Headlight replacement

Headlight on the left side of my 2010 Tacoma is done. Cracked and leaking through the plastic, burning bulbs once every few months. What would you do to replace? OEM? Cheaper after market direct replacement? LEDs?

Thanks!

 

My experience with oem vs aftermarket has been you spend less for aftermarket, they have some “cool” new looks and accent lights but the main reflectors aren’t as good as the OEM ones that cost more. Specifically the “cut off line” in low beam, my two sets of cheaper aftermarket scattered light everywhere above the cut off line.

Buy what you can afford but OEM in my opinion work best.

good luck!

 

^^^^ Exactly what he said - if you're looking for the best performance. If you're just looking for something that "looks cool," well, aftermarket.

 

OEM, you spend more, but they work for many years flawlessly. Good luck with whatever you do.

 

As an example...
these projectors sucked for light output but looked cool.

and these cheap blacked out sucked more and scatter light everywhere above the cut off line:
But they were cheap.

Coincidentally I ordered a new OEM set earlier today

 

Another vote for OEM. Cost and performance go hand-in-hand in this case.

Custom retrofit ($$$$) > OEM ($$$) > Depo ($$) > any other aftermarket assembly ($$)

 

OEM !!!!!!

 

75$ eBay housings then retrofit them

 

Buy OEM ones from someone that took them off to install aftermarket ones.

 

Good to know, thanks for the heads up.

 

Are you planning on replacing both headlights? Your thread title and message seem to indicate you might only be doing the damaged side.

 

Check the B/S/T section there’s probably somebody selling there oems for a decent price that are in good shape. I replaced both of mine with OEMS i had the same problem you did when I bought my 2010 used one headlight was cracked and the other side was faded and had tones of small lines running through them.

 

Definitely OEM when it comes to light assemblies.

 

Thank you everyone! I am going with OEM. And yes, replacing both sides. The right one is not leaking, but it doesn't look any better than the left one. 10 years of New England life is not easy on plastics.

 

Since your DRL lenses are cooked, make sure you get the correct part number for the ones with glass lenses. Even though there was a TSB on this and Toyota replaced a bunch of them for free under a recall, they still sell the headlights with the plastic turn/DRL lenses.

The recall expired a long time ago.

 

No DRL on my Taco. Sr5 2010

 

Then how did this happen?

 

where did you order both from? looking to get either set

 

Probably from using the turn signals.

 

Here is a cut and paste from the 2nd Gen headlight thread.

OEM 2005-2011 smoked headlights:
These are like the Pro lights, but came on select Sport models. These are the updated TSB version of the lights that do not have the melting DRL issue. TSB is available here.
Right: 81110-04210
Left: 81150-04210

To show the smoked color difference, here is stock light on left, smoked on right. Note these are 2012+ assemblies just to provide a reference example of color difference.