Panerai127

Last night I noticed my driver's side headlight was out. Turned the light off, then on, I saw the bulb light up very dim and purple, and then in about 1min it just went out. I have bad condensation problem in this headlight and wanted to replace the housing for awhile now. I think this was the reason the bulb burnt out. Anyway, it looks like I need new bulbs. I was going to go with 6000k Philips D2R bulbs, after doing some research on Lighting forum and reading Rome's posts, but found them to be pretty expensive. The least expensive I found was, $100 per bulb. I know OEM bulbs are 4100k. I found few Philips 4300k bulbs on ebay for sale from seller (Akinaboy) with 3k of positive feedback, for $37 each shipped, or $77.99 for set of 2?! Why would they be so much less then 6000k? Am I looking in the right places, are the fake or else?

Another thing is the housing problem. Since my headlight housing is bad, I wanted to replace it. My housings are the ones with green tint. Carson falks would hook me up with green tint housing for around $250 or so. I thought if I replace one, I might as well replace both, since one would be washed out, and the other one would be new. Then I though of maybe replacing them with 2003 Sportdesign housings. But evey Lexus dealer I called said they are sold as a whole essembley for $1200 each! Is there any way to get just housings, since I already have HID essembly?? Where did you guys buy yours, the ones that have Sportdesign housings? PM me if you could. I called Luis at Carson, and he was able to look them up as individual parts and told me he would be able to get them seperately, but I do not know if he maybe thought he could, but did not know that dealerships sell them as a whole essembly, since Carson gets parts from a local dealer in Cal. I called Carson today and Luis was not there, so I will have to wait untill Tues to get an answer from him. Can someone chime on this?

FrankWhite

I just ordered a new set of 2003 sportdesign housings..insurance company paid for those babies....should be installed by monday!! And you CANNOT get the housings separately, sucks because my ballasts were fine. I'll show them off on MOnday or Tuesday.

Panerai127

It just does not make any sense to me why I can't by 2003 GS Sport Design housings seperately without buying the whole assembly, like I could with greenish tint housings I have on now, and the ones on 98-2000. If there is a seperate part number just for the housing, and I was advised by Carson that there is a seperate part number, why I can't just order the housings, and not buy the whole headlight (hid, balast etc) assembly. So if i am a proud owner of 2003 gs300 sport design per-say, and I need to replace housing due to conensation or whatever, I need to spend $1200! where is greenish tint housing could be bought seperately for $224?! Don't make sense! Did Lexus make these rules, knowing most Lexus enthusiasts would go and buy sport desing ones, and swap the greenish ones, so dealerships decide to offer them only as a whole essembly and maximise their profit buy selling the whole headlight?! Its just not right! Or the dealerships just do not want to sell them seperately, period! what is the deal guys? If there is seperate part number how come they could not be sold seperately like the other ones?

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

Maybe its because they are so rare, they never had to designate a seperate part number to sell them seperatly. Not a huge demand. Im happy they even did the seperate housing for the GS... they dotn do it for the LS... or most of their model for that matter.

upstateGS4

iTrader: (1)

theres a groupbuy going on right now for the JDM 10th anniv. housings. pretty sweet, if youve got the cash you might wanna check those out. housings only, and they are designed for the HID.

upstateGS4

iTrader: (1)

here you go: pretty sweet deal if you're in the market

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=259663

Panerai127

Upstate,
I saw those, but still not a good deal in my opinion, you get 2 housings for $950 when you can get greenish tint ones for $450..

upstateGS4

iTrader: (1)

youre not even doing the math or listening to yourself talk. you make it sound like you didnt want the green tint lights again, that you wanted to go with the SD style. you said the sport design housings w/all the stuff (that you cant buy separately) are $1200 EACH. the JDM anniversary edition housing SET i showed you is $950. and they are similar. i know how much the green tint housings cost, i just bought a brand new pair from these guys last month. im fine with them, but you were talking about not wanting green ones again, and not wanting to spend the money on the sport designs and wondering where/how to get something like that without having to buy two whole units with the hids included. well the link i gave you is your only choice if you dont want to buy green tint housings again AND you dont want the full SD setup. and yes it is a deal, you know how much those things would be if they didnt sell as just the housings? its obvious youre trying to get the sportdesigns for only a few hundred more then what youd spend on the green ones. not going to happen. if that were the case EVERYone would have a set... a lot of people here that have them DID shell out the actual cost for the full units- they didnt take some cheaper short cut that you just havent happened to find out about yet or have some special spot to order from... those jdm lights are an exclusive item and an extra $250+/- for each housing is NOT that big of a deal and isnt really even a rip off when compared to the green tinted housings.. especially when you take into consideration the fact that these are also pretty rare and you can buy the green ones in unlimited quantity all the time.. i personally dont care what you buy, but sometimes i just find it annoying that people refuse to believe guys will actually shell out big bucks for certain parts and that there MUST be another way to get them cheap. the SD's as well as the anniversary editions were designed to be exclusive and therefore the price will always be high. its like a pair of diesel jeans that cost $700 dollars. its not necessarily the fact that the cotton cost $675 and they need to turn a $25 profit. its "buyer quality" control... they mark up the clothing so bums living in boxes arent seen wearing the newest style of pants the Company just blew a million in advertising to the "upper class" on.. lexus is going to charge more for the special parts because they want to maintain the luxury/"slightly unattainable to the general public" type of status. now that there was what we like to call a ben. hahaaa

