CLmadness

I have a 2001 CL that had the passenger headlight out. I had the same issue on the driver's side a few months earlier and that ran me about $700 if I remember correctly, but it looks brand new.

I went to another shop, highly recommended by someone and paid $600 for an obviously refurbished light (scratches inside the lens, and nowhere near as clear as the driver's side). I was told it would be refurbished, but didn't expect it to look obvious. The mechanic told me if I wanted it to look as good as the driver's side it would cost $100's more. I was stuck without a car so I couldn't go to the other guys across town.

My question is, and hopefully someone in here knows the answer...What would the worst case scenario cost me if I wanted to replace everything that could be wrong with brand new parts (ballast, assembly, labor, whatever else may be needed)?

Had I known these lights would be so expensive to replace, I probably wouldn't have bought the car by the way. Noone can believe it should cost so much for lights.

By the way, I kind of feel that they just took it out, cleaned it up as well as they could and repaired the issue without replacing more than the bulb, but I can't prove that.

Thank you in advance,

S

celynka

The thing that goes bad commonly is ballast. It does not require replacement of headlight housing assembly. Dealerships usually charge about $700 for just a ballast replacement, so if you got your headlight looking nice , the might have repolished it as a courtesy. Parts alone are $350 ballast, and $230 housing - @ dealership. Cheapest you can get @ parts.com ballast- $306.56 , housing $ 180, bulbs are various and run from $50 to a $100. That is all, that could have been possibly involved. Labor should not be more than 2 hours - for newbie and half the time for experienced guy. ... the thing is most of the shops want to pop you as much as possible. I could have fix it for $275 with used ballast and $435 new

CLmadness

I appreciate the info. I don't know where you're located, but I'm in South Florida. I guess the damage has already been done, but who knows how long the lights will last. Hopefully as long as I own the car. It just sucks to feel like I got reamed and not much I can do about it at this point. Owning a car without a bumper to bumper warranty feels like gambling these days, unless you're your own mechanic.

Thank you.

HappyVirus

iTrader: (2)

how about those "aftermarket" ballast that they give you when you buy a HID 'kit'. Are those ballast not as good as the stock ballast then? They had the same watt and volt....any difference?