mallom

Hi everyone, I hope all is well. First time owning a Lexus, so please don't kill me.

I have recently bought an used 2007 RX350 (Nav/Camera/HID/AFS) and just came to know that the headlight have a known issue with condensation. I noticed my driver side headlight is suffering from this, so I am looking for tips or recommendations on how to solve it.

I am not looking forward to spend $1500-2000 replacing them, so I was wondering what aftermarket options are available today. To be very honest, I really don't care about the AFS system. I would be willing to sacrifice it in order to get a cheaper headlight assembly. The final goal is to have a solid headlight, possibly reuse the factory HID equipment (aftermarket would be OK too) that will always work and wont suffer from condensation.

It has been pretty hard to find the correct part, specially because I am not too familiar with Lexus. I was wondering if the headlights from a RX330 (japan?) would also work on a RX350? By looking at the pictures, it looks exactly the same (apart from the AFS system). For example:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/23199967525...53.m1438.l2649

https://www.ebay.com/itm/23199939349...53.m1438.l2649

What do you guys think? Any help, tips or recommendations are greatly appreciated!

MattRX

First of all, congrats on your purchase!

Should fit, they share the same body panels etc. On my Highlander, I have headlights and tail lights from a hybrid model and they worked no problem, however tail lights required me to make a custom harness - however this won't be the case with headlights. I would try to seal up the original headlight with some butyl rubber or butyl tape and see if that helps. Toyota/Lexus headlights use a soft butyl compound that is nice and easy to remove after the area is heated up with an oven or heat gun. I bought the cheap eBay specials before and one side is already leaking, and the beam pattern sucks. Also, the chrome is so crap that it is flaking off.

mallom

Thank you so much for your help! The original headlight looks nasty, it has rust and water spots all over it. I will definitely ask my mechanic if he is willing to give it a try to clean and and reseal the original one but sounds like its going to be easier to simply replace the entire thing. Just need to figure out a way to trick the AFS system and avoid any lights on the dashboard.

Thanks!

MattRX

Oh no! In that case replacement might be the better option, however I have seen an additional option for certain headlights. This option would be a replacement headlight cover/plastic that you can use to replace your OEM one if all else is still in great condition. If that isn't an option, I would just grab the eBay ones and if any issues pop up, swap the eBay headlight's plastic onto your OEMs. Oh and don't make the mistake I did! I sold my OE headlights for way too cheap while I should have kept them! Everything was fine on them except the condensation and damaged plastic.