We recently purchased a new (to us) family car and I’ve been addressing some of the neglected maintenance items. The low beam headlights were extremely dim, yet the high beams were very bright. Incandescent bulbs become dimmer over time. I purchased some which were recommended by the forum for my specific vehicle for only $15 on the rain forest site. They are quite a bit brighter now and I feel much safer driving at night.
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Changing lights on 99 percent of cars: twist it pull it push it turn it
Changing lights on a VW: dismantles the entire front end to gain access
Assume the service position
I changed the lights on my wife’s Yaris once, never again
Learned this the hard way. I was visiting my parents years ago and my mom’s jetta had a headlight out. I offered to fix it and grabbed a bulb from the auto parts store down the street.
Two hours of searching online/youtube later the bulb was finally replaced.
On my car you have to access them via the wheel case, rotate the wheel to the left or right to access the left or right front lights, then stick your arm all the way in there and change the light blindly because you can’t see shit from this angle.
This is becoming the norm and I hate it. I do a lot of basic services for my friends and half of them are in through the wheel well or worse behind the battery.
My Hyundai is easy on three. Just a plug and a wire spring. The one on the outer driver’s side has the battery right in the way, so if I’m not careful I’ll get a hand cramp from the acrobatics. Still done it enough times to know the routine, and far better than taking the front off. Having that as a “feature” for a regular maintenance item is just lazy engineering.
Don’t forget to verify they’re leveled
Please, please, please aim these suckers per your vehicle’s documentation. Be the person who isn’t blinding everyone 🙏
Yes, sometimes adjusting the lights shows they aren’t in need of replacement, only adjustment.
I once used one of those kits to polish the outer surface of my headlights. Amazing results, if your plastic is pitted and yellow, I recommend it.
I got a Chevy Bolt recently, and I’m worried about the first time I need to replace its headlights. Apparently it’s a whole ordeal
They are something you can do with some basic tools. You’ll need a 10mm socket, a t15 torx bit and a flat screwdriver if you don’t have access to a trim clip tool. A 7mm socket, and a Phillips screwdriver. I recommend doing this on grass as this way, you don’t have to remove the entire front bumper. Separate the fender liners from the bumper. This gives you access to the 7mm fascia retainers (one on each side) Open the hood, remove the forward shield, undo the 10mms holding the grille to the sheet metal. Starting at one side of the bumper fascia, carefully pull the bumper away from the fender. One side loose, do the other, then under the headlights, same type of retainer as by the fenders. Then the upper portion of the grille. Pull the fascia away and downward. The whole thing will tilt forward, the lower air deflector will touch the ground and you’ll have access to the 5 10mm bolts that hold the headlight in. Remove the bolts, disconnect the headlamp connector and bring the whole assembly out. Then you’ll be able to unscrew the access covers. Once opened, you’ll see the little screws (Philips) that hold the d3s bulb retaining box. (It’s a metal cover that holds the bulb against the headlamp housing) Take that box off and change the bulbs. I opted to install led in lieu of the hid (search wireless d3s led kit). Doing this will require modifying the bulb retaining box to allow air flow for the integrated cooling fans. Going on year 3 without issue or needing replacement. I get to do this on a hoist but it’s doable on the ground. This is assuming you’re talking about a first Gen bolt and not newest one. The new style is essentially the same but gm smartened up and put led bulbs in from factory. Putting the fascia back up can get frustrating because of the grille shutter air deflectors wanting to catch on the fascia lip, but if you’re dedicated you can do this. Otherwise I’d take the front fascia off completely (just more 7mm bolts on the bottom side of the fascia and the front fascia harness has to be disconnected) and you’re definitely going to want another pair of hands so I guess yeah, you’re right, it’s a bit of an ordeal.
Yeah… A bit worse than just opening the hood and unscrewing them from the back lol. Definitely saving this comment for when I need it. Thanks!
I’m envious that you have incandescent/halogen/whatever. I always feel like mine are blinding people when going over hills. Mine are HID.
I drive a Ram 2500 with the factory LED reflectors… so same feeling.
What I don’t get is why with newer LED lights they don’t have them dim down to a minimum level as the car slows down and stops. No reason to have the same brightness for driving at 80mph as driving at 10 or 25mph.
Thank you, I’m considering a replacement now.
Nice
I replaced mine and showed my teenage daughter how to do it last weekend.
Yeah the world needs more bright ass LEDs blinding everyone. Great.
I bought new regular bulbs, not led
Isn’t there an advantage to using LEDs? Seems like they can be used without blinding oncoming traffic.
Generally, you shouldn’t replace an incandescent with an LED since the housing and reflectors inside it are all geared toward aiming/reflecting the brightness of the incandescent forward.
An LED is far brighter and saturates these reflectors. The result is the light is less crisp than an LED housing from the driver’s perspective, while being far brighter to oncoming traffic to the point of creating a significant hazard.
For cars, it’s best to replace the bulb with the type the housing is designed to use.
Sorry for long reply!
Edit cuz I forgot: they CAN be used without blinding others, but it requires reorienting the housing. This is pretty difficult for the average person and almost impossible on some housings.
No way, thanks for the reply. I learned something today.
