Sylvania Headlight Housing Attack

NoLimit95

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For starters, some of you I know have yellow or inner burned headlight housings 93 thru 98 and if enough of us get involved and start shooting emails to the right person, we could possibly get a recall or at least make them produce some new housings (and HID bulbs) for us to buy at a cheaper rate. You never know what you might end up getting out of the deal but it's worth a shot to just try. I myself have clear housings because they were purchased in 04 and I got the car in 05 where it has been garage kept since then. I also have HID's and they don't produce hardly any heat at all. I don't drive much at night, rarely to be honest but people have lost their lives and injuries have occurred because of something that Sylvania made that sucked, especially for a $40,000 luxury car. I took the time today and sent the right person an email and just simply told them how I felt about making something so cheap and putting a high wattage bulb in such a small area, knowing that the reflective material would burn.

You people with factory HID's need to speak up about your bulbs that they made for your car and now no longer produce. It's not right that so much money was spent for these cars new and have one of the main things needed to drive at night become a hazard. What if you were the original owner of your car and you really did spend nearly $40K for it? Would you want to tell someone that you can't take your child to his night time ball game because you can't drive your car at night? Would you want to be driving yourself and others in your car during the night and go off the side of the road, simply because you can't see the edge? Maybe this will go nowhere and then again, it might bring back what many of us need, which are factory housings, OEM HID bulbs, well, you know what you need and don't need. It never hurts to try and it will only take a few minutes of your time to send this person an email. I put a lot of time into my email and I got a response. The email I sent is pretty long and I was being an a s s about it but I said what I felt. The email address is below and the response I got back is below that. Everyone get together on this and lets see what we can make happen.

tracey.guild@sylvania.com

Hi Terry,
Thank you for sending us your concerns. I just wanted to advise you that we have forwarded your concern to Valeo Sylvania as they are the ones that produce this part in question.

[FONT=&quot]Best Regards,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Tracey Guild[/FONT]
New office hours effective 6/1/09: M-F 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM EST
Phone: 603-464-7607
Fax: 800-347-3411 or 603-464-5908
tracey.guild@sylvania.com
 
I used to own a 1976 Cutlass and I can still go out here and buy new headlights for it if I needed one. Like I said, I don't need clear housings because I have them but some of us don't and no matter how old it is, they should still supply something that was made for a high end car, especially the Gen II people and the later 95's and 96's with HID's. If they're gonna stop making a bulb, at least offer a replacement to work instead of depending on ebay sellers with used ones. Might work for a week or if lucky, you might get a year or so out of it. I got bored today and thought I'd just get some :q:q:q:q stirred up lol but anything can happen. To you and to me, it's not relevant but to a lot of other Mark owners, it might be. I just think if others would speak up, they may or may not do something about it. Honestly,the OEM HID bulb is relevant for many Mark owners. I mean, I like my aftermarket HID system I have now and I can see fine at night but it's the principal of the matter.
 
I have forgotten how many recall initiatives have been proposed for the Mark VIII headlamps over the years.

It couldn't happen back years ago and it damn sure ain't going anywhere now.

Just being brutally honest.

Ford gave up with Sylvania and retooled the replacement headlamps to halogens. The Gen1 HIDs have been orphaned and Ford still supplies new halogen housings.
 
Fords solution! I just wanna see what Sylvania's solution or reply will be, if any.

Sylvania wouldn't re-up their supply agreement with Ford, plain and simple. I'm sure Ford found Sylvania's demands unreasonable and Sylvania had no interest in loosing money. So much so that Ford re-engineered the Gen2 HIDs to a halogen setup rather than give in to Sylvania.
 
Sylvania wouldn't re-up their supply agreement with Ford, plain and simple. I'm sure Ford found Sylvania's demands unreasonable and Sylvania had no interest in loosing money. So much so that Ford re-engineered the Gen2 HIDs to a halogen setup rather than give in to Sylvania.

thats exactly what happened
 
Well if I crashed my car due to poor lighting (if I ever buy a gen 1 again) can I sue ford for making such a :q:q:q:q product? Its total BS that a 11 year old car has discontinued.... headlight bulbs!?!!! wtf and when this problem came up originally it must have been like a 5 year old car. Unacceptable on fords and sylvanias part.
 
Well if I crashed my car due to poor lighting (if I ever buy a gen 1 again) can I sue ford for making such a :q:q:q:q product? Its total BS that a 11 year old car has discontinued.... headlight bulbs!?!!! wtf and when this problem came up originally it must have been like a 5 year old car. Unacceptable on fords and sylvanias part.


