$1500 to replace headlight?

P

ProspectiveBuyer

Member
I noticed that my headlights were getting a little dim, so I contacted the dealership and they said there's no way to replace the bulb. They said the only way to replace the bulb is to replace the entire headlight unit which runs $1500 per headlight. In other words, it would cost $3000 to replace the two front headlights. Is this true? And has anyone else here had to do this or found a less expensive workaround? I bought my Clarity in 2018.
 
I wonder how much you would increase light intensity and/or decrease remaining life if you increased the voltage to the headlights to maybe 14V-15V?
 
Replacing a headlight is expensive. I repaired accident damage myself, and found the cheapest online headlight assembly was $1,000 - my cost.
 
ProspectiveBuyer said:
I noticed that my headlights were getting a little dim, so I contacted the dealership and they said there's no way to replace the bulb. They said the only way to replace the bulb is to replace the entire headlight unit which runs $1500 per headlight. In other words, it would cost $3000 to replace the two front headlights. Is this true? And has anyone else here had to do this or found a less expensive workaround? I bought my Clarity in 2018.
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There is no bulb. There is a string of LEDs, probably surface mounted to a board. You may be able to find that entire board somewhere, but it's not going to fix anything if the plastic cover the light shines through is all scratched up. Toothpaste and brush cleaned things up a bit for a while on my old CR-V.
 
Robert_Alabama said:
I wonder how much you would increase light intensity and/or decrease remaining life if you increased the voltage to the headlights to maybe 14V-15V?
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With the car in Ready mode and the headlights on, the DC/DC converter sends a voltage to the 12V battery of 14.3-14.4V.
 
Landshark said:
With the car in Ready mode and the headlights on, the DC/DC converter sends a voltage to the 12V battery of 14.3-14.4V.
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I guess the best method might be to check the voltage at the headlight (with them on of course) and then try increasing 10% to see if that is noticeable in light intensity.
 
Landshark said:
By what means do you intend to try to increase the voltage to the headlight?
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I'd probably cut the circuit to each headlight and insert something like this in each one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/354459007449
Of course, you would have to know the load (or at least guess at the watts of each headlight) so as to not overload the DC/DC device. Not recommending this as you could fry your headlights if they aren't designed to handle the higher voltage. Mostly just pondering.
 
teslarati97 said:
All we know is that both headlights will be in specifications for as little as $3,000.
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Hypothetically, let’s say you were to answer the question. Would that answer be yes or no?

It’s obvious that the headlights could be replaced for $2K-$3K. Are you suggesting replacing them for $3K or polishing them for $3K?

What we do know is that the OP has noticed the headlights as getting dim. Until the cause has been determined, I wouldn’t recommend spending even $15 on a headlight restoration kit, or buying a polisher, or paying someone to do the polishing.
 
Landshark said:
There are advantages to giving some thought to a proposal prior to acting on those impulses.
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Good advice. After reading a little about LED headlights, I think there is a high probability that the headlights have a voltage regulator built into them to protect the LEDs (probably part of the reason for the high price). If so, there is no benefit to increasing source voltage, as the regulator would just adjust it back to 12V. If you increased voltage too much, you could burn out the regulator and of course the headlight in the process...
 
My Clarity's headlights never seemed very powerful, but after getting my MINI Cooper SE, the headlights of the Clarity (with only 14K miles and not much night driving--so almost unused) seemed even less powerful. Perhaps the OP had the same experience after being in a car with more powerful headlights.

The night I brought my MINI Electric home from the dealer, I accidentally flashed the brights. The next day my neighbor across the street told me she had seen a lightning flash that curiously wasn't followed by a thunderclap.
 
I am all for technological progress, but after seeing this thread, I think the Clarity(and likely other vehicles too) have taken a giant step backwards in some areas and this is an example...

Perhaps they feel that making this a unique (and very high priced) integrated assembly is justified because it should outlast the vehicle? I would beg to differ... LED's have always carried the promise of super long life compared to incandescent (or compact fluorescent at home), but in my experience, they seem to fail at a similar rate as the old bulbs. At least the home bulbs have reached a 'throw-away' price point.

You can get replacement halogen (incandescent) bulbs for conventional headlights for less than $10 each. You can get replacement LED bulbs for conventional headlights for less than $25 each. I feel it is lunacy to expect an integrated headlight assembly like this to last a 'lifetime' and to have to pay $1500 (not counting any labor) to repair / replace a failed headlamp is nuts !!!
 
My Clarity headlights are barely even sufficient in my opinion. But the thing about LED's is that most have 20k to 50k hours lifespan. They may fade in that time, but really not noticeable until about 10k hours. That would be 200-300k Miles or so. And what about the side mirrors? I had one broken (I still think a manufacturing defect) and it cost $750 to replace due to a $1 plastic part breaking. And this was the drivers side without the camera. That $12 camera probably adds another $500.
I should part the thing out instead of sell it. Might be worth an extra $50k.
 
Bryan Keil said:
But the thing about LED's is that most have 20k to 50k hours lifespan
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Although this sort of thing is often cited, the LED's themselves are just one element. For instance, in a household light bulb, there are quite a number of other components including rectifiers, a DC-DC converter, capacitors, not to mention the circuit board, soldering, etc. It is these other things that fail most often (exacerbated by heat) rather than the LED's themselves. I don't know exactly what is in the complicated Clarity headlamp assembly, perhaps less than what is in a residential bulb, but maybe not...
 
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