ChiXu

Concluding of my recent experience in changing headlights of my is300
I find this job is very experience dependent, if you are experienced you can do the whole job in 10min, otherwise you'll probably spend several hours to fix it, and it's a pain in the *** to work in a very confined space (I mean you don't have to uninstall the bumper to do the job).
The procedure for the whole process should be:
Part 1. remove the old bulb
1. Open the cover of the headlight:
* the cover is usually a little stuck and hard to rotate with hand, what I did is I used a flat screw driver to place it on the fins of the cover, and use a wood block to hammer it. I find it's better to use wooden hammer than a steel one because steel can easily break the fins, but anyway be prepared to break several fins; Once you see the cover rotating a little bit, that's a good sign;
* spraying a little WD40 should be helpful;
2. Turn the metal cord in the direction marked on it, then the cord should fall off; If this is not successful, process to the next step to remove the steel clip first and remove the cord when the whole thing is out;
3. If you have removed the metal cord, now just press the two clips on both sides of the bulb toward the car front and then swing to the side should make it release, there are two of them, made of steel wires, (the wire is stingy on the finger if you press hard though) ;
4. Now the bulb is free to be removed; If the metal cord fail to come out in step 2, you should now remove the bulb from the metal cord by turning the bulb counter-clock-wise and align the two stubs on the bulb with the slot on the metal cord, then pull it out; Sometimes it's hard to pull out even when the stub is aligned with the slot, a very useful tip is to use a flat screw driver to pry it out;

Part 2. install new bulb
the installation is exactly in the reverse order:
1. place the bulb to the center of the headlight case, jiggle it left and right, you'll feel the bulb falling into the right position at some angle, and the bulb will be stuck in that position and not slide, that's the right position for the bulb;
2. Once you've found the right position, hold it with hand or something else, then clip the two steel wire clips; (swing the wire to the side and then press inside, do this on both wire clips)
3. Once the clips are clipped, you can insert the metal cord, similar to step1 you should jiggle the cord to let it find the best position, once the position is found, press hard inside and turn in the direction marked the metal cord as LOCK direction;
4. Now the plastic cover can be put on; before you put it on, it's better to go inside the car and turn on the headlight to see if the bulbs are working;


I find it's necessary to review these steps each time I replace the bulbs, I remembered I changed my bulbs easily last time, and now when I'm changing it again got completely forgot all previous experiences, I did the wrong way and trying to put the bulb in the metal cord first when installing the bulb, and couldn't get it though no matter how I tried, which had given me a lot of frustration until I figured the right way to do it.

Golden95SC

iTrader: (21)

Very helpful guide and great info for your first post!