Does anyone know if I have to remove the front bumper and
headlights for me to be able to replace
the headlamps/headlight bulbs?

 

Which bulbs? The DRLs you should be able to access without removing much. As for the regular headlights, it would facilitate the process to remove the bmuper. You don't have to remove the lights.

 

read the manual, you have to remove the plastic plugs in the wheel well and push aside the wheel well cover and squeez your hand in thorugh the wheel well and access the bulbs....this is explained in the manual.....if you have big hands like me than be prepared for some nasty scratchs on your hands.....good luck.....

 

That's what I thought too.
A friend of mine told me that you just have to remove the clips holding the bumper. How can I replace the bulbs without removing the lights?
Correct me if I am wrong, but I guess the reason why you need to remove the bumper is for you to be able to gain access to the bolts/screws holding the headlights in place.

 

You don't have to remove the headlights to remove the bulbs. I should have clarified.

 

owners manual.

you only need to remove the wheel well lining on the passenger headlight for the regular bulbs. the other 3 can be accessed from the engine bay,

 

Ok. I know I can replace the DRL bulbs from the engine bay.
The bulb on the driver's side: I guess I just need to remove the battery to gain access to it.
the bulb on the passenger's side can be replaced, as you said by removing the wheel well lining.

Thanks for the help.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Thanks for the help guru

 

driver side remove the coolant overflow tank.

 

Holy ****! MANUAL MANUAL MANUAL.......just read the manual manual manual. If you can't figure out how to remove the bulbs from the headlight assemblies for f*** sake please don't go trying to remove the bumper. You'll have a cluster f*** of a mess on your hands. manual manual manual manual

 

No worries mate.
I was able to replace all bulbs just from the engine bay.
I removed the battery and coolant overflow tank to be able to replace ones on the drivers side.
For the passenger's side, I used a special tool to be able to remove and replace the bulb. It was a really long long nose pliers that I used to clip and rotate the bulb. I was very careful not to break and scratch any part of it. It worked out really good. I didn't have to remove the wheel well lining.

The one who told me that I need to remove the bumper and headlights is a guy who sells HID kits.

Thanks for all those who gave their inputs.

 

^Good to hear. Are you replacing the bulbs with an HID kit?

 

Not HID.
Just the Sylvania Superstar (Brightest and Whitest Light).I will post pics of before and after.
I don't have fog lights so I guess this is a good investment ($100). It gets really foggy here in Bakersfield, California. I drove it this morning at 6AM and the light just penetrated through deep fog. This is more of a necessity than just for looks.

I was looking at HID kits but there are lots of cons in doing so such as
the lights flickers, ballast problems (moist etc.), light needs to wam up, etc.
Even if you buy the expensive ones, you will still come across one of those many problems. That's what I've been told.

 

smart move on both couts....first for not removing the lining and using the long nose pliers wish I could have used my brains I would not have ended up with scratched hands... and secondly going with the Siliver stars and not the HID...I ended up buying a expensive Riken HID kit and the bulbs have a lot of scatter apparantely the seller bull ***** me that the the HID are only good for Projectors and if installed in OE housing they will not perform as better........I dont know if that is ture or not but I am ****ed after spending a good $185 for the kit......

 

your post doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it sounds like you bought a plug and play hid kit for your stock headlights and were surprised the light output sucked. that's what happens when you put hid bulbs in headlights not designed for them; the proper way to put hid's in our cars is to put hid projectors in the headlights.

 

what temp. did you get? 43k, 6k, 8k, 20k, etc

 

6000K.....yes vladd......i did not know that I needed a projector setup cause when I did the same on my 98 2.3cl it worked fine and also I drive a 2005 sienna with factory hid set up on non projectyor headlamps and that works well too.....I am a bit confused.....

 

has any one tried the after market projector headlamps on ebay....does it work????

 

i doubt the light output was very good on your cl, as it's not designed for hid's either. you were probably blinding incoming traffic without realizing it. headlights that're hid from the factory don't always have projectors in them, but they're still designed specifically for hid's.

 

as i've said in my post above, you have to use hid projectors if you want proper aiming of the light. aftermarket headlights aren't designed for hid bulbs either. you've already screwed up once, don't throw away more money on junk. if you have hid's in your car, get a retrofit done. if you don't want to spend the $ to do it right then just stick with the original bulbs.

 

That's a great idea.
Did you have to reset your car's stereo?

I tried regular long-nose pliers (3-4 inch nose?) first and they sucked.
So I ended up opening the wheel well lining and busted one of the body rivets.
Were these curved-tip long-nose pliers?
Can you post a pick of your pliers, or describe them better?

I think my car came out okay,
but when I was done my hands looked like I was in a fight with a cat.

 

Ok. I will post pics later tonight.
I believe my long nose is like 10 inches long.
I want to avoid removing the wheel well lining because
the plastic can get deformed easily.
What bulbs did you replace the OEM with?

Yes, I did reset my car stereo.
You have to everytime you remove the battery...so make sure you keep that small piece of paper in your glove compartment.

 

Nice! That would be appreciated.

I think I minorly deformed mine.
(honda seems to recommend this way of changing low beams )
But it seems to be straightening out a bit with the temperature changes.

Silverstar Ultras; probably the same ones you had.

My beam alignment seemed to drop a little with the new bulbs...
Perhaps a filament-to-socket distance change.
So I carefully adjusted them upwards slightly.
I believe the driverside beam is now 2 inches under the bulb heigh at 25 feet,
or something like that.
The passenger side beam is roughly horizontal as it came from the factory.

I keep hearing how the bulb life sucks for the silverstar ultras,
but at least they are supposed to last 25-40% longer than regular silverstars,
for practically the same price.
(according to the packaging)

 

I'm quite new to this.
Can you tell me how to upload pics?