In the end of August I smoked a deer with the Bonneville. Insurance fixed me all up, but they elected to go with an aftermarket brand instead of OEM on the headlight assembly. I was looking at it, and it appears it will just come apart like the OEM ones. I was just wondering if anyone'* ever cleared any aftermarket headlights on the '00+'*?

Right now my car has a road rashed 70k miles cleared headlight, and a 1k miles aftermarket UN-cleared, UN-road rashed headlight.

I'm still a little P.O.'d they gave me an aftermarket housing, but complaining resulted in no luck. The morons even replaced my expensive G.E. Nighthawk bulbs, and SS turn signal bulb with cheapo ones... So, now I have a noticeably brighter headlight on the passenger side.

At least the $3000 in deer damage was whittled down to only my $500 deductible.

deer man they will get you everytime lol ive hit 4 already. i would of been mad about the light did they go with aftermarket cause it was cheaper?

i see no reason why it could not be cleared.

Yeah, they wanted to cut costs.

Thanks Haro, I was just looking at it, and everything looks to be exactly the same, except the calibration whatsit is missing. The metal clips actually look smaller, so hopefully means they'll come off easier.

Yes it can and will be cleared.

lol @ "will be"

i have done 2 aftermarket lights in my day. the only difference in clearing them are that they glue is a bit... different... to work with, a bit harder to loosen up, but easier to work with as it has less elasticity

Well, last time I baked my headlights at 200* for like 15 minutes to make the sealant loose. Any clue if that would help the non-OEM one?

I know this is a somewhat ancient thread, but wanted to update it in case anyone else in the future has the same question.

I did indeed get around (finally) to clearing my 'new' headlight housing, and it was pretty much exactly the same as the OEM one I did a while back. The major difference was just like Aaron said - the glue was really tough to loosen up. It was actually pretty tough. I just threw the lens assembly in the oven for 20 minutes at 200*. Once it came out the sealant was good and loose, which made it a breeze to take apart.

2nd difference was the amber/orange reflector has 2 screws inside the housing that held it in place. This was on 'lens' end of the reflector - closest to the middle of the headlight housing itself. I remember the OEM one was just snapped in place with tabs.

I did notice the chrome coating in the housing does look 'cheaper' than the OEM one. It is hard to describe, but it doesn't look as nice as the OEM one. It'* thin in spots, uneven in others, etc... Although, it isn't really noticeable when everything is fully assembled.

Just an FYI for anyone needing/wanting the info...

As a side note - if you have the option for either buying an OEM housing or aftermarket one, don't just base it on cost. I've found that the aftermarket one'* beam pattern to be a little lacking in comparison to the original OEM one. So, if you have the option and are replacing the headlight assembly - go OEM!