Best aftermarket Headlight housing?

I’ve recently been looking into new headlights. My old boots had some how managed to rot, leaving my headlights with moisture. I’ve been looking on tacoma beast and like their halo projector lights. Any thoughts? I want something that’s gonna last and be reliable, but not looking to retrofit the stock headlights. Thanks

 

the OEM stock are best maybe get new boots and rehab the lenses, aftermarket ones don't get high grades compared to the OEMs

 

I've had good luck with depo brand. Granted I took them apart to retrofit, resealed them and used PPF on the lense

 

A few days ago, I started a similar topic. Some of the replies were helpful, some less helpful. Overall, the replies indicated stock is best, but considering cost of headlights themselves, and the ability to upgrade light output if desired, aftermarket seems a worthy choice too. Provided they are decent quality and I would believe DOT approved.

 

Two words: Lighting Forum and Search. (There are three kinds of people in this world. Those that can count and those that cannot.) This topic has been discussed quite often. In short, OEM is the best.

BTW, If you want an education on automotive lighting, this might help:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/automotive-lighting-101.534393/

 

My passenger side clear lens cracked. Anyhow I replaced them with ANZO from Rock Auto.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=8486612&cc=1445515&jsn=472
I went with these because the lens is polycarbonate which is supposed to be more impact resistant, the down side is Polycarbonate is more susceptible to scratching.
I'm not impressed with how they assembled into the stock mounting points nor the light output. Compared to stock light output, I think I the stock light out put over the ANZOs. I see no light output advantage over the stock OEMs. Rockauto list them as a performance item and the only performance benefit I see is the lens material. With this being my only experience with after market headlights, I'd say go with OEM.

 

I'm not 100% positive, but I believe the lens on the OEM housings is polycarbonate too.

 

Have searched the Lighting forum. Unfortunately, the information there typically reverts to oem is best but need to be modified.

Not everyone is desiring additional light output or wants to retain oem lights.

Pretty much each topic regarding Gen 2 early style lights avoided offering a good alternative, for an out of the box aftermarket headlight replacement that was acceptable.

That said, the best legal lights with no mods are stock. Aftermarket legal lights based on others posts are junk out of the box.

Not that I have plans to upgrade light output, but the topic I did read had the person using a non contact style digital temp gage and the additional heat from upgraded halogen bulbs was considerably more than oem.

It would still be worthy to know, what headlights are a quality replacement for stock headlights at lower cost than oem.

 

I'm sorry if either I misled you or the other posts did not answer your question. Let me try to answer it directly.

If you want to replace your stock / OEM headlight housings with something less expensive, you are guaranteed to take a performance hit. None of the aftermarket housings equal the OEM housings where it comes to light output / distribution, resistance to moisture intrusion or resistance to oxidation of the lens from the sun's rays. That said, if you're willing to take hits in those areas, the best you're going to find are CAPA Certified housings. CAPA Certified means that these parts meet the minimum requirements set by insurance companies for use a "crash repair parts." Unfortunately - and not surprisingly - you're going to find that the insurance companies don't care as much about quality, performance and longevity as the OEMs do. All they care about is (low) price.

So I guess the big sticking point amongst those of us who are really into automotive lighting comes down to your statement "What headlights are a quality replacement for stock headlights at lower cost than oem?" And the answer is simply: None of the lower priced replacements even come close.

 

The issue here is optics and focus. The OEM lights have a high degree of engineering to ensure peak optical performance, which means less glare and higher intensity output. Aftermarket lights lack that level of engineering, especially those that completely change the style of the headlight, which are amount the worst performers. So while the products look the same, they do not perform the same. People seem happy with brands like Depo but that doesn’t mean it will at all compare to the performance of OEM. Checkout this great post below.