Eli5 Why modern car headlights are designed as single units and not modulararly like in the past, making it so replacing the whole unit now being required if the LEDs burn out or the glass/plastic gets damaged?
In: 6
It increases their lifespan under normal conditions and makes them more compact(Lighter/cheaper/smaller)
The sealed LED bulb assemblies have lifespans measured in decades rather than years like traditional halogen bulbs. Since they’re going to last the life of the car in the vast majority of situations and won’t require regular consumers to change the bulbs then making them a single sealed assembly makes them smaller and cheaper than supporting the ability to swap parts out
If the plastic is broken/damaged you likely needed to swap out the whole headlight assembly anyway even on older halogen bulb setups so there’s no gain there. Even on cars with older bulbs the lens isn’t easily swappable but the whole assembly is only a couple hundred so it isn’t worth the labor costs to pull the assembly, swap the lens, then reinstall the assembly versus just putting a new one in
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