Exactly what I'm getting at. If this has been thrown at them already and they didn't do anything, then I doubt they will. I do agree though, the HID bulb was discontinued entirely too fast.

How much does Ford charge on average for one new Gen I housing? I know that the guy on ebay sells them for $224.95 + shipping for each one. One day he's going to run out of them and then all we'll have left are ebay sellers parting out cars. Mine look new now but I know what's ahead in the future so I might get one now and then next month, get the other side and just keep them put up for when that day comes. I will be driving that car for years to come unless it just becomes beyond repair.
 
Does ford sell new HID housings for the gen one, you know the ones with clear lens?
 
+1 some people complain just for the sake of complaining. most plastic lenses yellow after a few years, its nothing new.

its not really the yellowing, its the burning of the inside chrome thats the issue, yellowing is i 5 min cure, rechroming the inside is a day or 2 project
 
It doesn't matter if the headlights were disintegrating into dust, Ford isn't going to do anything about it... you have a 5 year window, TOPS for any kind of warranty/recall... the newest Mark is 12 years old...
 
Why would i give a *hit if ford\sylvania doesnt produce factory HID bulbs anymore? Aftermarket is better and cheaper.

As for the housings, no one is ever going to make new housings. There just isnt a big enough market for it. Your best best is to restore them like jamie does.
 
What about the cruise control recall? Mine was well after 5 years and was a recall. I took it and had it disconnected and they are still sending me letters just last week to bring it back and have it fixed. I think my car was about 13 or 14 years old before it was recalled. It caused deaths, burned people alive and burned down houses.
 
or modify your housing to fit a projector after restoring the plastic....not sure if anyone has tried it, but sounds like a decent solution
 
Fords solution! I just wanna see what Sylvania's solution or reply will be, if any.

Sylvania's reply will be the same today as it was 10 years ago.

And I QUOTE... "F*UCK FORD and those headlights".

Ford totally screwed Sylvania when they contracted them to produce the lights.

These aren't the actual numbers, because when I went thru this before it was 10 years ago.

But the scenario is.

Ford Contracted Sylvania to produce 100,000 sets <--number is wrong)

Sylvania got 20K of them done and delivered to ford, then they finished up the 80K other units in normal production time.

Then when they were completed, Sylvania said "come get your lights, they are finished".

Ford said.. Send us anothetr 20K bulbs and we'll buy more as we need them.

SO ford STUCK sylvania with STORAGE on 80K+ bulbs and only bought them in small 20K unit lots... which was NOT the arrangment that was initially made.

Since ford would only buy and pay for "small batches" Sylvania said "when they are GONE, they are GONE".. we're DONE WITH FORD.

Then when the initial run of bulbs and housings ran out, Ford asked Sylvania to produce MORE..and what do you think Sylvania said...

YUP.. they told ford to take a FLYING LEAP.

So then ford said.. OK.. will you sell us the tooling for the bulbs and housings..and again..
Sylvania shot ford the BIG BLUE BIRD and told them to F*CK OFF.

this is what I got out of a phone conversation with a Sylvania rep 10 years ago.
OF course I added some "colorful metaphors" that weren't in the original conversation, but the "message was the same".


Ford Screwed with Sylvania MUCH in the same way it screwed with International Navstar with the powerstroke diesel production....
which is why ford had increasing troubles with the powerstroke production due to the supplier holding the engines until they got paid for them...and I think International NavStar is still trying to get paid.


Ford Screwed the pooch on this one..
 
Well if I crashed my car due to poor lighting (if I ever buy a gen 1 again) can I sue ford for making such a :q:q:q:q product? Its total BS that a 11 year old car has discontinued.... headlight bulbs!?!!! wtf and when this problem came up originally it must have been like a 5 year old car. Unacceptable on fords and sylvanias part.

see Ford Pinto...
 
If you guys want I can try to formulate an email that highlights what laws they violated regardless if it's past the statute of limitations we could at that point make bad publicity for them if the situation is not rectified. If it's not a broken law we can hit them with how they ethically deceived their customers and again use word of mouth and publicity as our tool. The internet is a powerful tool at our disposal, why not use it?

there has to be enough people willing to email them about it though.
 
We aren't their customers... did any of us buy the Mark new??

That means nothing! They built a product that is driving on public roads with no viable or reasonable option to adhere to local laws. Your headlights go out and you are out close to $1000! That is ridiculous and prohibits you from reasonably following DOT laws.

They are responsible for the cars they build within reason. It's one thing if they discontinue a seat track, or a radio. But making the headlights unavailable is a big no no!
 

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