Purchased a 2004 Toyota Sienna LE (halogen) last year. The OEM housings by then leaked and were worn out. The choice was either close to $500 for OEM replacements or $150 for Eagles Eyes "OEM" equivalent (not!).
Yeah, if you're going to drive at night at all, you really need the genuine lamps...everything else is a lamp-shaped toy/trinket.
At the same time I purchased a set of Philips X-treme Vision 9005/9006 to place in the new headlights and took it to my mechanic who does Maryland State Inspections and has a optical aimer to make sure they were adjusted properly. He noticed immediately that the light intensity was much higher than he expected to see (due to the bulbs) and we aimed the lights accordingly.
I'm not sure what you mean...the beam aim doesn't really depend on the intensity, it depends on the type of headlamp and its mount height.
The pattern of light was never good with these headlights. It shone weird shapes against the wall, seem to throw light where most high beams would throw light, didn't really shine so much light on the road and to boot recently started leaking.
Yep, sounds typical of the aftermarket "headlamps".
I convinced the Ebay company to give me a full refund on the lights
Good! That can sometimes be an uphill battle.
and picked up a set of OEM (from a Toyota dealership) that I have had installed (with the Philips X-treme Vision) but have it parked until I can make sure that they are adjusted properly per the optical aimer.
So far, so good, you're thinking along the right lines.
I'm going after Eagle Eyes for the install fee and aiming fee that I paid for a subpar set.
Oooohhhboy. Good luck with that. You are dealing with a Chinese company and their American importation-and-marketing outfit, with only two interests: selling their garbage, and selling more of their garbage.
Cheating is their most important product (hit the link, see what I mean).
I don't even know how they get away with selling their products when they are so far from OEM quality.
Pretty much they do it by just simply lying. "OEM quality", "SAE/DOT approved", etc, are the basic lies. They've also set up groups such as CAPA, the "Certified Auto Parts Association", to gussy-up the image of their knockoff parts, create the illusion of a difference between "CAPA certified" parts and non-certified parts, and lobby insurance companies, body shops, and consumers to specify their junk rather than legitimate parts. The BS they spin is that CAPA-certified parts are "genuine replacement parts". Nice bit of tapdancing with words, there.
The CAPA criteria is that the aftermarket item must be certified as meeting the requirements of FMVSS 108, and that it must look the same as the original lamp. It spends a whole lot more words on "looks the same" than it does on actual performance, which is just left as a matter of "must be certified as meeting the requirements of FMVSS 108". Which basically means the trinket factory in China has to say "Yes, we promise it's legal"...and that's fine, as long as the part is cosmetically a convincing-enough knockoff, and the maker pays its CAPA dues, then the part is "CAPA certified". This is reflected in CAPA's
complaint program; read it and see what they do when a complaint is initiated: they buy the allegedly crappy part, and the genuine OE part, and they install them on a vehicle. If the crappy aftermarket part fits, they say "It fits, so what's the problem?" and close the complaint.
But even if we suspend our disbelief for a moment, and assume the aftermarket-headlight makers aren't telling their usual pack of lies, that still doesn't mean jack squat. A ****-poor tungsten sealed-beam headlamp is legal; it meets the requirements of FMVSS 108. The CAPA specification doesn't say the aftermarket item has to match the performance of the original, it says it has to be certified as meeting the requirements of FMVSS 108.
More proof that CAPA is a bunch of clowns: Have a look at
this report, published by CAPA itself, presenting the results of a DOT-sponsored scrutiny of original-equipment and aftermarket versions of headlamps. Total failure of the aftermarket lamps, some of which wouldn't even bolt onto the vehicles they were supposedly for. And this was with TYC and Depo, two of the supposedly "best" lines of aftermarket car lights. The dirt is on pages 21 and 30 if you don't want to read the full report. Yes, you read it right: CAPA itself trots out this damning report as if it's some kind of proof that "CAPA certified" parts are just as good as original equipment.
Yet more proof that CAPA is a bunch of clowns: take a look at
this. It shows a genuine Ford bumper reinforcement and then a "non CAPA-certified" aftermarket item in impact tests. The aftermarket junk flies apart, of course. No structural integrity at all. Zero crash protection. But I can't help feeling like that something's missing from the video, like the comparison's somehow incomplete. Wait a moment, I think I know what it is: they don't show us how a "CAPA-certified" aftermarket item performs in the same test. Duhhhhhh...I wonder why not?
Still more proof CAPA is not at all about warm, fuzzy things like quality control and safety performance: they're in Washington DC. What's the major industry there? Is it auto parts? No, it's lobbying.
The latest game is so-called "NSF certification" for aftermarket car lights. Second verse, same as the first. The average consumer doesn't know there's no such thing as "DOT/SAE approval", doesn't know the difference between DOT, SAE, CAPA, and NSF...they're going to see "certified" or "approved" and say OK. Add that to the political lobbying to basically force consumers to accept this garbage via body shops and insurance companies, and life is super happy for the trinket makers.
Is there any group at the DOT or NHTSA that I can get in touch with about this company and their products?
You can try filing a report with NHTSA's
Office of Defect Investigation, but I hope you can hold your breath for a long, long time.
I'll never go with another non OEM application when it comes to headlights.
aftermarket taillights and other safety lights aren't so hot, either.
Even for 1/3 of the price they are still a waste of money.
That is quite true!