headlight assembly replacement
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New User
Joined: Feb 2017
Posts: 5
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From: Portland OR & Olympia WA
headlight assembly replacement
Hi Guys! I'm hoping this is the right forum because it's definitely an appearance issue. I had the unfortunate experience of having the LF tire on my 03 f350 super duty explode on the freeway, I went into the center strip and took out several of the posts that hold up the three restraining wires. The wires went just under the headlight, took out the turn signal/corner marker and sort of mangled the mount. When I looked for replacements, I'm seeing a difference between composite and sealed beam systems, multiple options for the composite units but naturally, mine is sealed beam and I'm not having much luck. Has anyone done an upgrade from sealed beams to composite?
Senior User
Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 164
Likes: 1
From: Olympia, WA
I had a similar issue with my 99 F150. On one hand I was happy to have to replace the lenses as they were starting to look old, but there is a lot of after market junk out there. Many people will say "stay away from the Chinese stuff" but as I found with my truck, almost all of it was made in China.
I would say I got lucky and bought a set of composite assemblies via ebay. They looked good and still somewhat close to stock, but were only ~$90 for the pair. They were easy enough to replace, and one leaked on the first rain. After adding some sealer to the edges, I never did have any other trouble with them.
As you noted, it seems much of the after market is the composite style vs sealed. For me it came down to a cost issue. If I was not going to replace with OEM, I figured I would be better off getting something not too expensive in case I needed to replace them again, but also not something I knew I would have trouble with (built in cateye lights and other stuff).
Many of those OEM looking aftermarket lights out there are pretty good, but I think they may need a little TLC to make them last.
I would say I got lucky and bought a set of composite assemblies via ebay. They looked good and still somewhat close to stock, but were only ~$90 for the pair. They were easy enough to replace, and one leaked on the first rain. After adding some sealer to the edges, I never did have any other trouble with them.
As you noted, it seems much of the after market is the composite style vs sealed. For me it came down to a cost issue. If I was not going to replace with OEM, I figured I would be better off getting something not too expensive in case I needed to replace them again, but also not something I knew I would have trouble with (built in cateye lights and other stuff).
Many of those OEM looking aftermarket lights out there are pretty good, but I think they may need a little TLC to make them last.
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