So, my headlights were looking pretty dim. I went and ordered a new set of Philips 9003 HB2 X Treme Vision and 9005 HB3 Crystal Ultra bulbs.

Since this is the oldest car I have had in about 10 years, sadly I had to look up how to do a bulb change.

Here are some pictures so that anyone else can better understand the parts on the bulb housings. I didn't document the lower bulbs since those are pretty easy to do. **** DO NOT TOUCH THE GLASS ON THE NEW BULBS.

First- Remove your intake shroud and your battery. Remember to take off the negative side of the battery first. For some reason my terminals used a 13mm and a 10mm nut. I highly recommend cleaning the battery tray while your at it. It's held on by 3 10mm nuts.

Step 1- You'll see a plastic oval holding in the rubber gasket. Lift up on the tab that says "lift" at the top of the oval and it will swing down. Only remove that part. The bottom half of the oval is attached with clips. No need to remove it.

Step 2- See- It swings out so you can get to the gasket.


Step 3- Move the plastic oval piece out of the way. Now you'll want to pull the plug off the back of the bulb. It will be on there tight. Be firm, but don't get crazy.


Step 4- Once the plug is out you'll see the 3 prong bulb back. Above that is the gasket pull tab.


Step 5- Pull the gasket tab until the gasket is off of the bulb. Lexus is smart and made it so the plastic oval piece has a lip to hold the gasket out of the way so you can pull the bulb without having anything in the way. On the opposite side of the screw you'll see the pressure clip attachment point. Push the clip in and down and it will free itself from the bulb housing.


Step 6- Once the clip is open, pull the bulb and put in the new one. Be careful and try not to touch the glass on the new bulb with your bare fingers.


Just reverse the procedure to put everything back together.

 

How do the new lights look?

 

Oh man! I should have done a before and after..

They are noticeably brighter. The high beams are insane for halogens. The main reason for the change was I want to do a chameleon laminate over the front lights, and the OEM bulbs wouldn't cut it for light intensity at night.

 

Is this procedure to replace the 9003 or the 9005?

I need to replace my low beam 9003. Is it the bottom twist off bulb?

 

this is to replace the 9003 bulb.
the 9005 bulb is a twist-off yes. I recommend removing the connector first before twisting off.

 

I'm sure you cleaned out those connector contacts before re-assembly. They were looking pretty bad.
Nice job, nice write up and thanks for sharing. Kind of a pain to remove the battery, but that is the way it's designed.

 

I actually could do this replacement without having to remove the battery quite easily...small hands perhaps?

 

I was wondering if the removal of the battery is totally necessary. The thing I'm wondering is if there is enough clearance with the battery in place to swing the plastic oval piece clear enough to remove the bulb.

 

AWESOME!!!! great instructions - took me longer to find out how to than to actually do the project!!!
LS400 1997 coach edition replace headlights. i ended up replacing my air filter too - WOOOOOOOW it needed it.

 

Yea, I made sure the contacts were clean before putting it back together.

 

It's worth it to remove the battery. It also gives you a chance to clean any debris that may be in the battery tray and to check for any weirdness under that part of the engine bay. I had a buddy with an SC400 who never looked at his battery in 4 years from purchasing the car used. The nuts that connect the screws that held the battery to the tray ended up rusting out. The battery got loose while he was on Mulholland and he ended up shorting out a bunch of fuses and breaking his fan shroud and fan.

 

If it were me, i upgraded mine to LED headlight bulbs due to where I live, there's no streetlights at night. Its MUCH better than any halogen. Very crisp and clear, white light

I used H4 LEDs from siriusledlights.com $50 for the pair, and they've been very dependable and working great thus far since July of 17'. They're a very bright white, but for the most part shine where the halogen beam patterns used to shine light on the road with a lot more distance and intensity. I haven't had anyone flash me in the past couple months on a regular basis, maybe once or twice that I can remember.

Here's a beam pattern pic:

I have the DEPO clear glass headlights though, so they may be slightly different than the stock fluted glass headlights

First Shot is comparison of my LED light on Left and 8000k HID light on right

 

those with fluted glass will cause glare due to it's design.
fluted lenses throw light upward to light up overhead signs, and halogen wasn't too obtrusive.
with LED or HID they would cause glare to oncoming traffic.

i ran 5000k 55W HIDs in my 97 fluted lenses for awhile and received occasionally flashes.