Where should I look for new headlights?

[steelcity]

My one has been getting worse with moisture. Initially I wanted to bake them and paint the housing black....but I'm not touching that one. I'll screw it up. I couldn't find anyone out here that does it either. So what are my choices?

[Ilya]

EBay. Unless you want to pay the dealer insane prices (higher than the already insane EBay ones).

[Larz]

Ilya is right. Ebay is probably the best, but you have to hope the unit they sell won't also have a moisture problem after installing it. Going anywhere besides the dealer will have that risk, but the difference in price is worth the risk. Also make sure you know if you need the standard halogen unit or the AFS unit before shopping.
I seem to remember that someone removed theirs, added extra sealant on the edges and that fixed the issues without baking it and taking it apart.

[Ilya]

I miss the days of buying 'depot' lights for my Nissan Maxima for $150 for the set. Why are luxury car headlights $800 a piece at times? WTF makes them so special? The projector? It can be purchased separately for like $50/ea projector.

[MOWellsinVA]

The last repair I had done under my Elite extended warranty was to replace a leaky headlight that I had been complaining to the dealer about since I bought the car (used). I finally printed out the TSB on the issue and took the car to the dealer on a rainy day to show them that it wasn't just "fogging" but big droplets of water. They caved and replaced the headlight. I hate to think it would have cost out of warranty.

[blfolson]

I have a good driver side headlight AFS Xenon if anyone needs it.I have never seem moisture in it

[steelcity]

There's no aftermarket route? Ive been looking on ebay for a while.....they are very expensive.

Mine aren't with the projector. Would it be an issue to get the ones with the projector?

[Ilya]

There's no aftermarket route? Ive been looking on ebay for a while.....they are very expensive.

Mine aren't with the projector. Would it be an issue to get the ones with the projector?

All M's are projector based headlights as opposed to reflector based. You just don't have High Intensity Discharge (HID)/Xenon bulbs shining through those projectors.

[steelcity]

There's no aftermarket route? Ive been looking on ebay for a while.....they are very expensive.

Mine aren't with the projector. Would it be an issue to get the ones with the projector?

All M's are projector based headlights as opposed to reflector based. You just don't have High Intensity Discharge (HID)/Xenon bulbs shining through those projectors.

I used the wrong word. I know they're projector based but I was told that some do come with the ballasts for the HID's, which makes them a little different. I guess they come from the cars that were bought from the dealership with the HID's included.

[Ilya]

Correct, but that is irrelevant. The projector is the basically the same (just accepts a different type bulb).

You can get an HID headlight so long as you are willing to convert your car from the 9007 bulb type (memory is foggy, that may or may not be the low beam bulb type of a Non-HID M) to D2S (the bulb type used by the HID housing).

[steelcity]

Right now I have the HID bulbs for the low beam and fog lights. They're fine. They go out once in a while and I heard if you have the factory HID's, they rarely go out because of their ballasts.

[Ilya]

It depends on the quality of the HID bulbs/ballasts. If you get something from TheRetrofitSource and properly install them, they'll never go out. If you get $20 EBay sets, then yes, they will fail a lot.

[steelcity]

It depends on the quality of the HID bulbs/ballasts. If you get something from TheRetrofitSource and properly install them, they'll never go out. If you get $20 EBay sets, then yes, they will fail a lot.

Thats good to know.