aftermarket headlights.....grrrrr...

[Monkeygrits]

I have an LMR OEM style set. They were packaged well, they adjust left and right as well as up and down. Car is a garage queen but they don't leak. I've had a couple pairs a of eBay lights and all of them had fogging and clear coat issues. Plus the beam was screwed up and concentrated on the last set.

 

[01yellercobra]

I had previously ordered a set of smoked head lights off ebay. They never fogged up. I had them 5 or 6 years. They started to fade and had spider web cracks inside. Kinda like when you see paint swirls at the right angle. I ended up getting the stock replacements from LMR so I could actually see at night.

 

[ShaneCobra74]

In my experience, after purchasing two sets of "OEM" lights now, the Ford logo headlights also suck. They fit better than SVE, but not by much. While it might be stamped FORD, its not the same company making the lens that did when our cars were going down the assembly line. Additionally, the headlights on the market are new assemblies, not old stock manufactured in 2002 or 2003. I'd love to get a new set manufactured back then, but its not likely.

On one OEM set, the drivers side rubber strip was contoured short of the fender tip, so it doesn't quite lock into the tip of the fender.

The other OEM set- On one side, the hot plastic glue that assembles the bucket to the lens was overused. Evidently, a huge blob of glue squeezed out and a good amount made its way down and across the face of the lens. It was so bad, I could see it through the packing bag even before I pulled it out of the box. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed off for supposedly "OEM" quality stuff.

Both new "OEM" sets have shards of plastic shavings lodged between the lens and the bucket that are impossible to get out, even with shots of compressed air.

Like many, I subscribed to the idea of 'you get what you pay for' and both times I had issues. It's hit or miss, both OEM and repro. Luckily, at $200 per side, I had great leverage to complain to the vendor and get them exchanged.

So, bottom line- if you go with Ford logo, you might have to return a couple to get the quality you can live with for the price. The odds appear to be 50/50 from my experience.