Changing Headlight Bulbs is Easy...

"Tim (Fractal Footwork)" (fractalfootwork) 11/18/2015 at 19:41 • Filed to: None

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Just take the whole car apart.

Thankfully my sister let me use her garage. It was cold yesterday, so I was a bit snappy when I learnt that I had to remove my front bumper just to replace a headlight. I’m just going to do both now so I won’t have to do this again in -20 degree Chicago weather.

Update: Great Sucess!

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 19:56

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Too bad all cars aren’t designed like my dad’s MDX. Just pop the hood, reach behind the lamp, twist, replace.

 V8 Rustler > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 20:00

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Holy shit, not even in old Audis you had to remove the front bumper. You had to remove the headlight, but not the whole bumper. That is ridiculous.

Rico >  V8 Rustler 11/18/2015 at 20:04

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He’s changing the headlight not the bulb.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 20:04

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Is this just for the bulb??

 V8 Rustler > Rico 11/18/2015 at 20:06

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You’re right.

“Holy shit, not even in old Audis you had to remove the front bumper. That is ridiculous.”

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Rico 11/18/2015 at 20:06

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Oh.

pjhusa > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 20:06

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And Hyundai deliberately tried to make the car “modifiable”.

DasWauto > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 11/18/2015 at 20:07

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I’m fairly sure than most, if not all cars are like that, and that Fractal Footwork is referring to changing the whole unit, not just a bulb.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > DasWauto 11/18/2015 at 20:10

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Oh. I’ve been driving cars with sealed beams for many years now so I dunno about all that.

Rico >  V8 Rustler 11/18/2015 at 20:15

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“You had to remove the headlight, but not the front bumper”

That sentence confused me, it’s as if you’re saying you had to remove the headlight in the Audi to change the headlight.

Rico > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 11/18/2015 at 20:15

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Maybe I'm wrong?

qbeezy > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 20:23

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Nice. I want to do a headlight upgrade but am scared of because of a bad bumper replacement experience.

qbeezy > pjhusa 11/18/2015 at 20:26

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I think they were speaking towards the engine bay, which I can confirm in the 2.0 has hella amounts of space.

RazoE > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 11/18/2015 at 20:34

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I always feared the headlight would go down on me (not like that) while I was working on it.

Amoore100 > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 20:39

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Luckily in the Volvo P1 triplets the entire light cluster is easy to pop out quickly since it’s the only way to replace any of the front bulbs...

(Not my pic)

Brickman > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 21:08

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Burnt headlights on a newish car already? My 96 caravan has all original lights exept one brake bulb. Now that I said that. Everything will be burnt tomorrow :P

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Rico 11/18/2015 at 21:09

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No, I’m changing the bulb.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > DasWauto 11/18/2015 at 21:10

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No, I’m changing the bulb. I’ll edit the title...

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Brickman 11/18/2015 at 21:11

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43k here, not sure when they usually go.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 11/18/2015 at 21:11

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yes.

DasWauto > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 21:14

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O_o

Rico > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 21:18

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I stand corrected and Hyundai are true assholes for doing that to the common man. Someone like you can replace it but not everyone can.

jvirgs drives a Subaru > DasWauto 11/18/2015 at 21:37

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I had to remove the battery in my Sentra to change the driver-side bulb and had to twist my hand in a certain direction to be able to reach and change the passenger-side bulb without having to remove a whole bunch of shit.

thebigbossyboss > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 11/18/2015 at 21:44

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My ford tempo was like that. so is my cavalier

smobgirl > jvirgs drives a Subaru 11/18/2015 at 22:22

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I think I remember that from my old Sentra. Except I was too stubborn to remove the battery so I just skinned all of my fingers instead.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > smobgirl 11/18/2015 at 22:59

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The Matrix/Vibe is like that too. Passenger side is fine, driver side requires either very tiny hands or moving the battery.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 23:15

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Elantra GT?

That’s pretty nuts! I’ve got an ‘09 Hyundai Accent hatch and I swapped my factory (still working) headlight bulbs for some brighter ones. I never had to do anything near this complex to do it....just reach behind, twist and turn. 0_o Stock bulbs were at around 65000kms when I replaced them and they still worked fine, the new ones were just brighter, so better for not hitting deer late at night in the Canadian wilderness of Nova Scotia...

When I did it, the only “issue” was the Power Steering fluid tank behind the right headlight making access hard. It’s hard to do with it in place, but on my Accent, the tank pops off from a little holder if you need more access (I didn’t have to move it), but it sortof “friction-latches” in place with a plastic pin integrated into the tank slotting into a holder/stand for it, so no screws or anything, just pull up and move out of the way, put back and push down to put the tank where it needs to go...

I replaced my rear reverse light bulbs with brighter LED bulbs as well this past winter, and those DID require me to temporarily remove the taillight clusters from the car, but they were simply held in by two bolts a side...

Last picture was taken at night with my flip phone camera, so shitty quality with overexposed brightness, but the LED bulbs are damned bright, so it still gets the point across how effective they are compared to the old incandescent bulbs...

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/18/2015 at 23:31

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Genesis Coupe.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/18/2015 at 23:33

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Ah, with the front unattached and only seeing the front portion of the car, I never clued in - sorry! Thought the front grill work, etc seemed a bit off for the Elantra GT...

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 11/18/2015 at 23:53

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They do look similar. Every time I see an Elantra in the distance I think it's another Genesis, and then it gets closer and I become disappointed

uofime-2 > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/19/2015 at 10:44

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How hard was it to take the bumper cover off?

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > uofime-2 11/19/2015 at 15:10

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Not really that difficult. There were 4 10mm bolts and 12 plastic screws. The scary part is ripping the bumper off once you have the screws out; it is held on by clips and you start pulling from the side, hard but not hard enough where the clips snap. I snapped some clips :/ but I think it's overall ok.

uofime-2 > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/19/2015 at 15:57

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That sucks, are the clips replaceable or are the a feature of the plastic parts?

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > uofime-2 11/19/2015 at 19:30

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Plastic that is part of the bumper

uofime-2 > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/19/2015 at 21:26

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That sucks big time!

Replacing the lightbulbs a couple times might mean replacing your bumper cover.

shop-teacher > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/21/2015 at 15:04

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Wow, that’s nuts! Good call changing them both.

Tohru > Tim (Fractal Footwork) 11/28/2015 at 11:07

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The VW New Beetle is the same way, for front and rear. Changing bulbs requires bumper removal.