Is TYC any good?

[Hamilton Felix]

I gather Depo is good, as aftermarket headlights go, but Eagle Eyes is garbage. I believe I noticed a TYC sticker on a headlight I replaced a while ago, maybe our second 2007 Corolla that we bought in 2017. I am thinking about replacement fog lights for our WJ Grand Cherokee, a 1999 Laredo. Would TYC fogs be alright?

 

[Alaric Darconville]

I gather Depo is good, as aftermarket headlights go, but Eagle Eyes is garbage.

Depo is typically only good for a narrow range of GM replacement lamps-- and are marked GM, not Depo.

I believe I noticed a TYC sticker on a headlight I replaced a while ago, maybe our second 2007 Corolla that we bought in 2017.

TYC makes a variety of underperforming "OEM style" lamps, the Corolla ones being among them.

I am thinking about replacement fog lights for our WJ Grand Cherokee, a 1999 Laredo. Would TYC fogs be alright?

Fog lamps being largely useless, and generally needing to be left off, I suppose there's little harm (other than keeping TYC in business in handing them your money) in getting a TYC lamp to return symmetry to the vehicle's outward appearance, but I wouldn't count on their performance.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

Virgil suggested some Depo lights for a 1993 Ford Ranger. The Depo light I received for passenger side was pretty good. One of Amazon's many sellers did a bait & switch and sent me an Eagle Eyes drivers side light, and it was garbage. I would not be surprised if the TYC light I removed when installing new Toyota lights was due to past body work before I owned that Corolla.


The fogs on our Grand Cherokee are still working, but getting a bit - - foggy. It's a 1999 vehicle. I actually do find them useful to see to the sides when at very low speeds out in the woods. I wanted better (as in "new") lights for a better beam pattern. Sounds like I should avoid being tempted by price, and see if I can still run down factory lights.

The problem with all these built-in factory fog lights is that nothing else fits. Back in the days when they just bolted under the bumper, you could install Cibie 175 or Marchal 950 fogs if you felt like it. Guess I'm old and grumpy today.

 

[Alaric Darconville]

Virgil suggested some Depo lights for a 1993 Ford Ranger.

And when he did, he said:

a set of the least-stinky cheap aftermarket lamps

The least-stinky garbage on the dinner table is STILL stinky garbage. They're by no means the preferable lamps but they're cheap and at least minimally bad.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

I can understand that, thanks. I just got lucky and found a New Old Stock drivers side on eBay for cheap, then had to pay a lot more for genuine passenger side from MoparPartsGiant. Bought a replacement underhood light, too. Sometimes it's good to have the Real Thing. But I will keep Depo and maybe TYC in mind when the budget is really tight and the Real Thing is unavailable.

 

[-Virgil-]

It would be great if we lived in a world where original-equipment lights were available forever and at realistic prices. But unfortunately we don't, because the sealed-beam era is long since behind us. It's legitimate to rant about the inferior quality, performance, and durability of off-brand lamps -- I do that myself -- but at the end of the day, sometimes original lamps aren't on the menu (unavailable or unaffordable). Then the task falls to picking the best remaining option. That's usually going to be Dorman, Depo or TYC. They don't match original quality, performance, or durability, but they're better than most of the other aftermarket junk on the market. And while aftermarket "certifications" like CAPA are largely sales tools that don't actually mean what they'd like you to believe they mean, at least they're some minimal, nominal effort towards accountability. Likewise, the NSF certification doesn't mean aftermarket lights that have it are equal to original lights, but the NSF program (see here and here) has something going for it that "CAPA certification" does not: NSF is a recognized, reputable, independent testing outfit like UL and ETL. (CAPA is just basically a lobbying outfit whose main aim is to get insurance companies to fix your car with aftermarket parts made by CAPA's members rather than with genuine parts).

In practice, the most likely effect of programs like this is that the best lights to come off the production line at Depo and TYC get the NSF label. The ones that aren't good enough for the NSF label get the CAPA label. The ones that don't merit the CAPA label don't get either label. This isn't a big secret or anything, and it's not limited to Chinese manufacture or to any one industry. It works the same for light bulbs: the ones that meet all the specs go to the automakers for OE install. The ones that meet most of the specs go to the automakers for replacement parts. The ones that come close to meeting most of the specs get packaged up as first-brand replacements and sold through jobbers and parts stores. The ones that'll probably work pretty much OK get sold under second or "value" brands. And the ones that light up (and don't ask about any specs) get sold as generics.