My vehicle, a Nissan Pathfinder, is a 2014 model. It's got almost 160,000 miles on the clock, but is in excellent condition overall, and I plan to drive it until it falls apart. (The Pathfinder's combination of a 3.5L engine and a CVT gearbox is well-known for its reliability, and many have made it past the quarter-million-mile mark.) Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the plastic covers on its headlights. As time passed, they "fogged over", becoming inefficient to the point of being dangerous. I had them restored twice, but they fogged up again within a year or two. This year, I decided the time had come to replace them with new units.
My first sticker shock came when pricing new headlights. Nissan wants about $1,200 for a pair of their OEM units, which is nothing more or less than daylight robbery! New bulbs all round would have added over $100 to that price. I shopped around, and found dealers on eBay offering aftermarket lighting units for much, much less. I ended up buying new headlights and new LED bulbs for a total of about $275 - much more wallet-friendly!
Next came fitting them. It's something anyone reasonably au fait with mechanical work can do for themselves, but given my physical restrictions (I'm partly disabled) I couldn't bend and twist enough to get it done. The local Nissan dealer wanted $400 minimum for the task, and that only if I bought the new headlights from them as well (at full retail price). A local repair shop quoted similarly. Fortunately, I remembered that the local Toyota dealer had recently moved to new premises. There had been a body shop behind their old building, but the operator had left when they did. After some inquiries, it emerged he'd moved his body shop to a tiny town called Temple, Oklahoma, about three-quarters of an hour's drive from my home. A quick phone call, and I arranged to drop my vehicle with him last week to get the work done. He charged $300, including putting new bulbs in the rear lights, installing a front spoiler (which I supplied) on the hood, and fixing a broken connection. The Nissan dealership wanted over $600 for all that work, so I thought half-price was pretty reasonable overall.
While delivering the vehicle to him, my wife and I spotted this on the back of an older building on the town's main street. Click the image for a larger view.
Laughing, we decided we had to try it; so next day, when we went to collect the vehicle, we stopped at the Rockin' H Steakhouse and Saloon. It's a pretty typical small-town steakhouse, with only US beers and not much variety; but the portions on the menu are ginormous, and well cooked, too. I had the smaller of their chicken-fried steaks, and I reckon (given its thickness as well as its size) there was a good pound of meat on my plate. (I asked for the brown gravy, instead of the traditional white - I prefer it.)
My wife ordered the 12-ounce ribeye. Given its thickness, we both thought there was more than 12oz. of meat there.
Neither of us could finish our portions, so we brought them home for feasting on later this past weekend. They were every bit as good the second time around.
The long and the short of it is, if you need a body shop in or near southern Oklahoma, Calfy Dent is a good choice; and if you want a good steak while you wait for your car, Rockin' H Steakhouse and Saloon is a good place to find one - despite their erroneous, albeit humorous advertising! (Neither outfit is compensating me in any way for mentioning them: I just like to tell my readers about good deals when I find them.)
Peter
Wow, those are pricey headlights.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I had to replace a headlight, I bought it from Rock Auto. I've also found reasonable prices on eBay and Amazon recently for other automotive parts.
Jonathan
Brown gravy on chicken fried steak is only acceptable in the occupied territories of North Texas (Oklahoma).
ReplyDeleteHey, put some PPF (Paint Protective Film) over the plastic - it'll protect it from grit and UV. The lights on my 2018 VW are perfectly clear. And if you have to replace the PPF it's <$50.
ReplyDeleteCarParts.com has been a big help to us. My oldest has trashed two rear view mirrors and my wife has done the same. Factory new ones (with headed, folding, etc) can run nearly $1000 each. The CarParts versions are not quite as nice but you would have to disassemble it to tell the difference. And for $125 instead of $770, I’ll take it.
ReplyDeleteExpat- I gave him the link and he'd gotten them installed too. And yes, TWO nice finds!
ReplyDeleteMy Toyota Tacoma's from-Toyota headlights are $850 per unit. Yes, they are crazy expensive.
ReplyDeleteTXRed
I'll throw in an option that might save a few bucks. It's based on my time in a business...
ReplyDeleteBuffing headlights can bring them back, but you are leaving a relatively soft plastic surface. That's why they are ready to do again in only a year.
The trick is to buff them, and then have a body shop hit them with a two-part hard clear. The same stuff they put over most paint jobs these days. If you can wait till they know they are shooting a vehicle in clear, they can just shoot your dismounted lights along with it for fairly cheap.
You can buy 2 part clear coat cans as well. Valve on bottom for mixing integral/internal. And valve on top for standard spray.
DeleteI spray DEET mosquito repellant on the lenses and wipe them dry with a clean shop rag. Not brand new, but considerably brighter than the frosted lens that was.
ReplyDeleteCar wax on the plastic helps them last longer also.
ReplyDeleteTom762
Be aware that there can be fitment problems with any of the non-oem headlites and corner lights. Tried several brands for a Toy Sequoia, of increasing cost, before getting a correct mounting fit. When the mounting hole is off by more than a half diameter, that's a bad assembly or mold. The second set was closer. If it was my vehicle, I might have tried modifying them to make it work. Third set was the charm. The more expensive #2 and #3 sets already had all the bulbs installed.
ReplyDeleteI can understand why the shops would charge so much, it's not like swapping in an old sealed beam type of headlite.
Hey Peter,
ReplyDeleteI had replaced the headlights on my recently sold 99 F150 about 8 years ago and did "Led"s" all around and the aftermarket Ebay headlights never hazed over. They still looked good when I finally sold my truck last month. To me, they were a heck of a value and made the ride a bit more individualistic so it looked a bit less like any other 99 F150 around. The same might be said for your Nissan. You may want to consider changing all the inner dome lights with LED's, the change of brightness was amazing, I did the same thing with the door lights. Night and day difference and 8 years later they still worked.
My car's windows would fall down. After I got a price and shuddered the mechanic told me what it needed and the cost. Found the part on Ebay for $45. Ordered and went back and they installed for another $75. Far, far less than the original quote. Did 3 of my car windows that way.
ReplyDeleteYeah, no. I think I'll try the Cerakote headlight kit for about $15 first.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001TI5IIQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
ReplyDeleteThat, some elbow grease, and reseal. Save a ton of money and not deal with wonky, poor quality, poor fitting chinesium knock-off lights.
OEM reflector assemblies are almost always superior to aftermarket for both even/appropriate/lawful light distribution and durability.
ReplyDeleteTo maintain ours and doesn't strip clearcoat, we use Formula 1's Scratch Off (believe a Scotty Kilmer vid recommendation originally) once or twice a year (our cars aren't garaged so in TX Sun all the time). Believe he also recommended Megular's Headlight Coating spray that we've had mixed success with (can cause a bit of a haze when applied). I prefer Megular's older Headlight Protectant liquid instead, but requires more frequent application than the spray.
For really oxidized assemblies, especially where you need to remove the original charcoal, I find the 3M kit to be best, though you can do much the same by just buying sand paper of similar grits and wet sanding before polishing.
For bulbs, I'd highly recommend against LEDs -- and point you to the Daniel Stern Lighting website to learn more. We generally run Phillips Vision Plus bulbs as both cost and visually effective, in part due to his recommendation.
Good luck!
*autocorrect grrr -- original clearcoat, not charcoal
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