Panerai127

Upstate,
I see your point.. I am feeling that you got a bit frustrated reading your reply. I am sorry I made you feel that way.. All I am saying is housings should be sold seperately, all of them.. Yes, SportDesign ones are nice and would like to have them instead of the green ones.. But I do not see a point of spending so much more for either set, eventhough they are so exclusive.. How is Carson ones $250 more a peace, justify that? Someone was smart and decided to paint the OEM ones gun metal and sell them as 10th aniversary ones with gunmetal paint on the inside due to popularity of the sportdesign, that is just smart marketing.. $250 for different paint inside, a bit crazy, just like anything else in car industry when it comes to supply and demand.. Same thing happened with JP tails, selling for like $1200, when people on ebay now sell them for $300, and as what I have read, they were pretty good quality.. I will just stick to green ones.. The funny thing is, if I never found CL, I would think my headlights are the bumb and would never notice a difference without paying attention.. Plus I saw few pics of SportDesign housings on black car, and I like them better on silver car, IMO.. So, I will keep my green ones for now..

upstateGS4

iTrader: (1)

no frustrations...and even though it might have sounded like it, im actually not trying to come at you directly in some type of negative way with my POV... was just tryin to make a point about why things are as expensive as they are sometimes even if it does seem unreasonable

Panerai127

cool.. sometimes its hard to read emotions by just reading a post.. I agree with you.. its just a simple supply and demand formula with these housings.. I will try to fix the housing tomorrow by sealing it to stop the condensation.. I buffed the headlights out so they look pretty new now, so I might not even need to buy new one..

upstateGS4

iTrader: (1)

this new set i have (still sitting in the boxes from the dealer) is going to be my third. im waiting till after the winter to install them when the weathers a little nicer. ive got to be honest though man.. the condensation thing is a constant pain that some people NEVER have enough luck to get rid of. my first set (all clear 98 style) had a HUGE condensation problem. i bought/replaced them with another set of the green tint housings (used from a guy here on CL that guaranteed no leaks) and sure enough within the course of a few weeks they looked like fish bowls too...now this last set im waiting to install are the green tints again, but BRAND new from the dealer...i guess we will see what happens with those, my bet is that they will collect moisture and fog up just like the other two sets did..something ill probably never be able to get around that always drives me NUTS.. it does COMPLETELY kill the look of the car when the front lights are all screwed up with water inside of them... even my 91 civic hatch i drive sometimes in the winter doesnt have this stupid *** problem. its like oh look at my sweet lexus gs with my fogged out rainforest looking headlights, aint i cool. yeah i am, way cooler then you with your hyundai with crystal clear shiny chrome headlights that arent fogged up at all. HA

Panerai127

lol.. i know.. I read about this problem.. Imagine spending $2400 on Sport Design ones and have condensation in them!!! lol.. that is why i want to try to seal the one the has condensation and leave the other good one alone and see if it works, if it doesn't I will buy one from Carson or Sewell NEW.. I can't believe Lexus can't figure out this condensation in housings problem, and the smooshy boatlike ride, and the actuators, and rattles and squeaks, and the loose steering problem, because most of the car is really really good, not perfect in many ways like BMW or Benz but good enough, but both BMW and Benz have their own problems wich I will not get into..

chuckb

I can't justify the SD for twice as much either. maybe if I had a white or silver car, but the dark tint doesn't stand out enough on dark colors and we are the only ones who'd notice a difference.

David1969

When an HID starts to look purple, does that mean the bulb is getting ready to go out? This just happened to me this morning and noticed one side of the car wasn't as bright. I got off, looked at the lights and the passengers side was purple looking...nowhere near the look of the other bulb which was the same color as they always are when on.

If the bulb needs replacing, what model # are the factory bulbs for my 98 GS4?