Front Parking Lamp Replacement Tutorial

Every so often someone will post for help in removing the front parking lamp assembly in order to replace burned out bulbs. It has always been my contention that this is not necessary. Yesterday I needed to replace a few bulbs so decided to take the opportunity to see if I could remove and replace every front bulb without disassembling anything and how long it took. Let's see how I did...

Start with the three front "194" bulbs under the headlight.

Drivers side - Manually raise headlight half way, reach in, replace bulbs. The outer two were simple. The innermost socket was not clearly visible and was stuck. Not knowing for sure which direction I shoud pull, I was very careful and worked slowly to figure it out. It is the same as the others and ended up popping out without a problem. Total time - 9 minutes.

Passenger side - Using what I just learned... 3 minutes.

Now on to the turn signals - these are GE 890 bulbs .

Drivers side...
Lie on back, slide under car. Socket is clearly visible. Twist and remove socket, unclip old bulb, replace with new. Put socket back in housing. Total time - 6 minutes.
(The only reason it took that long was I was fumbling around a lot trying not to touch the bulb. If I would have had some rubber gloves it would have been 3 minutes, tops.)

Passenger side - Again, clearly visible. Easy to replace. Bulb was good so decided not to bother pulling it out and risk touching it.

Moving back we have a side marker "194" bulb.

Clearly visible from under car. Easy to get to. Pops right out. Took less that 1 minute for each side.

Lastly, moving from front to back, we have another GE 890 bulb.

Hmmm... these are NOT removeable from under the car. I guess I was wrong about removing the entire assembly... but wait!

Drivers side... Unbolt the brace and rotate out of the way. Unfasten relay box (two torx screws) and move out of the way. Unfasten washer fluid container (two hex head screws), unclip the two sensor wires and pull container up and out of the way... you don't even need to disconnect the fluid hose. The lamp socket is now exposed and easy to reach. Heeding the "if it ain't broke..." axiom, I did not actually take the bulb out but was easily able to get my hand on the socket and turn it. Total time to expose socket and put everything back - 12 minutes. (Next time I could probably do it in half that.)

Passenger side... Rotate brace out of the way. Pull battery out of the way. Socket is exposed and easy to reach. Total time to expose socket and put everything back - 5 minutes.

That's it; that's all of them. Except for the two rearmost they are a piece of cake to change with no disassembly at all. Gaining access to the rearmost lamps does require a little bit of work, but it is quick and easy. The hardest one is the driver's side and even that could easily be done in less than 15 minutes.

So while I was wrong about being able to change every bulb without taking anything apart, taking out the entire lamp assembly is, indeed, unnecessary.

Hope this helps.

Mike

Since your method involved crawling under the car, sliding under the car and removing the 4 screws that retain the entire assembly can be done in seconds, except for that one screw behing the bumper bracket. That screw behind the bumper bracket just takes patients.

I have a small ratchet that has a 1/4 hex through the center. I also have a set of sockets that have a 1/4 hex coming out the back. There is enough room to get that in there... otherwise you must use a open end or box end wrench and remove them turn by slow turn. With this method, all bulbs are accessable at one time and easy to change without busting knuckles.

_________________________
Barney Eaton
BCA technical advisor for Reattas-
Keeper of the Reatta database-
BCA technical advisor coordinator-
BCA Board member

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