Headlight Repair Services
LED boards, running-light strips, lenses, seals, housings and xenon parts: this is work done inside the unit, one failed part at a time. None of it is lens polishing or a restoration kit. Pick the fault below, or send photos and let the quote say which one it is.
Choose by fault
Two kinds of fault have a page of their own; the rest are explained further down.
LED units and daytime running lights
Lenses and housings
Repairs by make
Condensation and water inside: lens off and resealed
Water gets into a headlight through a seal that has stopped doing its job, and it happens on recent cars as well as older ones.
Headlight resealing means taking the lens off, clearing out the old sealant and the damp, and closing the unit again with fresh sealant. If the damp has lifted the chrome off the inner trims, those parts are re-chromed in the same job.
To try drying it yourself first, start with How to Remove Condensation From a Headlight.
Broken housings and mounting tabs
A knock that cracks the lens often splits the back of the housing as well, and the tabs that hold it to the car go with it.
A split or holed housing is replaced: every internal part moves across into a new shell, which is then closed with a new lens.
For snapped tabs alone there are two routes, a tab repair kit or a new housing that leaves no trace of the knock, and you choose which. Broken inner trims depend on what the maker still supplies; some can be rebuilt, and parts no longer made can come from a donor unit.
Whether a cracked lens can be taped in the meantime is covered in our guide to cracked headlights.
Xenon (HID) headlights: ballast and igniter replaced, lens and seals repaired
On a xenon unit, the ballast, the igniter and the control unit are not mended at component level. A faulty one is swapped for a new unit.
Older xenon projectors can also grow dim as the small glass lens in front of the bulb clouds over from the inside. That lens is cleaned, which is worth ruling out before buying new bulbs.
Cracked lenses and failed seals on xenon units are dealt with the same way as on any other headlight.
Reflectors and chrome
Damp left inside a unit for long enough lifts the chrome off the reflector and the inner trims, leaving them dull and patchy.
Those parts are taken out, re-chromed and refitted before the headlight is resealed.
Units we turn away: halogen, rear lights, motorbikes
- Halogen headlights: a new unit usually costs little enough that repair doesn't pay, unless you particularly want to keep the original.
- Rear lights: they are heat-sealed at the factory and can't be opened and closed again cleanly.
- Motorbike headlights: the internal parts are too hard to find to promise a repair.
Not sure which of these it is?
Send photos of the headlight, switched on if the fault is electrical, and the quote will name the fault and the fix.
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.