How much does it cost to replace car headlights?

By Lawrence Minnie

Your car's headlights will eventually become hazy or yellow with age. There are a number of options available to you to remedy this situation. We take a look at these options and what type of cost you will incur when taking each one on.

Changing bulbs

This is the first option you should pursue if you want brighter lights. Changing a headlight bulb is relatively easy and can be done in a few minutes with minimal tools. the average cost for standard replacement halogen bulbs is about R240 a set. 

You will need to make sure that bulbs you are buying are an exact match (wattage) or you may encounter issues down the line.

We do not recommend buying aftermarket lighting conversion kits that convert halogen bulb systems to LED or projector systems as this requires a lot of modification to your cars current electrical system and could end up damaging your vehicle and greatly reduce its value.

Refinish your lenses

The next option before a complete headlight unit change out is refinishing the lenses. There are a number of ways to go about this but they are all labour intensive and results may vary vastly depending on the age and condition of your headlights lenses.

There are a number of DIY polishing kits available for use with cordless drills and polishers that will cost about R300 to R700, that can greatly improve the haziness that occurs on older headlight lenses. 

You can also tackle the lenses with high grit sandpaper and then spray them with a clear coat spray but you should be absolutely sure about what you are doing and if you aren't, there are a great many tutorials on YouTube that explain how to do this.

 

Complete cluster change out

This should be your final option as it will be the most expensive. Headlight clusters on modern vehicles are not cheap and can run anywhere from R2 500 to R40 000 per side. They are relatively easy to replace but there will be some fandangling to get them aligned.

These clusters are almost all bolt or screw in and coupled with retaining clips. Great care should be taken if this route is followed, as breaking any of the clips or retainers could be costly. 

This will, however, give you the best results as you will have brand new headlights that will last the life of the car.