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Comment by Wistar | Hacker News Reader

On a BMW 760i (V12) the driver’s side LED/laserlight headlight lens was badly fogged. These are sealed units and not repairable. Cost to replace? $9,600. It was covered under factory warranty but… whoa.

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> These are sealed units and not repairable

Not repairable by a minimum effort flat rate tech in the US...

There's probably some guy in Latvia that has a Youtube instructional on how to re-seal it or something. $9600 is a hell of a motive to figure out how to repair it.

That's just BMW cheating customers. Or you might argue that they are cheating insurance companies, since most crunched headlights are replaced under insurance.

Yep. You may not be able to get it to Brand New Out of the box OEM shine but I bet there are a dozen acetone/sandpaper/lacquer/toothpaste/hydrogen peroxide something or anothers that could get you to 99% of new quality for less than $20.

Headlights are considered safety critical. None of the manufacturers will (and should!) allow a certified mechanic to rejuvenate and reseal a headlight unit under factory warranty. A manufacturer will always replace the unit, just to be able to warrant the repair.

You can DIY it of course, but no BMW 760i owner is ever expected to do that.

Under warranty? Sure, let the manufacturer handle it.

Outside of warranty? Don't give a company 10 grand for 74 cents worth of plastic and chrome.

I wouldn’t go that far. Their light output and the steerability of their output is fairly stunning. They can’t be very cheap to make, but not $9k either.

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