Hamilton Felix
Enlightened
Two questions:
The first is mostly curiousity. Who/what is TYC? I picked up another 2007 Corolla 5 speed last year; wanted one to drive while I replaced fender and lights on the first one, after I hit a deer (hey, we like 9th gen. Corollas). I suspected when we drove it off the lot that the headlights had been polished to look good. And they soon began to cloud. Then, this year I started getting condensation in the right light. I'd pull the bulbs, set up a heat gun, get it clear, then it would come back worse.
So, like I had with our first Corolla, I ordered genuine Toyota headlights from ToyotaPartsDeal and set out to install them. The left light broke a couple of rather brittle plastic tabs during removal. The right lamp, when I got it out, was marked "TYC made in Taiwan." I had also noticed the mounting bolts were not original, so suspected some body work in the past.
I'm guessing TYC is one of the aftermarket makers. Are they any good? IS there a good one out there?
And that's the second question. I want to buy new headlights for our 1999 Grand Cherokee Laredo. The WJ series was made 1999 through 2004, so that puts me past the usual ten year support of manufacturers and dealers for their cars. At first glance, I'm seeing a lot of "same as," but no "genuine factory Jeep" when I search. There's something on Amazon called Headlight Depot that looks scary cheap. If I cannot get genuine Jeep headlights for the WJ, what is my best option? (BTW I did at one point buy a used genuine Jeep headlight off of eBay, and it turned out to have been polished; in a fairly short time it clouded worse than the light it had replaced.)
Side note: I stopped at a Toyota dealership in Marysville, Washington, and asked them about an optical aiming machine. They looked like deer caught in headlights. Finally, after explaining what I wanted, they said no. Well, I have 45 years or so experience with aiming at marks on a wall 25 feet from the lights. But I'd wanted the aimer because my truck floor at work is full of generator parts, and it's hard to find 25 feet plus a car length of perfectly level floor that extends to the "aiming wall," so I can measure height accurately. There must be dealers in my state with optical aimers, but I'll bet not Toyota.
The first is mostly curiousity. Who/what is TYC? I picked up another 2007 Corolla 5 speed last year; wanted one to drive while I replaced fender and lights on the first one, after I hit a deer (hey, we like 9th gen. Corollas). I suspected when we drove it off the lot that the headlights had been polished to look good. And they soon began to cloud. Then, this year I started getting condensation in the right light. I'd pull the bulbs, set up a heat gun, get it clear, then it would come back worse.
So, like I had with our first Corolla, I ordered genuine Toyota headlights from ToyotaPartsDeal and set out to install them. The left light broke a couple of rather brittle plastic tabs during removal. The right lamp, when I got it out, was marked "TYC made in Taiwan." I had also noticed the mounting bolts were not original, so suspected some body work in the past.
I'm guessing TYC is one of the aftermarket makers. Are they any good? IS there a good one out there?
And that's the second question. I want to buy new headlights for our 1999 Grand Cherokee Laredo. The WJ series was made 1999 through 2004, so that puts me past the usual ten year support of manufacturers and dealers for their cars. At first glance, I'm seeing a lot of "same as," but no "genuine factory Jeep" when I search. There's something on Amazon called Headlight Depot that looks scary cheap. If I cannot get genuine Jeep headlights for the WJ, what is my best option? (BTW I did at one point buy a used genuine Jeep headlight off of eBay, and it turned out to have been polished; in a fairly short time it clouded worse than the light it had replaced.)
Side note: I stopped at a Toyota dealership in Marysville, Washington, and asked them about an optical aiming machine. They looked like deer caught in headlights. Finally, after explaining what I wanted, they said no. Well, I have 45 years or so experience with aiming at marks on a wall 25 feet from the lights. But I'd wanted the aimer because my truck floor at work is full of generator parts, and it's hard to find 25 feet plus a car length of perfectly level floor that extends to the "aiming wall," so I can measure height accurately. There must be dealers in my state with optical aimers, but I'll bet not Toyota.