• The site migration is complete! Hopefully everything transferred properly from the multiple decades old software we were using before. If you notice any issues please let me know, thanks! Also, I'm still working on things like chatbox, etc so hopefully those will be working in the next week or two.

Aftermarket headlight difference

LeadfootCJ7

LeadfootCJ7

New member
When I bought my GXP last fall the headlights were in rough shape. I wetsanded, polished, etc and they looked better (not perfect) and quickly were weathered again. I plan on replacing them and have been reading up on doing a retrofit. I was looking at Rockauto and noticed they have 3 different levels of the TYC replacement headlights. "Regular Inventory", "NSF Certified", and "CAPA Certified". What's the difference. Is it like airplane parts where the part is the same and you are paying for the stamp on it or are there actual quality differences? I know members here have had many headlight assemblies apart and was hoping someone had dealt with these and could clarify.
 


From what I remember reading on here, all the aftermarket headlamps are made by the same company and distributed and sold under several brands. Normally I'd expect the certification to denote some guarantee of quality.

NSF certification is more a health and safety certification (not using materials that are hazardous or let off fumes in high temps, etc.), where as CAPA certification has to do with meeting OEM quality. The "non-certified" ones.are still DOT compliant and should work just fine, especially since you're retrofitting the low beam portion anyways.

If you had all three in hand, I bet you'd have trouble telling any difference if there even is one. I'd personally buy the cheaper ones and use the extra cash towards the projectors, lights, and ballasts. The only problems you may or may not run into with aftermarket headlamps are the seals letting condensation in (which are redone by you while retro'ing, so no worries), and maybe getting a haze in a few years. But even OEM's do that :P A nice polish and a reapplication of some UV compound will make them new again.

That's my 2¢, but I bet other people have some input too.
 
I've used several set of headlights from vision..all appear close to oem and output is close to the same. The only difference I've noticed is the stamping on the lens (aftermarket seems to have more vs oem) which shouldn't make a difference since unless your looking for it you won't notice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top