Grand Moff Joseph Posted October 13, 2011 Report Share Posted October 13, 2011 I'm looking to replace the headlight assemblies on my GP, as they are worn/faded out to hell. I've polished the a number of times, but trust me, they're done. I looked at Rockauto and found a number of available headlights. I've never shopped at RA before, so I'm torn between the multiple "grades" of parts they carry. Any tips/recommendations? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AL Posted October 13, 2011 Report Share Posted October 13, 2011 Check eBay too, sometimes headlights are cheaper there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oilpatch197 Posted October 13, 2011 Report Share Posted October 13, 2011 (edited) Best to find some OEM "service" headlamps. They're the same lamps you would get if you went to a GM service desk. I have found out the hard way that there are very...very few after market headlamps that are built to OEM standards. You want OEM. They are superior built, optically correct, and probably will look good until the car gets scraped. Now the after market units, all of which comes from Asia, and they are cheap and don't forget the quality of the OEM units will be better. Way better in-fact because the Asian units have NO quality, again they are cheap for a reason. Basically what happens is the OEM(usually an American company) builds OEM parts, then the model is redesigned and they keep supplying service parts for about ten years. Then things are tore down and either the tooling is archived or sold to some other company. A deer ran out in front of my car, busted the rear bracket on the passengers side. I bought some Asian Depo's, and just swaped out the brackets(near Identical) and used the OEM lens/reflector. The Depos were NO WHERE NEAR the same optics of the OEM lenses. When it comes to optics you get what you pay for. Prescription glasses, headlamps, binoculars, cameras it's all about the optics, not the price. Unless your someone who thinks it looks cool to have Euros style lamps, then you can do that, but I've found the quality is usually not there, and might have problems. Edited October 13, 2011 by Oilpatch197 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white4d96 Posted October 13, 2011 Report Share Posted October 13, 2011 The 3G Depo's are known for not lasting long, and the projector headlamps that are available have slanted cutoffs from the headlights not being flat in the car (they are both slanted like 15* towards the center, and the cutoff reflects that, design flaw.) Either get new OEM's or look for some good used ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grand Moff Joseph Posted October 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 Thanks for the feedback. I think RA offers OEM units, but I know GMpartsdirect does. I'll give them another look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark 97 Cutlass Coupe Posted October 14, 2011 Report Share Posted October 14, 2011 A good place to look for oem used parts is car-part.com. Just enter your specific vehicle info, and your zip code, and participating yards post prices and quality of the parts they have. I'm a retired insurance appraiser, and believe me, you don't want to buy aftermarket headlamps. I had more shop complaints about headlamps than about anything else. Car-part is an excellent source, and when I was working I used it many times a day for years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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