Aftermarket parts rant.....

"Der Käfer" (Rhy) 12/09/2013 at 15:17 • Filed to: None

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My car has literally 0 aftermarket parts and if there is a part it costs 5x more comapred to other cars. I wanted to upgrade my factory halogen lamps to the OEM Projector Xenon lamps but they are.... $1100 A PIECE...... so I looked after market.... theyre $1000 for some chinese company.

I drive a 2012 Volkswagen Beetle with the 2.5L 5-Cylinder. The turbo model has a couple performance parts but same situation, it's crazy expensive. The only thing that looks affordable at the moment is doing the springs and spacers. I guess I'll just have to upgrade my halogen bulbs with better ones for now. No way in hell I'm paying $2200 for head lights.

Sn210 > Der Käfer 12/09/2013 at 15:21

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Wow that's ridiculous! Wait until someone wrecks a Turbo model and then strip some parts off it.

dinobot666 > Der Käfer 12/09/2013 at 15:21

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Nissan headlamp assemblies with HIDs are also pretty expensive, but the Chinese aftermarket replacement kits for Nissan, VW (or any OEM for that matter) are pretty lousy quality at best.

Party-vi > Der Käfer 12/09/2013 at 15:22

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I mean, people that buy new Beetles aren't exactly the aftermarket mod type, no?

Also, welcome to my world - no one makes aftermarket goodies for really old Jeeps, just stock replacement parts :/

Der Käfer > Party-vi 12/09/2013 at 15:28

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I know, theres a lot of guys on the forums crying over the same thing. I'm suprised about the old jeep, I would think there would be a wide market.

Der Käfer > dinobot666 12/09/2013 at 15:29

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Well the WinPower ones are getting great reviews as they are of high quality (so they say) and other beetle owners are loving them. just still so expensive.

Der Käfer > Sn210 12/09/2013 at 15:30

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The percentage of beetles with the xenons is basically none, it required the top of the line beetle which coming over 30 some odd thousand dollars... no one buys them... I can't find them on wrecked car. I've searched every where.

Party-vi > Der Käfer 12/09/2013 at 15:34

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I'm talking about aftermarket upgrades, like roll bars, seats, gauges, suspension, etc. Almost everything I needed had to be fabricated or altered. I got lucky and found a suspension with lift that I could use and an aftermarket soft top but that was about the only non-stock item for sale.

Der Käfer > Party-vi 12/09/2013 at 15:56

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damn... better luck than me!

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Der Käfer 12/09/2013 at 16:07

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That is not the first set of OEM HID headlights costing over 1000$...

I hope that includes bulbs, ballasts, and automatic leveling adjusters (which are required for factory HID installations)

But it is still a retail markup over that.

That is why HID retrofits to halogen fixtures are so popular... factory transplants are still quite expensive.

Mostly because they can... Insurance companies will pay when they get damaged in an accident, and then turn around and raise your premiums.... no incentive for auto-makers to price them for retail sale.

Der Käfer > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 12/09/2013 at 16:20

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I dont want the xenons put in my halogens unless it was a projector style lamp, They seem to properly aim the exnon vs. the blinding xenons in normal lights. I think I'm going to go buy some premium white halogen bulbs.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Der Käfer 12/09/2013 at 16:39

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It depends on the HID bulb type.

D2S is a projector-spec bulb. D2R is capped on the front, and is set for reflector housings.

Some older lincolns, and others, had factory HID reflector fixtures.

A non-capped D2S in a reflector-based housing would output some of it's light directly forward, without being managed by the reflector surface angles, and could cause eyesight issues for on-coming drivers. A projector housing has an optical cut-off fence internally to block that sort of un-controlled output.

But you are right, technically the arc shape of an High Intensity Discharge is different than a filament in a halogen type lamp, and there can be focus issues due to the difference, even just due to the focus point of the reflector, but that is part of the reason that automatic levelers are required on factory-offered HIDs, and part of the reason those housings are so expensive.

