Urgent Headlight Question (headlights needed)

[TaikoHax]

I have a European Aerodeck and the headlights are...basically dangerous to drive with (i drove her from Portugal to UK before Xmas and i'm due to drive back this Tuesday).

I ordered ABAKUS 217-1127R-LD-E Headlight (and the corresponding opposite number) believing them to be the correct parts (as the site, autodoc i think it was, said they were the same as OEM 33151St3G11 /33101ST3G11).

Spoiler alert. They're not. Much more tapered edges and thicker front to back - close enough that I thought it might slide in with the bumper off, but once it was off it was clear that it wouldn't fit.

The Question/Help : Any idea where I can get left hand drive headlights in the UK that -actually- fit my model? As much as Autodoc website thinks they're the same as OEM it's clear they're not (my OEM's are CARELLO 76FR88FR 54532437 W5W3524). I'm in Hereford atm and don't mind driving over (different car lol!) on Monday if I can find the right supplier.

Car is a 1998/1999 1.5 Aerodeck

 

[dr_broon]

Hi. To be honest, I'd be surprised if you could even find new right hand drive headlights in the UK, never mind LHD ones.  It would have to be second hand I'm afraid, and the chance of getting left hand drive ones in the UK must be really small. 

What's the problem with your old ones? The lights in these cars are terrible at the best of times, the best bet is to get the best bulbs you can, folk on here in the past have either went for osram night breakers, or Philips extreme vision - I've used both but prefer the Philips ones. 

Other thing could be to clean up the plastic with one of the various products to get rid of the cloudy appearance. 

[TaikoHax]

(apologies, can't find the reply option)

Are there not alternative headlights that fit the OEM? For some reason I assumed that even if the OEM was out of stock there was always some equivalent to oem knocking about.

Mostly they're cloudy as hell, cracked and damaged - i have swapped the bulbs out as a just in case but realistically they need a complete swap.

[dr_broon]

I don't think anyone has ever found an alternative head light unit - just don't think there has ever been a big enough market for anyone to make them. 

From this page, it looks like the Honda Part number for the left hand drive model is 33101-ST3-G11 

https://www.parts-honda.uk/honda-cars/CIVIC-AERODECK/1999/VTI/ELECTRICAL-EQUIPMENTS-EXHAUST-HEATER/HEADLIGHT/17S1E01/B__0800/3/8455

 

There's a few on ebay at the mo with that part number, but all in Spain, Italy, Germany etc, so not much use for your trip this week. Maybe a headlight polishing kit is going to be your best bet for now. 

[frunkster]

Pollising them can make a huge difference, my old deck faild the MOT last year due to it, had them buffed out & went straight through, so maybe a quicker & cheaper fix than replacement units, as others have said you'd really struggle finding replacements in LHD here in the UK & I don't think you can even still buy OME new, so even if you got a set they'd be 2nd hand, just take your time & they should come back up fairly well, it's an ongoing process though, once they start clouding out it's a once every couple of years job

[SirPaperbag]

Here in Germany you can still get tons of aftermarket headlights, regardless of you having a facelift or pre-facelift model. My primary source for parts like this is good ol' eBay.

Could be that the German version has a completely different catalogue of offerings, but in the age of machine learning and LLMs you can easily navigate the German version (ebay.de) by copy/pasting the text, or even using translation tools built into your browser.

My only concern would be shipping in a post-Brexit world, but I recently ordered something from Rimmerbros for my Civic, so that shouldn't be a huge issue.