Fis4Forty

Hey everyone, thought I would share a recent repair experience in the event it can save others a ton of money. After a major torrential rain storm in Los Angeles earlier this year (more rain in two days than the entire year) where my car had to be parked outside due to a relocation (garage door broken, elevator flooded, and power outage) my passenger headlight started flickering and eventually crapped out two weeks later. Not 100% the storm was the cause but a big coincidence if not. (Vehicle had over 120k miles at the time)

Lexus checked it out and quoted me $4k for the headlight repair. I have an extended warranty but headlights are not covered and Lexus said they stopped covering that awhile back. As with most dealerships, they don’t really investigate the root cause of the problem and rather just the total cost to fix. I wasn’t really looking forward to spending that type of money on a headlight so I looked into other options while just not driving at night. Used headlights on eBay were around $600-1000 depending on quality and many of them had cracks, exposed holes, etc not to mention most could not be returned and were final sales.

Was planning to remove the headlight and inspect to see if I could find the root of the problem. Removing the headlight is a complete PITA which requires removing the entire front bumper so I decided I would spend $155 on a new headlight control module (Lexus Part# 8101630J30) which is screwed to the under side of the headlight and has two harnesses. There is a good diagram of where the screws and clips are to remove the bumper from another post. I have a 2016 which was basically the same except the clip in the middle where the front parking sensors are is actually a bolt (10mm I think) and you also need to disconnect the front parking sensor harness. Here are the pics:




Passenger side module is very easy to get to and much easier than the driver side due to a tight fit working around the windshield washer fluid reservoir (I think that is what that is). Good video of what it all looks like on YouTube ( )


Driver Side

Passenger Side

The harness clip has to be fully extended down 45 degrees to allow the harness to disconnect. After replacing the module and connecting the harnesses, the lights all come on and work perfectly (low beams, high beams, DRLs). Error message with “headlight malfunction” gone as well. All back to 100%.

Considering the ECU was about $3,845 less than an entire new headlight assembly, it was definitely worth a try. And if that didn't fix it, I am sure Lexus would take back the module if it wasn’t damaged during install. As you would imagine, I am extremely happy replacing the module fixed the problem. Not a very difficult repair either and if you have another set of hands for the bumper removal, very manageable. Cheers!