1995 mark viii headlight options?

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LuxuryO

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I have been hoping i could buy a complete aftermarket headlight assembly that was loaded with LEDs or anything better than what my 95 headlights look like now.
I just got the car a month ago, so I am way behind on knowing the newest or best options, heck any options. I dont think i want to restore my lenses...those are beat up bad.
Is there a aftermarket assembly?
What options do i have? Its a 1995.
 
Welcome to the forum!

You have a few options;

You can buy a pair of (NOS) new/old stock headlight assembly, which by the way, tend to be expensive.

Buy a used pair that is in better condition than what you have now for significantly less than the cost of NOS.

or... Recondition the pair you have now.

and sorry, There are no aftermarket headlight assembly made for the Mark VIII!
 
Restore yours or replace with a better quality used set of lenses. Add new Silverstars/Xtra Vision bulbs and call it a day honestly.
 
i have at least 3 pairs of the fluted lenses and also have a set of HID housings for a 93-96 Gen I, they all have been on the shelf for years and all need to be cleaned up but they are all intact. I have too many cars at this late stage in life and will be selling my 96 soon. I only put 200 miles on it this year, it sits in my garage with a trickle charger hooked up to it...last time I drove it, I noticed it needed to have the wheels balanced (again) from flat-spotting of what are practically new tires, it is a shame this car doesn't get used so it will need to go.
I have a lot of spare parts collected over the past 12 years including the vital parts a 96 needs like ECM's, VLCM's and IMRC solenoids. Thinking of doing a cross-country move in the next year and will not be taking all my cars that I have collected-too much stuff, so I'm going to sell the Mark locally.
 
Have any of you replaced the halogen bulbs with LED bulbs in your stock 95/96 Mark housings, and if so, how did you like them?
Ron
P.S. I used the Harbor Freight lens cleaning kit plus using my own 1500 and 2000 grit paper before using their polishing pad/compound and it worked great.
 
Last edited:
97 Octane said:
Welcome to the forum!

You have a few options;

You can buy a pair of (NOS) new/old stock headlight assembly, which by the way, tend to be expensive.

Buy a used pair that is in better condition than what you have now for significantly less than the cost of NOS.

or... Recondition the pair you have now.

and sorry, There are no aftermarket headlight assembly made for the Mark VIII!
Click to expand...
Wow these are so terrible. Crazy bad... i will look around. Thanks.
 
Old Blue said:
Have any of you replaced the halogen bulbs with LED bulbs in your stock 95/96 Mark housings, and if so, how did you like them?
Ron
P.S. I used the Harbor Freight lens cleaning kit plus using my own 1500 and 2000 grit paper before using their polishing pad/compound and it worked great.
Click to expand...
Thanks i may give it a run!
 
Old Blue said:
Have any of you replaced the halogen bulbs with LED bulbs in your stock 95/96 Mark housings, and if so, how did you like them?
Ron
P.S. I used the Harbor Freight lens cleaning kit plus using my own 1500 and 2000 grit paper before using their polishing pad/compound and it worked great.
Click to expand...
No but i needed this info! Thanks guys!
 
mikemark8 said:
i have at least 3 pairs of the fluted lenses and also have a set of HID housings for a 93-96 Gen I, they all have been on the shelf for years and all need to be cleaned up but they are all intact. I have too many cars at this late stage in life and will be selling my 96 soon. I only put 200 miles on it this year, it sits in my garage with a trickle charger hooked up to it...last time I drove it, I noticed it needed to have the wheels balanced (again) from flat-spotting of what are practically new tires, it is a shame this car doesn't get used so it will need to go.
I have a lot of spare parts collected over the past 12 years including the vital parts a 96 needs like ECM's, VLCM's and IMRC solenoids. Thinking of doing a cross-country move in the next year and will not be taking all my cars that I have collected-too much stuff, so I'm going to sell the Mark locally.
Click to expand...
How much for a set of lenses?


How much for the housings for my 95?
 
97 Octane said:
Welcome to the forum!

You have a few options;

You can buy a pair of (NOS) new/old stock headlight assembly, which by the way, tend to be expensive.

Buy a used pair that is in better condition than what you have now for significantly less than the cost of NOS.

or... Recondition the pair you have now.

and sorry, There are no aftermarket headlight assembly made for the Mark VIII!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the welcome too! Im on done RC car forums and those guys are on them a lot more frequently. Thank you for the help.
 
Old Blue said:
Have any of you replaced the halogen bulbs with LED bulbs in your stock 95/96 Mark housings, and if so, how did you like them?
Ron
P.S. I used the Harbor Freight lens cleaning kit plus using my own 1500 and 2000 grit paper before using their polishing pad/compound and it worked great.
Click to expand...
I installed some LEDs for the Low beams on my 94. Couldnt see JACK! So I moved them in the High beam compartment instead. Wicked Bright! I then installed an aftermarket 55 watt HID kit in for the low beams. I can see better than the other ones to a marginal degree. They illuminate things better, light up signs, road lines, etc and I have not been beamed by other drivers.

Im thinking I know why the low beams dont perform as good as I like. Inside the headlamp housing low beam there is a steel black cap, the cap is in front of the bulb and blocks it. I have an old hsg that I plan to refurbish. I might have a good mind to drill out that cap from the inside, test it and see how it does. I know about lighting and reflectors and that cap is intended for a reason, but I think its hurting the light output. Chances are the caps might have been coated with mirror chromed finish that has long since burned away with age as my caps have a black/rusted look. Im gonna try drilling out the low beam cap.
 
