oem headlight?

 

yes its an oem headlight. i was wandering if i could just buy the lens for it, or if i have to buy the whole headlight.

 

I'm almost positive you're just going to have to buy a whole headlight assembly.

You might want to check NASIOC for cars being parted out, eBay, or your local junk yard.

Just curious, how did it crack?

 

I'm almost positive you're just going to have to buy a whole headlight assembly.

You might want to check NASIOC for cars being parted out, eBay, or your local junk yard.

Just curious, how did it crack?

Well i had pulled my tail lights out, cleaned em, sanded em, and smoked em out with the nightshades paint. I masked off my headlights and was gonna clean and sand them just trying to make them look better. While i was working on this project, my girlfriend called and needed me to come get a nail out of her tire and fix the whole. Well my room mate said he would put another coat on the tail lights for me. When i got back my tail lights looked great, but he had also smoked out my headlights and there were cracks all over the lens. I cleaned the tint crap off and the cracks were in the lenses...needless to say im pretty upset because right now im driving around with cracked, blacked out lenses :/

 

they sell parts for headlamps on japanparts.com, but they don't have the actual lens, they have all other parts if needed. Other then that site they sell them as an entire unit, basically you need the entire setup, which side do you need?

 

Yes, it is POSSIBLE to swap just the lens, but IMO NOT worth the time, money, and effort. It takes a heat gun/oven to separate the 2, then you have to go through all the work to carefully pull them apart without damaging them. If you decide to try this route, you'll find detailed instructions on how to do it by just using Google and search for something like "Black Housing mod", or "Projector Mod", or even just "Headlight Mod" and it doesn't really even have to be car specific. There's a ton of videos on Youtube documenting how to do it on most cars. It is much easier to find a headlight complete on eBay, or even a pair though. A couple hundred bucks should pull you in a non-HID set for an '04. Typically, for the STi set with HIDs you'll pay more around a grand, just to keep you informed. PM me if you have any questions, as I've taken apart tail lights, headlights, blinkers, you name it on almost every vehicle I've owned. Just trying to find the initiative to do it on my '08 and rip out the ugly orange reflectors. I personally always use a heat gun, but everyone has an oven, so that's the most common way to do it if you want to only swap the lens. The lens is almost always the part to go defective, so that's why you'll rarely find it separate. As always, that's just my $.02

 

So he painted your headlights and that caused the plastic to crack? Sounds odd... bummer though, sorry to hear about that.

 

yep i came home and their were cracks all over the headlight lens. i tried to sand it down and hoped that the paint would seal the cracks and then i could put another coat on to cover it, but it didnt work. i read online that the head from headlight bulbs causes the lens to crack if it has been painted over. and yes it sucks, now im gonna be ordering 800 dollar jdm headlights

 

Wow, I've never heard of that before. Just wanted to make sure I have nothing to worry about because I painted the insides of my headlights... I think if you posted a nice set of before and after pics, you'd feel a little better

 

ha ill try and get some pics up this weekend, btw do you know if morette makes a headlight for the 04 wrx? and if so where can i get a set? ive heard nothing but good things about them.

P.S. You might be fine with the inside being painted, mine were painted on the outside

 

Yeah, I think I'll be ok too... and yeah, I've seen Morettes for 04/05 and 06/07 models too - headlights and tail lights, actually. I don't know if they're still available though, so you'll probably just have to contact the company and find out.

04-05 Headlights: morette :: impreza headlights

04-07 Tail lights: morette :: impreza rear lights

06-07 Headlights: morette :: impreza headlights

 

Thanks for the help man show. i emailed morettes and they emailed me back saying they do have them in stock. I guess the silver lining in this is that im gonna get a set of sweet headlights. Gonna run me about 600 bucks, but the dealer wanted $410 a piece, allsubaru wanted $307 a piece, and a set of JDM's are about $700, so i guess im still getting a "deal" haha

 

Heh, yeah, I guess you could say that. Be sure to post some pics when you get them installed.