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DON'T USE AFTERMARKET LIGHT COVERS!

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Introduction Stongard Evidence What to do

Introduction

The HID headlamps of the C6 cost $1300 each, if bought through my local dealearship. You may do better with some online vendors. Fred Beans Auto Parts usually has some good deals, and the last I checked they were selling the headlamp assembly for $900 - I'm sure this is the best that you'll find, so give them a call if you need one.

Because these headlamps are so expensive to replace, there are many aftermarket vendors who sell "Headlamp protectors". These are transparent covers which adhere by adhesive, with the idea that they will absorb the impact of a stone and prevent damage to the headlamps. It seems like a good idea -- except current opinion is that these can acutally cause the lamp covers to crack! This seems to have been the case for me.

I cannot prove that my headlamp covers causedthe cracks, but this is the best theory as to why so many Vette owners see their headlamps get thes spiderwebbing cracks without any true damage to the lights at all.

Here are some pictures of my right headlamp roughly 21 months after installing the Stongard light protectors:

cracks cracks2
Headlamp cracks that occurred without trauma
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Stongard light protectors

Let me make this clear - I do NOT want anyone out there to install these light protectors. First of all, at least one corvetteforum member was totally ripped off and lost all his money when he tried to order these in 2006. There seems to be no reputable dealer in the USA. Second, as stated above, there is a growing suspicion that these covers, and others like them, may be responsible for the spider webbing cracks that have plagued C6 drivers.

But here are a couple of pictures to show you what we're talking about:

stongard on left light stongard side view
Stongard light protectors have a good external appearance, and are 98 mil thick - the thickest in existence, to my knowledge. The popular Xpel headlight protection is roughly 40 ml thick.

These are applied without any heat, and just adhere by means of a powerful adhesive

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Evidence

There is no controlled study to prove that headlamp protectors cause the C6 headlamp covers to fail. I cannot offer any direct evidence. Unless you were to buy 1000 headlamps, and apply protectors to 500 of them, wait months to years and see if only the ones with covers cracked, we will never be able to prove this. At $1300 a piece, that little study would cost $1.3 million dollars for parts alone, so rest assured it will never be done.

So all I can offer is the reading of many "case reports" of other C6 owners who have had spontaneous cracking of the lamps. In my reading, all but one of them have had headlamp protectors installed.

If you're interested in this topic, it's easy enough to search yourself in the various Corvette forums for more information. Here are a few links of interest:

My thread on Corvetteforum.com Pdf version of my forum post.

Note the post in that thread by "calemasters" which contains an apparent technical service bulletin for Hummers with the same issue.

One more note: yes, I'm seeing the same type of cracks in my right foglamp lens, which I also had covered by Stongard. Needless to say, I've removed all Stongard from my vehicle, with no plans ever to use this type of thing again. Live and learn

To sum up, evidence is weak, but there seem to be only a few possible answers to why a C6 like mine would have cracked headlamps clearly without damage (see the pattern of the cracks).

  1. Effects of uneven heating and cooling - possibly associated with covers
  2. Manufacturer defect in the plastic casing of the headlamp
  3. Headlamp casings weakened by adhesive, or other solvents applied to the headlamps (in my case, nothing ever touched the lamps except the covers)
  4. Some fat guy is secretly sneaking into our garages, and sitting on the headlamps without our knowledge
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What to do ?

There are only a few options here.
  1. Take it to the dealer. I would advise you to take the covers off first. Dishonest? I don't know. But it's probably best not to give them an excuse to avoid fixing the light
  2. Buy it yourself from Fred Beans, install yourself. You'll have to partially remove the fender, and to do that you'll need a shop manual. About a 2 hour job
  3. Claim it as glass damage from routine driving, on your automobile comprehensive insurance.

For me, I had to go to my dealer 3 times to ask about this, waited about 2 months while they checked into the issue, and showed my photographs to the regional GM authorities. Finally they did agree to fix the light, and did a nice job of it - at no cost.

But of course I hope if you're reading this, you can avoid my plight entirely. Do not install any headlamp protectors. In my lifetime I've never had a crack in a headlamp from a stone! Yet within 6 months of installing my first set of headlamp protectors, I had spiderweb cracks appeared spontaneously, with only 1000 miles on the car! So at least for me it seems that the odds of damage with "protectors" are much higher than the odds of damage from driving.

The C6 sure looks a lot nicer without those hideous cracks!

front after replacement lamp after fix
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