'00 Boxster S Headlight Burn marks
 

Hope someone can help. I have what appears to be "burn" marks on my headlights. Am not sure if this common or it might be that the previous owner put after-market bulbs in there.

I can live with the marks if it just simply changing the bulbs. The local dealer said it would be about $1500 to change the front headlights. They said that the system is sold as a set, that you can not just purchase the headlight with bulbs by themselves.

I'm new to this game so any and all insight is greatly appreciated

Just to clarify, you can buy bulbs by themselves for your car. But the part that has the burn would require to change out the whole unit(s).

I assume you have halogen bulbs and not Litronics/xenons? What year is your car?

It is expensive to replace those. However, their quote could easily land you a new set of Litronics/xenons from an alternative vendor. If you have normal headlights with halogen bulbs, you can always find a set on ebay for $300 (I'm guessing) if you don't mind the amber color for your turn signals.


Assuming your car is a 986 (1997-2004)...
Here's a set starting at $200.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-97-02-996-or-Boxster-Left-and-Right-Headlights_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ72Q3a1071Q7 c39Q3a1Q7c66Q3a2Q7c65Q3a12Q7c240Q3a1318QQ_trksidZp 3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem230280240716QQitemZ23028 0240716
Here's another for $300.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-Boxster-Headlights_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ72Q3a1071Q7 c39Q3a1Q7c66Q3a2Q7c65Q3a12Q7c240Q3a1318QQ_trksidZp 3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem320286112313QQitemZ32028 6112313QQtimeoutZ1218736984656


Since you're new, let me warn you, stay away from the dealership when it comes to repairs.

There's no need to pay that kind of money to a dealership to replace your headlights. They take all of 5 minutes to pop the old ones out and pop the new ones in. The tool needed is in your tool kit found in the spare tire.

I have a perfect set of headlights with bulbs left over from when I upgraded to litronics. I was going to put them on eBay next week, but would rather sell them to a forum member instead. $300, which includes shipping. They would come in the factory boxes too.

let me know if you're interested.

It's an '00 Boxster S. I am not sure what it specifically has as far as lighting goes, I do know that the previous owner put all kinds of crap on the car (attempted to put an underbody Neon kit). I did use the Porsche dealer for my last service (which cost $6000...RMS, axle(s), clutch, rings...) I contacted another repair place in Charleston but got a little worried when they told me they hadn't worked on a Boxster for quite some time.

Thumper...sounds good to me. Send me an e-mail to ocdbilly@yahoo.com so we can work out the particulars.

I really appreciate the offer

Thank you for rescuing that poor, poor car.

When I bought my car, the headlights were burned too. I was told it was from the previous owner installing blue xenon knock-off bulbs (probably ebay) which run much hotter than stock ones. Unfortunately, changing the bulbs will not help you. The inner housing is encased within the outer and can't be changed to my knowledge.

I ended up buying a new set of headlights (not litronic), but they are clear, I wanted to get rid of the amber anyway. I then installed an HID kit, pure white...none of that rice-rocket blue crap. That made an enormous difference in the look of the car at night. Look around on the internet, I don't remember where I got them but I paid about $900 for the pair of headlights and the HID kit was about $100.

If you're not planning on "de-ambering" the set for sale below is a steal, I'd snatch those up while you can! Good luck!

I appreciate all of the insight. The car is currently de-ambered and I plan on keeping it that way. I do appreciate the offer from Thumper. The more I look into things on my '00, the more crap that I find that has to be replaced. I am trying to bring it back to the original condition, but de-ambered of course. Anyone know where I can find the inserts for the side air intakes? I realized last night that there are different ones on each side. I should find the previous owner that did this stuff and...

No problem. I'd keep it de-ambered too. Different side air intakes? Can you post pics? I'd like to change mine out for some '03-'04 style ones.

If anyone is interested in a pair of "Ambered" headlights in excellent condition, let me know!

Those parts are different. That's actually how it's supposed to be. One is intake (driver side), the other exhaust.

Thanks Jeph...I had noticed that the two were of different design and thought that someone might have changed a side.