I'm trying to replace one of my headlights and I am having a hard time removing the lense from the car. There seems to be one pesky bolt up under the lense that is holding the bracket in and I cannot figure out how to get to it to loosen it.

Anyone have any advice on removing headlights from a 90 Civic Si?

Thanks!
Steve in Texas


1990 Civic Si

 

You have to remove the bumper and bumper cover to get to the 10mm bolt under the head lamp. there si no other way to do it. Well, you could cut a hole on the bumper cover and the bumper reinforcement, but I don't think you would want to do that.
get a helms, or chiltons if you are going to work on your car.

 

i put projectors in my civic..that last bolt is a biatch to get out...ull have to get an extension wit a swivel type ****..i forget wat its called and ull have reach the bolt throug h there...i forget which side i went in..but ill check

 

I've got a Haynes manual and unfortunately it doesn't have detailed instructions on headlight lense removal. Sounds kind of crazy to have to take the whole front end apart to replace a lense, but I'll take your word for it. I tried using extensions and universal joints on my ratchet, but I wasn't having any luck. I also decided that if I was having that much trouble getting it off with ann extension, there was no way that I would be able to get it back on.

Thanks for your help!

Steve in Texas
1990 Civic Si
The Last Stock Civic

 

i got mine bak on so its not impossible..it takes patience...

 

Well, you have to look at how the car is built.
The factory puts the bumper cover last. And replacing a headlight assembly is not routine maintenance nor something included in the owners manual.
if you need to replace a headlight assembly, honda figured it would be done by a mechanic who would know how to remove the bumper to get to the screws that hold the headlamp. So it doesn't sound crazy to me at all.

 

I agree with you on it not being routine maintenance to change the headlight assembly. Although, I'd have to say that a glass lense is probably more likely to need replacing than anything else on the front end of the car...unless you have an accident. Just seems goofy that it's one bolt that requires you to take the front bumper off to loosen it on the assembly. Not trying to rag on Honda, but their engineers could have done better on this one in my opinion.

Thanks for your input!

Steve