I know it is a marketing terminology thing for automakers to call High Intensity Discharge headlights as "Xenon" headlights... but the difference has almost nothing to do with the Xenon gas inside the bulb... some incandescent bulbs have Xenon or other noble gasses inside, a part of the noble gasses, group 18 of on the right-most column of the periodic table.

Halogens have a small amount of group-17 halogen gas, like gaseous iodine or bromine, to aid in re-depositing tungsten back onto the filament, to allow it to last longer when more electric current is passed through, for a brighter than standard incandescent output.

High Intensity Discharge actually has no filament, but an arc across a gap between electrodes, in a noble-gas environment. Xenon may be the inert noble gas used inside the glass envelope, but it doesn't describe the light generation type, in a technical sense. Basically a sustained lightning light-bulb.

Not the same as just putting some noble Xenon gas, along with the halogen gas, inside an incandescent filament-type bulb with a light blue color-filtering glass envelope, and calling it 'Xenon', which some bulb-manufacturers do, to try and market halogen bulbs to look like High Intensity Discharge.

Textured Soy Protein > Der Käfer 12/09/2013 at 16:49

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The last time I had a car without HIDs was 2008, but since I picked up my winter not-beater '99 Grand Cherokee I had to go and research upgrading halogen bulbs. Basically your 2 best options are:

Philips X-Treme Power HIR bulbs - they do some funky stuff like reflecting the IR light they emit back into the bulb which heats up the inside more and makes more light. The link is for 9003 which is the same as your car's H4 bulbs.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Going to a higher wattage "regular" (or with a HID-look coating) halogen bulb - but some cars' stock headlight housings and/or wiring don't like the extra heat produced by the higher wattage, which is more than the extra heat produced by HIR bulbs operating at stock wattage. In which case you need to upgrade the wiring.

In my case, I learned about the HIR bulbs after I already received higher wattage Hella Optilux Xenon White bulbs in the mail from a store that makes you pay for return shipping and charges 15% restocking, and after learning that the stock Grand Cherokee wiring tends to have a hard time with higher wattage bulbs. With a $28 pair of bulbs it didn't make sense to return them, but I found some upgraded wiring harnesses (really just thick er gauge wire that plugs in between your stock headlight harness and the bulb)for $15 shipped so I got those.

Axial > Der Käfer 12/09/2013 at 17:13

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Well, at least your car isn't so old that the NOS OEM parts are hard to come by but also not old enough that the aftermarket isn't willing to invest in making quality products for it.

I can't replace my stock flywheel without changing the clutch type. I can't find a new dash pad without going through salvage channels, etc.

Der Käfer > Textured Soy Protein 12/09/2013 at 20:38

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I ended up getting a set of sylvania silver star ultras. Whiter and brighter. Not bad I guess.

Der Käfer > Axial 12/09/2013 at 20:39

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Even salvage OEM lights are 875 a piece.. I just put some sylvania silver star ultras in. Whiter and brighter. I like them for the time being.

Der Käfer > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 12/09/2013 at 20:43

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For the time being I upgraded to the top of the line sylvanias. Whiter, brighter and seem to be wider on the street. Idk if they're cool or not. Really not into the bluish look of the HIDs. All the ones in the auto part store were 6000+ I want no more than 5k.

Axial > Der Käfer 12/09/2013 at 20:57

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Sealed beams here. XD

Actually, headlights are one of the least expensive changes I can make to my car. A proper, street-legal HID kit costs under $160. Throwing in an HID fog-light conversion bumps it up to $225.

Long Live the Longdoor > Der Käfer 12/09/2013 at 23:52

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Is it weird that I've come to a point in my life where I seriously look at the aftermarket parts available for a car before buying it?

Take the new Subaru Impreza (not a WRX), for instance. I quite like it, AWD, good fuel econ, low on power but I could get over that if it sounded good. Herein lies the problem. You want an intake for the new impreza, opps, sorry... not available.

Der Käfer > Long Live the Longdoor 12/10/2013 at 07:58

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I should have looekd in to that before hand.