Q: Has anyone ever replaced the bulbs to make them brighter at night? If so, what exactly did you do?

Q: Has anyone ever cleaned up the plastic headlights? I have used 2,000 grit and buffed them out, but they don't have the shine I am looking for. I will go after them will 1,000, then follow up with 1,500, then 2,000 and then buff them out properly. It could be that the plastic has been damaged through the years, or I need to sand them down further, etc., or it is on the inside.

The car has low mileage and I am having the rest of the car painted, and restored to almost new. With 55,000 miles, it is clearly worth it. The interior is also immaculate, etc. After this, it may be worth it to just order new headlights. Additionally, the old owner kept up with all the maintenance, and everything is done, without really anything else needed. The last step is the wheels have to be refinished and repainted.

 

Can't speak to the condition of the lenses without seeing them. If you want better light upgrade to the factory HIDs, retrofit projectors and/or go LED. Finding a clean set of used factory HIDs is getting more and more difficult and tend to be very pricey to the point you may as well buy new OEM.

Do you have a budget in mind?

 

Regarding the HID's, I do not necessarily have a budget, but I have a limit. What parts do I need to upgrade the lighting? Where can I look, etc.?

I will work on headlights to see how they come out. Thanks!

 

Looking around I don't see many good options. Rockauto has almost nothing Ebay has quite a bit but most are brands I've never heard of. This shows the OE HID version is available
https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem/...140-33380.html

Not sure if that's true. Plus the HID unit has auto leveling you won't have the associated hardware in your car to make it work.

 

Thank you LEX2K.. Maybe I can purchase higher-end bulbs. The older vehicles do not compare to the newer headlights. Thank you.

 

If you can clean up the lenses then sure drop some LEDs in there.

I own these I'd say they are 90% what you get out of a HID

I also own these, best I've found

 

LeX2K:

Can these bulbs adapt without any modifications on a 1999 Lexus ES 300? I feel that If I sand with 1,000, then 1,500, then 2,000 and buff them out, the lenses will be spotless unless they are on the inside. If the bulbs can merely be swapped out, then these are worth the price. The others are quite expensive. If this was my daily driver, I would spend the extra $$, but given this is a spare vehicle, not in the budget for now.

 

As long as there is room for the bulb (back portion) then yes they will work. To preserve the lenses either get them clear filmed or spray with SprayMax 2K clear my preferred method.

 

I've had very good luck with these less-expensive modern LED replacement "bulbs" that I installed in January:


The previous owner had installed some aftermarket HID low beams, so I'm not exactly sure what the stock harnesses are, but I found very useful.

I also bought a set of H3 LED bulbs for the fog lights, but haven't installed them yet.

 

I actually figured out how to upgrade the LED. I just ordered through Precision LED. I chose the

Kepler Series H7 LED Package

https://precisionled.com/shop-by-led...ds/h7-led.html

Pretty simple to install. They wanted like $250-$350 to install near me, and it may have been the quantum series, which is more expensive, but the total out the door install is $100-$200.

Once I install them next week, I will post how they came out, some pictures, and the difference in the overall visibility.