I finally received the bulbs you recommended Joe and decided to attack the footwell light again. I filed down the sides like you recommended but it still didn't work. I do like these "bulbs" though, they have a flat face which makes it much easier to press into the stubborn socket.

So I took a good look at the socket, back to thinking that the socket was the problem but couldn't see it very well but it did look like I could only see one contact. I noticed that the socket couldn't be pulled through the panel that it is mounted on, so I looked (with my fingers) behind the panel to see if there was a cable that I could pop loose and there doesn't appear to be. (It is tied into a much larger cable without a connector.)

Then I discovered that the footwell panel can be popped loose. There are two tabs at the far end with foam over them that stick through a U shaped piece that holds them there. Pull the panel towards the seat to pull them loose and then pop out the three tabs just below the glove box hinge and it comes off. (Probably better to do the reverse of that process but that wasn't how I got there.)

Once the panel was loose, I was able to twist the socket and remove it from the panel. From there I noticed that the 2nd pin had backed out of the socket. It didn't want to go back in nor did it want to come out. With a little (maybe a lot) of brute force and ignorance, I was finally able to pull the pin out of the socket. It looked like the locking tab on the pin had gotten it stuck to where it didn't want to move. So I bent that back into shape (sorry, I didn't think to take a picture of that) and pushed the pin back in. I carefully pushed the light into the socket and it worked (quite a relief!). Then I just reversed the process above to reassemble the footwell panel.

 

Wow, what a pain! I'm glad you figured out what was wrong. That would have driven me crazy, it was so hard to work in that space to begin with.

 

I agree, it was definitely painful! It would have been a lot easier if I could have removed the cable from the car.

 

Good job. I did not have any problem with the passenger foot light, neither removal nor installation. Guess it depends on the type you use.

 

I had the issue with the new LED falling out of the glove box holder. Solved it by using a solder pencil and melting the smallest amount of solder on the leads on one side. It makes the base larger and it stays in.