Put it in an oven and set it to a higher temp....you have to bake them. I don't have much experience in this, and all this information has been obtained from me reading on other threads and other members trying to black out their headlights.

You should try to look at other threads where people have taken the headlight apart to blacken the headlights.

 

As for breaking the plastic clips holding them in place, that's a BIG problem. Your bulb will now never sit in the projector properly, and any bump will cause them to vibrate and fall off the socket. You're going to have to either fix that, or replace your headlights.

The bulbs need to sit in the bulb at a specific angle/distance to get the maximum lens effect of projecting them onto the ground. Any other angle could potentially blind other drivers or worse, make your headlights dim for you to see anything.

If you broke off just one tab, it won't be as big of a deal, but if you broke off both, then you're going to have to replace the headlights, or else the bulb will just fall out of the socket.

 

Wow, what in theory seemed like such an easy job has potentially turned out to be a huge problem. That would mean I would have to pay the dealership to replace both my headlights? This is not a very good day

 

That is certainly possible, it really depends on how much damage you've done. Those clips were there to hold the bulb in place inside the projector bowl. If they are broken, then there is nothing to hold your bulb in the housing in place. Any movement will cause it to shift. You may have to have someone take a look and see how bad they're damaged. Some people have just cut notches in the plastic tabs to hold the wire clip in place if you still have some small piece of the tab left, so it's not too terrible.

Sadly, these headlights do go for $700 each. You can look at the marketplace here for some used ones. I believe there were two headlights being sold a couple of days ago for only $600 for both.

 

Okay, I am not really sure what to do at this point. I really can not afford to spend potentially $2000 to replace both headlights at this point. I think I will just have to drive with a broken headlight for three months. Currently just living off my savings at this point.

Just by trying to replace the bulb causing this much problem, I will just have to save up money when I start working and fix it when I come back in the states. I am not sure if I want to attempt certain DIYs anymore.

 

Also, is the dealership the only place that will be able to fix this for me? What if I were to purchase a whole new set of Headlights? Would I be able to purchase them from a vendor and have a certified mechanic fix the problem for me? I have a family/friend mechanic that has his own shop.

 

Of course, any auto body shop can do this for you. Even your friend mechanic can probably do this. It's just a simple bolt on. You can buy the part anywhere (new or used) as long as it's a direct replacement and have them take care of you and you just pay the labor rate. Dealerships are only there to screw people over who don't know any better. I usually only go there for warranty work or if I wanted to do transmission oil changes since only Matic S transmission oil is allowed in our engines, and other shops put some other generic brand in there.

As for DIY, I would suggest to read as much as possible for DIY stuff. When I replaced my HID bulbs, I read every single thread I could find about HID bulb replacement, and even watched YouTube Videos of how the HID bulbs are replaced. It helped me greatly when I tried installing bulbs myself.

http://www.myg37.com/forums/d-i-y-in...placement.html

I've done bulb changes many times in my car and have not suffered any damaged clips yet. *Knock on wood

As for driving with one headlight for the next couple of months, be sure you're not near any cops because you can get ticketed for having your headlights out.

 

Mathnerd88, I don't know why you brought up opening the headlights. You don't need to do that. The ballast is attached to the bottom of the headlights. You simply need to get a replacement and replace the old one. Removing the bumper and the headlights is tedious but not hard. Whole project will probably take a newb 3-4 hours to replace the ballast.

If you go to the dealer, he will replace one headlight.

DIY in a nutshell:
1: remove bumper: clips/screws on the bottom, clips/screws up top, clips/screws wheel well
2: remove headlight: few screw here or there
3: ballast is on the bottom of the headlight IIRC. detach harness, remove screws. Replace with new/used ballast.

Make sure you test before you put everything back.

 

Okay, my bad. My impression was that ballasts were inside the headlight, so they don't get wet. That's why dealers won't just replace the ballast by itself. They always make you replace the whole headlight.

If the ballasts are outside of the headlights, then that makes this job a lot cheaper and simpler to do! You should buy the ballasts with the link I provided you. They're only $170 and they're the newest generation.

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/pro...roducts_id=147

 

Okay, just contacted our family mechanic and he's going to take a look at it on monday. Its good to know I won't have to take apart the headlight. I told him my concerns about the broken tabs and he said he will see if there's anyway he can make it work. I am feeling a little better about all this. Its still probably going to cost a good chunk of change, but I'll have to see.

I found this one website: http://www.carid.com/2007-infiniti-g...s-1431856.html. I am not sure if that's a good place to get it from. If you know of any other reputable places, please let me know.

 

This is probably a stupid question but I just bought my G35 a few weeks ago so I'm still learning about it but I thought the headlights were xenon headlights not HID? or are they practically the same? just curious thanks

 

Xenon headlights are marketed as "high intensity discharge," or HID lights. They're the same. The bulbs in the past used Xenon and a mixture of salts to produce the light arc which is projected using a lens onto the ground.

 

Thank you for clearing that up for me!

 

So I took the car to the mechanic today and he was able to improvise a way to hold the bulb in place instead of the tabs. I thought it was great work.

We also figured out that it was the ballast so I went ahead and ordered a couple of new ones from the site that Mathnerd recommended. I am going to ask my mechanic to install both new ballasts and both new bulbs so that I would not have to deal with them for a long while, and I'll have an extra ballast and two used bulbs sitting around if I ever need it. All in all, changing out two ballasts and bulbs plus labor will cost around $500 inclusive. Great deal if I could say so myself .

Thanks for all the help, everyone!

 

Not sure if I should post this here, but there's a listing for both headlights and ballasts for $450 shipped...that might be your best option here. It may be too late for you since you ordered all the parts. I think it's better to start over fresh and new, with these headlights, instead of dealing with damaged headlights that are repaired.

https://g35driver.com/forums/2nd-gen...eadlights.html