The old adage that "You get what you paid for!" sure hit home this week. Four years ago when I rebuilt this front end after the car was in an accident, I used ebay to source parts. Most of the parts are Taiwanese aftermarket stuff, but I remember that there were no headlight assemblies available from Taiwan at the time -- at least I couldn't find any and confirm via email that they were actually from Taiwan. So, I needed to get the car back on the road and settled for Chinese aftermarket.
Over the last month, these assemblies started to leak and retain massive amounts of water. The seals are toast, and I have to install new parts. Luckily I was able to get a set of quality parts from a trusted ebay source.
Both sides -- leaked like a sieve, and at about the same time.
Once the grill comes off, the replacements are easily installed, but the aggravation of having to do a job like this after only four years is a PITA.
Only good thing to come out of this is that I was able to inspect my old body repair and welding work, and it has held up very well. It will outlast the life of the car.
The new assemblies are much better quality -- they fit better at the body and fender seams.
Everything works -- only an hour of my time, but it's good to know that the cheap Chinese crap is out and the better parts are installed.
Cheers -- Have a great weekend everyone!!!