I am one that likes the pop-up headlights on the C5 vs the frog-eyes or the expensive Cannon V3's.

Since the stock lights don't output much light and installing HID's doesn't improve much as well as blinding on coming drivers, I opted to go with this set from corvettemods last summer:

http://www.corvettemods.com/Corvette...it_p_7759.html

Unfortunately shortly after the install and several miles of driving, one of the sides cracked. I had it replaced and then both had cracked. I went through 3 sets. CorvetteMods handled everything great and I had zero issues with their customer service. Unfortunately, the product is poorly manufactured.

After returning my 3rd set, I gave up on. Fast forward to this year. I decided to try it again from a different vendor. Again, after driving for 2 hours, I noticed the light pattern bouncing heavily.

Both housings were once again cracked. Here are the pictures. It seems the tension on the light install is too tight and the housings can't handle the stress. All hardware was torqued as per install specs.

Has anyone else had these problems? Not sure what to do now. Luckily I was refunded from both vendors.

See pics:

 

Bought the same set from a different vender last year. Drivers side was cracked just like you show. Vender replaced it and I have not had any issues since (just checked!).

 

Wow! Thanks for posting. I was actually thinking of going this route. I have now changed my mind. Hope you get it sorted out. Keep us posted.

 

I wish the material used was of stronger quality. The stuff reminds me of drywall. It just crumbles apart.

I was going to use JB Weld to piece it together, but unfortunately, its cracked way too much to even risk re-installing.

As much as I like the lights when they work, it just seems like a headache to deal with. It seems a lot of people had good luck, so I'm thinking the latest batch just had lower quality standards of production maybe? Someone can hopefully chime in.



At this point I'm thinking of going back to OEM bulbs and dealing with the lack of light output or going with the C5-R replicas. Frog eyes or not, the C5-R has it too and I'm not paying $1200 for the Cannon V3's. That's just an absurd amount of money to spend on lighting.

 

Maybe I just have not been paying attention but this is the first I have heard of this particular problem with the ACA housings. I purchased a set off of E-Bay and ran them for 2 years without a problem. I replaced them with a set from Radio Flyer with the halo option and have had these for about a year without issue. Still have the E-Bay set in the garage as a spare. Hope your vendor will replace them and you have no further issues.

 

Just out of curiosity, did you modify the housings to fit properly? I did with mine (seems to be a well documented procedure) otherwise they would put stress on the areas that you show to be damaged

 

Good question. OP the attached link (post 3) is the mod I think being referenced.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-g...otsa-pics.html

 

Yes, I couldn't get the lights installed without doing so.


Looking at another corvette that had theirs installed as well with cracks, it seems the headlight adjustment rod for aiming them is the culprit that causes the stress possibly. His lights were aimed down below the recommended height that the lights should be at. By adjusting the height further up (20 feet away from wall making the output level with the car) additional cracks were created until it finally broke apart. Luckily he wanted to revert back to OEM so it was a nice way of testing the housing.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I have a set of these waiting to be installed...now I know I need to set aside some extra time to see if I can prevent this from happening. I agree about the weak plastic--while installing the high beam bulbs, one of the screws stripped out the first time it was turned. I had to fix it with super glue. Definitely a bad sign for the quality of these housings...

 

When you do the install, take some pictures of various angles. Work cautiously and let me know if you run into any issues or figure out ways to avoid cracking the housing. Adjust the beam level carefully and probably best to do it before you put the final headlight body cover on so you can see the housing better.

 

You can get a big improvement over stock lights just by switching bulbs to the 9011/9012 HIR bulbs, and adding the 4-Hi harness that keeps the low beams on when you turn on the hi beams. It's not as good as ACAs, but for about $125, it makes it a lot safer to drive at night.

http://store.candlepower.com/hirlighting.html

 

Thanks, I will look into it.

 

cmark84: Send me an email: radioflyer97@gmail.com

We'll be happy to fix you up with a set of our Bi-xenon ACA headlights. Our lights are built much stronger and won't crack open or have failed weather seals.

 

Are you able to re-install the OEM lamps after modifying the housing for the CorvetteMods projectors?