Headlight Repair From a UK Workshop
Headlight repair here means opening your own unit and renewing the one part that has failed: an LED board, a running-light strip, a cracked lens or a leaking seal. It is not polishing. Send photos with the make, model and year, and the quote comes back before anything leaves your drive.
Every price is worked out from your photos, so there is no list price here.
Boards, lenses, seals and housings: the parts that fail
A modern headlight is a sealed box of parts, and usually only one has given up.
- LED boards and drivers, when a beam goes dark: LED units and daytime running lights.
- Running-light strips scorched to a dull yellow.
- Cracked, crazed or scratched outer lenses: Headlight Lens Repair and Replacement.
- Seals that let damp in: How to Remove Condensation From a Headlight.
- Housings and mounting tabs broken in a knock.
- Xenon ballasts and igniters, renewed rather than patched.
Halogen units, rear lights and motorbike headlights are not taken on.
Cost of a new unit against fixing the old one
Ask a main dealer about a dead LED headlight and the answer is often a complete new unit, priced as one. Repair opens the unit you own and renews the failed part.
Your own headlight still matches the other side and sits against the bumper and bonnet as before.
The quote follows the headlight and the fault, not the badge.
Sent by courier within the UK, or collected
Car headlamp repair does not need the car. You, or your usual garage, take the headlight off and only the unit travels.
How the headlight is collected and returned, and what that costs, is set out in your quote.
Where collection makes more sense than a courier, it can be discussed when you ask for your quote. No customs forms: it all stays in the UK.
Faults that fail the MOT
Under the MOT inspection manual, a headlamp with more than half of its LEDs out, a seriously defective lens or reflector, or a lamp not securely attached is a major defect, and a major defect is a fail.
On cars first used from 1 March 2018, factory daytime running lights are inspected too and must shine white.
Drivers, garages, bodyshops and fleets
Private owners send one headlight; garages, bodyshops, motor traders and fleets send them for customers' cars and invoice the work themselves.
Makes and models
Motor trade
Before you send anything
Do I need to bring the car?
No. Only the headlight is sent; you or your garage take it off and refit it afterwards.
Is a cloudy headlight something you polish?
No. A clouded or yellowed outer lens is replaced with a new one, because polishing only buys a short spell before the haze returns.
Send the photos, get the price
Add the make, model and year and a few clear photos, and the quote comes back to you.
Send the details, get a price back
Say which car it is and what the headlight is doing, add a couple of photos, and your quote arrives by email. Nothing has to come off the car until you have agreed to it.