone around the lamp sockets helps.

On the bright side my headlamps have never leaked or hazed up. One of them has just started to get a little haze at the very top.

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Yeah, the park lights on the truck when I bought it were OEM and showed signs of leaking, but they were pretty beat so I replaced them anyway. I do plan on siliconing the new OEM replacements.

 

The aftermarket headlights wouldn't have been so bad if not for the rotten clearcoat. Hoping the OEM's have a better light pattern, anyway. Guess I'm gonna learn to live without clear reflectors on this truck, since I don't want to tear open the OEM lenses to replace those.

 

Richard

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New OEM lights installed, not much to see just some stock lenses that aren't all jacked up yet. :)

 

Did notice the park lights have a ton of black silicone already on them right out of the box. So much that it's actually oozing out in a few places. I also put some thought into my "4 blinker" mod and temporarily un-did it in case the poor fit of the socket was letting some of the moisture in. The housing is keyed for the DRL socket so when you try to hack a turn signal socket into it, you can make it fit reasonably well, but it doesn't "squeak" tight with the gasket like the DRL socket does.

 

Park lights were made in Mexico...headlights were made in China. Already expected that, learned from 1fastbrick as he found the same when he bought all new GM lights for the silver truck. Overall though they do seem obviously higher quality than the aftermarket crap I removed, particularly in the keepers for the headlight bulbs. My HID's fit loose in the aftermarket low beam position; on these I had to loosen the screws on the keepers to get the HID bulb installed then tighten the keepers back up.

 

Richard

Edited by someotherguy (see edit history)
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  • 8 months later...

Installed these headlights back in March but never got around to adjusting them until now. I used to literally drive the truck 2-3 miles a day, now I'm driving almost 50 miles a night 5 times a week...so it was becoming obvious I needed to adjust them a little as they're aimed too low.

 

Stuck my Torx 15 screwdriver into the driver's side adjuster and the screw shattered with almost no effort at all. Nice. Enough of the screw was still there that I was able to put an e-torx socket onto it and try again, no dice, the mechanism is stripped. Screw turns, headlight doesn't move.

 

Tried to get a refund from the Amazon seller (OEM-GM which is allegedly a web storefront for a GM dealer) and they denied it instantly because it's been too long. I understand that, but jeezus. First time I touch the adjuster screw and it literally fell apart.

 

F'ing junk...had to order another, but believe me I used a different seller, and will be adjusting it the moment I install it.

Richard

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Installed these headlights back in March but never got around to adjusting them until now. I used to literally drive the truck 2-3 miles a day, now I'm driving almost 50 miles a night 5 times a week...so it was becoming obvious I needed to adjust them a little as they're aimed too low.

 

Stuck my Torx 15 screwdriver into the driver's side adjuster and the screw shattered with almost no effort at all. Nice. Enough of the screw was still there that I was able to put an e-torx socket onto it and try again, no dice, the mechanism is stripped. Screw turns, headlight doesn't move.

 

Tried to get a refund from the Amazon seller (OEM-GM which is allegedly a web storefront for a GM dealer) and they denied it instantly because it's been too long. I understand that, but jeezus. First time I touch the adjuster screw and it literally fell apart.

 

F'ing junk...had to order another, but believe me I used a different seller, and will be adjusting it the moment I install it.

Richard

They only have a 12 month warranty.....

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They only have a 12 month warranty.....

And I bought 'em in late February, installed in March, so who do I talk to about warranty? :( Amazon doesn't seem to give a lot of options if requesting a return through the seller is denied.

 

Edit - after digging through a bunch of different pages on Amazon I've submitted a request to their customer service. Manufacturer warranty not specified on the page for the headlight I bought, so we'll see what happens. Just pisses me off to spend $125+ship on a headlight and the first time I try to adjust it, it breaks immediately.

 

Richard

Edited by someotherguy (see edit history)
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Yeah the only complaint I have about amazon is its hard to contact someone. I had a problem recently and got someone at a call center in India. They did get problem taken care of so I would keep looking into and get it covered

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  • 6 months later...

Wow; I forgot to update this topic with the outcome. That seller, OEM-GM did actually end up covering me on the warranty. I sent them the old headlight along with a copy of the invoice from the new one I bought (from another seller) and they submitted it back to GM, and did eventually issue me a check for what I paid for the replacement - so that was very cool.

 

Now to the current news: the replacement headlight I got...in November just last year...is already turning to crap. Keep in mind this is a real GM headlight that I paid $136 for. The clearcoat is peeling; got a patch about the size of a quarter coming off, towards the lower inside corner. There's actually another patch a little over towards the middle but it's impossible to make it show up in the pic.

 

06SS_090s.jpg

 

Guess I get to try that warranty process out again, with another dealer.

 

Richard

Edited by someotherguy (see edit history)
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