The cap in the low beam reflector in our Mark is there to reduce glare to on-coming traffic while using conventional bulbs that emits omni-directional light dispersion like that of incandescent, halogen or even high-intensity. The cap just blocks the unfocused, forward emitting light while the rest of the light beam hits the entire portion parabolic reflector and disperses the focused beam on the roadway.

Today's LED bulbs are bright but typically throws a limited, narrow horizontal beam pattern and does not have the omni-directional light output that our reflectors are meant to capture. In other words, our decades old headlight reflector design was not maximized to capture and reflect today's LED bulb technology's unique light pattern. It is sort of a mis-match and it tends to fall short of our performance expectations, but you do get is a nice white to bluish-white light cast in front of you at night. In short, the cap is not the issue for the poor light output.

In my opinion, the use of LED bulbs are better suited for projector retrofit upgrades as seen on a YouTube video, comparing different bulb types in different headlight types.

On the Gen1 Mark VIII, the cap is chemically etched and coated in black ceramic. Removal is easy without drilling. The cap is compression clipped to the headlight housing. It can be removed using angled long-nosed pliers from the bulb socket. Simply grab each cap attachment arm with the tool and wiggle it away from the housing, going back and forth on each arm until it's detached. The whole cap assembly fits through the bulb socket opening for removal. Re-assembly is just as easy!
 
97 Octane said:
............"Today's LED bulbs are bright but typically throw a limited, narrow horizontal beam pattern and do not have the omni-directional light output that our reflectors are meant to capture. In other words, our decades old headlight reflector design was not maximized to capture and reflect today's LED bulb technology's unique light pattern. It is sort of a mis-match and it tends to fall short of our performance expectations, but you do get is a nice white to bluish-white light cast in front of you at night. In short, the cap is not the issue for the poor light output.

In my opinion, the use of LED bulbs are better suited for projector retrofit upgrades as seen on a YouTube video, comparing different bulb types in different headlight types.

On the Gen1 Mark VIII, the cap is chemically etched and coated in black ceramic. Removal is easy without drilling. The cap is compression clipped to the headlight housing. It can be removed using angled long-nosed pliers from the bulb socket. Simply grab each cap attachment arm with the tool and wiggle it away from the housing, going back and forth on each arm until it's detached. The whole cap assembly fits through the bulb socket opening for removal. Re-assembly is just as easy!
Click to expand...

Now, there is the information I have unsuccessfully hunted for since we bought our 1st Mark8 earlier this year.

Thank you 97 Octane for a thorough explanation of why LED bulbs don't really fix the lighting problem on Gen.1 cars even after restoring the lens.
Ron
 
mikemark8 said:
i have at least 3 pairs of the fluted lenses and also have a set of HID housings for a 93-96 Gen I, they all have been on the shelf for years and all need to be cleaned up but they are all intact. I have too many cars at this late stage in life and will be selling my 96 soon. I only put 200 miles on it this year, it sits in my garage with a trickle charger hooked up to it...last time I drove it, I noticed it needed to have the wheels balanced (again) from flat-spotting of what are practically new tires, it is a shame this car doesn't get used so it will need to go.
I have a lot of spare parts collected over the past 12 years including the vital parts a 96 needs like ECM's, VLCM's and IMRC solenoids. Thinking of doing a cross-country move in the next year and will not be taking all my cars that I have collected-too much stuff, so I'm going to sell the Mark locally.
Click to expand...
Hello, just bought a 1994 do you have anymore headlight fixtures?
 
mikemark8 said:
i have at least 3 pairs of the fluted lenses and also have a set of HID housings for a 93-96 Gen I, they all have been on the shelf for years and all need to be cleaned up but they are all intact. I have too many cars at this late stage in life and will be selling my 96 soon. I only put 200 miles on it this year, it sits in my garage with a trickle charger hooked up to it...last time I drove it, I noticed it needed to have the wheels balanced (again) from flat-spotting of what are practically new tires, it is a shame this car doesn't get used so it will need to go.
I have a lot of spare parts collected over the past 12 years including the vital parts a 96 needs like ECM's, VLCM's and IMRC solenoids. Thinking of doing a cross-country move in the next year and will not be taking all my cars that I have collected-too much stuff, so I'm going to sell the Mark locally.
Click to expand...

mikemark8

Man, you are literally close by me (by about 40 miles). I'd be very interested in your stash.

I have the same type of stash for my former Gen1/Gen2/Gen3 Chrysler Sebring Convertibles (I manage a Sebring Convertible Club forum/website).... about 5 members of my Sebring forum also have stashes (we go to the Junk Yard occasionally and get the easy to remove parts that people usually need). Then if a member of our Sebring forum needs a part, one of us 6 members will connect with that person and we just charge our cost for the part and the shipping (we don't worry about our labor, as these cars are a labor of love).

Now that I've joined this forum, I'd love to be able to do the same thing for this forum also (if possible).... I'm more than willing to relocate your stash to my garage if you wouldn't mind doing this. Not everyone has a lot of money (one member joined this forum today looking for help with her engine and she is a single mother on a fixed income - for example).

Please message me if that is something you'd be interested in doing.
 
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