tsm174

I noticed my grandfather's headlight was out on his 2000 es300. Went to Autozone and they looked it up and said it was H7 so I bought a pair. When I got to his house and popped the hood, I saw "high voltage" warning stickers near each headlight. In other cars I've swapped bulb on, I'm used to seeing the wiring go to a little socket that takes a 1/4 turn and pops out, but on his car there is a larger (about 2.5" diameter) grey plate instead which also indicates turn to remove. I tried counter-clockwise but couldn't get the plate off for the life of me and I was a little afraid of breaking off the little fins.

So, a few questions:
1) How can I determine which bulb is the correct one?
2) What is high voltage about it and should I not be messing with it?
3) Any tricks to getting that damn grey cover off?

I'm trying to save him from the cost of a trip to the dealer.

Thanks,
Tyler

tsm174

Also, the bulb is not completely burned out. Both low beams come on when the turning the lights on, but after 5 seconds or so, the one turns off.

tsm174

I did a search for "HID" and it seems that the high voltage stickers indicate that's what I have.

So, two questions remain
1) What precautions do I need to take in replacing the bulbs? Is disconnecting the battery enough and will that cause any other issues?
2) any tricks to getting that damn cover off?

My local shop wants close to $200 to replace one bulb - most of that is bulb cost (they said ~$150). Looks like I can get them online for ~$60 so I'd like to save some $ if I can.

JetsonES

Disconnecting the battery should be enough. Also, don't touch the glass with your hands as the oils will burn up onto the glass and can cause it to explode. If you happen to touch it or it gets dirty clean it with 90% rubbing alcohol. I don't know about the cover as my car does not have the HIDs.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

It's tight to do it as is, on the car. I actually broke one of my caps since it was so tight. Once I got them off, I applied a little bit of dielectric grease all around the rubber gasket to make it easier in the future.

No need to disconnect the battery, nothing will kill you. I don't know why people panic about this step, i never disconnected a battery in my life, unless I was removing airbags or a ECU. The high voltage warning pertains to the ballast itself, not bulbs....

Take the 5minutes to take out the headlamps... many walktroughs on here.

Get some decent bulbs, don't run the cheap chinese ones which are 20$/pair.

Xenondepot has some REALLY good bulbs for very cheap.

Good luck.

I guess I posted about this before, huh;
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...-hid-bulb.html

tsm174

Ok, that all makes sense. Were you able to get better leverage on the cap with the headlight removed? Did you use anything special or just hand strength and lots of cussing?

I did run across your thread earlier and already checked out some bulbs at Xenondepot - think they are $60/pr for the 5000K. I'm about to order those bulbs and hope I can get the covers off. I hate to take it to a shop for something like that.

lostape45

Those bulbs should be good. Remove the headlights, I found it was the only way you were ever going to get the old bulbs out and the new ones in without damaging them. Behind those covers there's a metal clip and the electric plug itself holding the bulbs in so even if you did get the cover off with the head lights still in the car, you'd still have a hard time.

First remove the black plastic all across the top of the headlights with those black clips.

Start here for removing the side marker:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...placement.html

Then the headlights itself:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...eadlights.html

Then the bulbs:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...-hid-bulb.html

Hope that helps!

tsm174

Very good, thanks for the links. I didn't know I needed to take out the side marker first. Hopefully I can find some time this weekend. I'm not super experienced but would like to save my grandpa some money.

I called the dealership and they wanted $200 FOR ONE BULB, plus $50 or so for installation.

JetsonES

That's screwed up. If you can't or don't want to do it yourself I'm sure you can find an independent shop to do it for way less. 200 dollars to change a bulb is insane.

tsm174

My thoughts exactly. I'm going to order to bulbs, give it a shot, and hand it off to a local shop if need be. I called my local guy and even he quoted me $150 for the bulb.

JetsonES

Damn. That's still so high, why would they engineer it to be so unreachable? Bad engineering or profitable engineering, probably a bit of both.

tsm174

Local guy said the bulb itself would be $150. The book time is only .3 hours to put it in.

JetsonES

I should be making light bulbs, damn.