LX470 Glass Headlight Lens Replacement
- Thread starter gwilsterman
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I’m struggling to find glass replacement lenses. So far:
- I ordered one from AliExpress. Listing said “glass” but a plastic lens was delivered.
- ordered another from eBay. Listing said “glass” but seller shipped plastic.
- I contacted roughly 10 other eBay sellers where the listings were unclear about the material or they said “glass”. Most returned my messages and all of those confirmed “plastic” (despite their listings saying “glass”). It seems clear that Chinese sellers simply copy and paste verbiage with no regard to accuracy. I’m actually pretty aggravated by this since it’s a form of bait and switch.
I really don’t want to have to buy entire Chinese aftermarket headlights just to get glass. Also can’t afford to pay dealer pricing if I’ll just end up breaking another lens on a group run.
I’m open to any advice at all…
- I ordered one from AliExpress. Listing said “glass” but a plastic lens was delivered.
- ordered another from eBay. Listing said “glass” but seller shipped plastic.
- I contacted roughly 10 other eBay sellers where the listings were unclear about the material or they said “glass”. Most returned my messages and all of those confirmed “plastic” (despite their listings saying “glass”). It seems clear that Chinese sellers simply copy and paste verbiage with no regard to accuracy. I’m actually pretty aggravated by this since it’s a form of bait and switch.
I really don’t want to have to buy entire Chinese aftermarket headlights just to get glass. Also can’t afford to pay dealer pricing if I’ll just end up breaking another lens on a group run.
I’m open to any advice at all…
I bought entirely new glass lenses and housings from Bell Lexus in Scottsdale. Buy them when they are on sale.. Possibly a Labor Day Sale will occur soon. Buy the thick adhesive lens vinyl from WeatherTech.
I appreciate your insight though I’m not sure which dealer parts you’re referring to exactly. I thought I’d searched the net pretty throughly and only found that entire headlight assemblies were available at the dealer. Options being either 1998-2002 with glass lenses or 2003-2007 with plastic lenses. These are options I plan to avoid due to the high cost and risk of reoccurring breakage. My plan was to replace individual lenses on an as needed basis and even install a HID or LED projector upgrade kit when I broke another lens down the road.
When you mentioned glass lenses and housings from Bell Lexus, did you mean that the dealer offers the glass separately for DIY lens replacement? That’s the kind of option that I’m looking for.
Cheers
If you want just the glass look for a used assembly on eBay or marketplace and swap out the glass. I just did this on my 100. I was nervous going into it, but it was actually pretty easy. If it’s not you didn’t cook it enough.
Don’t try to reuse the sealant. Sealant is readily available on Amazon and the old sealant is going to be full of junk.
I do like this option. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find any used glass assemblies for sale either in my local area or online. I need a LHD driver’s side in case anybody knows of one for sale. There’s also the risk of used glass being pitted and cosmetically damaged to a point that I’d be left unsatisfied.
Other than a hole in the low beam, the rest are virtually perfect and I do plan to apply protection film once I’ve been able to complete a glass repair. I certainly want to mitigate the risk of future breakage and would like perfect glass before PPF. I can do spot chip repairs with windshield resin but filling a hundred tiny spots in pitted glass wouldn’t really be a feasible option.