How To Change 2005 Corolla Headlight Bulbs!

[Nefarious_1]

Hello everyone....new member here :-)

I own a 2005 Corolla 1.4 T3 and need help in upgrading the main headlight bulbs. Has anyone been able to change their own bulbs or is this a specific 'dealer only' job??

Please help.

Many thanks!

[martin w]

I have a 06 Corolla, the handbook gives a good description on how to change all the bulbs. I do not believe it to be a main dealer job. Having said that, follow the instructions carefully as I changed the upper brake light bulb and found that after half an hour that I was trying to put the unit back the wrong way up.

[T600]

I have a 06 Corolla, the handbook gives a good description on how to change all the bulbs. I do not believe it to be a main dealer job. Having said that, follow the instructions carefully as I changed the upper brake light bulb and found that after half an hour that I was trying to put the unit back the wrong way up.

And bear in mind that Toyota handbooks must be written by people with the smallest hands evAR.

Or perhaps by people who simply have the headlight unit on their desk rather than installed in the back of a bumper with an air filter, engine, Battery etc, etc in the way.

[LesPaulStd]

It is very difficult to change the bulbs but not impossible. First of all you will need a good light that allows you see the back part of the headlight.

Then you have to disconect the bulb and turn it to take it out. That is really difficult, and you can try with something like this:

You have to remove the Battery in order to change the bulb that is nearest.

Good luck

[vijaykuen]

Yeah i have a 2003 petrol Corolla T3.

I spent the day today changing the main headlight bulbs and what should have been an easy job took ages.

The first problem i had was getting the old bulb out. In particular getting the electrical connectors out. The book says to take the connectors out, then to remove the metal wire clip, then to remove the bulb.

I personally found it impossible to do this as the connectors were far to stiff to be able to be pulled out like this. So instead i undid the metal wire clip first, and then took the bulb out of the headlight whilst still connected to the electrics. I then wiggled the bulb away from the connector. And by wiggle what i mean is a lot of pressure pulling apart from one side, then same again on the other side, then same pressure on the other side, and so on, and so forth..... until eventually the connectors slowly came off, bit by bit.

Then with the old bulb, i kept putting ONE of the bulb pins in and out of each hole in the connector, so as to loosen up the fixture a little bit to make it easier to do this job next time.

Second problem was with putting the new bulb in. It was that if you try and put the connector on first when putting in the new bulb, then the wires block the movement of the wire clip. So I made sure to do the wire clip first, and then the connector afterwards.

Getting the wire clip on and off is tricky too. There is a knack to it, which is something like this, you push it in towards the headlight, and then across. To take the clip off you push in, across, and then it falls out away from the headlight.

There isn't much room in the engine bay for your hands, but i managed to change both of my main headlight bulbs without removing the Battery or the washer fluid reservoir.

Hope that is helpful to someone out there, as it took me ages to do!