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Headlight woes

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Evolving_sti

Proven Member
404
272
Apr 28, 2019
DANBURY, Connecticut
I've been having the worst luck with my driver side headlight. When I bought my DSM the driver side had a small leak and caused some condensation buildup. I bought some dorman replacements. The passenger side had no leaks but unfortunately the driver side was terrible
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Dorman lights for the driver side are damn near impossible to find now. Tried parts geek, amazon, rockauto.
So I found this company on ebay thay offered a 10 yr warranty for their products. Decided to give it a shot. Received the light today and look at this awful craftsmanship. How can this even be put into a box?? I have no problem spending money on oem parts but because of the age of these cars my fear of a leak or getting a yellowed headlight worried me. But after 2 failed attempts with knock offs. (Thought dorman was a legit company). Im gona try getting an oem used and see if my luck changes.
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IMHO Dorman has always had poor quality parts - I always avoid them. They sell because they always have a cheaper price, and this is the USA where 95% of the people buy on price, not quality, so they stay in business.
I bought a doorhandle from dorman and it works great. And it was the only "known" company i could find. Everything else is no named. I went on some mitsubishi parts websites. They have the light assembly listed for sale. I doubt they have it, but I placed an order for a new headlight through Renn Kirby Mitsubishi. Im sure ill get an email tomorrow that its not in stock. But worth a shot.
 
Honestly, I would just heat up the housing and separate the halves. Clean all the old sealant out, and reseal it properly with the correct sealant, and amount. It's bullshit that you'd have to do all that work for a newly purchased item, but it may be the only way to keep from wasting it.
 
Honestly, I would just heat up the housing and separate the halves. Clean all the old sealant out, and reseal it properly with the correct sealant, and amount. It's bullshit that you'd have to do all that work for a newly purchased item, but it may be the only way to keep from wasting it.
I'm sending this back. I ordered a new oem one from mitsubishi. I highly doubt its in stock. Once they cancel my order theres a few oem ones on ebay that don't look to bad. Will just restore it and hopefully it doesn't leak.
 
I bought a set of aftermarket housings that might have been Dorman when I did my projector retrofit. The quality was not great (and one of the levelers came pre-stripped) but the first thing that I did when I got them was remove the lenses and clean out the sealant. They've been completely dry for the 20 months that I've had them now. I would never trust aftermarket lighting unless I was planning to modify them anyway.
 
In my opinion, I would just get an OEM one. Most of the OE style aftermarket ones may be new, but the light output is not the same. I'm referring to the way the aftermarket headlights reflector "bowls" are cut vs OEM. The aftermarket ones just don't seem to have a "good" beam pattern, like the OEM ones. It doesn't matter how clean your headlight lens is or how bright your bulbs are, if you don't have a good beam pattern to focus the light down the road, then what's the point.
 
In my opinion, I would just get an OEM one. Most of the OE style aftermarket ones may be new, but the light output is not the same. I'm referring to the way the aftermarket headlights reflector "bowls" are cut vs OEM. The aftermarket ones just don't seem to have a "good" beam pattern, like the OEM ones. It doesn't matter how clean your headlight lens is or how bright your bulbs are, if you don't have a good beam pattern to focus the light down the road, then what's the point.

The dorman one shot out nicely . Really nice actually with the bulbs I have.
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But now with all the water it looks like this. It has this yellow tint to it. I hope my bulb isn't damaged. But I got an oem one coming for the driver side.
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That picture of the glare is...not great.

I love the selective yellow fogs, though.

Which picture you mean? The one with the yellowish to it now? Now my driver side doesn't even come close to shooting out as far as the passenger side. The passenger side goes really far to light the road but now the driver side is nowhere close. I hope the water didn't ruin the bulb. They were expensive.
 
The picture of your headlights just shows glare. If you want to show the headlights working effectively, show the beam pattern on a wall instead of looking right at the headlights. The OE Stanley headlights had a shockingly good beam pattern for a halogen reflector. I didn't check the beam pattern in my aftermarket housings because I cut them up as soon as I got them but hopefully yours would be similar. That was the before picture, before water tinted the lens or reflector?

WRT bulbs. Just check for corrosion on the metal parts and clean the glass with alcohol before using them heavily. If they don't start corroding then they'll be fine.
 
The picture of your headlights just shows glare. If you want to show the headlights working effectively, show the beam pattern on a wall instead of looking right at the headlights. The OE Stanley headlights had a shockingly good beam pattern for a halogen reflector. I didn't check the beam pattern in my aftermarket housings because I cut them up as soon as I got them but hopefully yours would be similar. That was the before picture, before water tinted the lens or reflector?

WRT bulbs. Just check for corrosion on the metal parts and clean the glass with alcohol before using them heavily. If they don't start corroding then they'll be fine.

Yes your right. Now its not worth taking pictures because the drivers side headlight has all that yellow tint. Maybe ill take one to show the difference between the clear lense and the bad one.
 
Took some pics to show the beams. Still is light outside and u can see the reach. Except for my fogged up headlight which is god awful.
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So I ended up getting an oem. My mechanic buffed it but the inside of the bulb the black was faded due to age i suppose. He was able to locate me a dorman replacement. So he installed the dorman and is gona send my fogged up dorman back as defective. So only paid for shipping. Hopefully this one is sealed properly
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