Replace Headlight Bulb on 2005 Prius
The book that came with the car fails to correctly explain how to replace the headlight bulb. These instructions refer to the driver's side light.
Steps
- 2006 Prius Bulb cost about $11 at auto parts chain store. The time taken to replace drivers side: 25 minutes on the first attempt.
- TIP: Save yourself some pain, replace both bulbs or you will be changing the other one in a few weeks.
- Cut your fingernails. Find a mirror on a stick and a flashlight. It helps if the car is not in the sun to cut down on deep shadows. Almost everything you will be working with is black.
- Open hood of car.
- For driver's side bulb, remove the fuse box cover by first pressing on the front side (press toward back and lift up), no need to monkey it off one side at a time by pressing anything that looks like a latch (that's a good way to break the tabs). It will loosen and come off. Use the cover to hold the tools. It is not necessary to remove the front dust cover held on with phillips fasteners.
- For passenger side bulb, remove plastic cover (dust cover in front) under hood of your Prius. This can be done with a Phillips screwdriver (quarter turn to left to pop loose, then push from behind / pull up the reusable clips). If you remove the cover of the fuse box first, you can use the fuse box cover to hold the screws.
- If bad bulb is on Passenger side: remove small air duct blocking headlight. This will require a small blade-type screwdriver to pry off re-usable plastic rivet.
- Remove waterproof cover by turning ~30 degrees. You might need a long-handled flat blade screwdriver to loosen it at first (see video below). Push cover back from headlight assembly to gain access to bulb / wiring harness.
- Remove electrical connection to bulb by standing at the driver's side fender, face forward with your right hip on the side of the fender. Reach into the car with the back of your hand facing forward so that the square white plastic removable socket for the lamp passes between your index and middle fingers. Wiggle the socket off. Do not let go until you look at the configuration/position of the holes in the socket and note them for reconnecting.
- On the hard plastic holder mark the position of the square raised bump on the boot (use a piece of tape). To remove the driver's side rubber weatherproofing boot which is fitted with bump-outs to aid removal stand at the front of the car, place the shaft of a screwdriver on the side of the bump and push it toward the driver's side fender to rotate the boot about 1/16th of a turn (Clockwise when viewed from front of car looking back towards engine). If the boot does not wiggle out of the hard plastic track/housing, push to turn the boot some more.
- When the boot is loose from the rim slide your flat hand under it (palm to the front of the car) and wiggle it off the plug end of the lamp. TIP: This is the hardest part as the fit around the bulb is tight to keep out water. So push bulb forward when you pull rubber boot backwards (otherwise you may damage metal spring and have to go to dealer) Remove and read the cover to see what is the top. Feel the 4 square bumps around the hole.
- To take the old bulb out use the mirror to inspect the wire bail bulb holder. Look for a hook that captures the wire and holds the wire under tension. Unhook the wire and swing it away. practice hooking it up again.(TIP: Drive side and Passenger side are different. Unhooks down on driver side up on passenger side)(Note:2003-2004 Prius had exactly same hook position. both side Unhooks down)
- Look in the front of the headlight and note the flat side of the hole that corresponds to the flat metal base on the bulb.
- It may be useful at this point to practice putting in the old bulb and fastening the wire retaining bale/spring/wire.
- Replace the new bulb WITHOUT touching the glass part of it nor getting it dirty (think rubber gloves) TIP: You can look through the front lens to see the Bulb alignment. This will ensure the bulb is aligned before you re-hook the retainer.
- Snap retainer spring back into place. This may be hard, especially on the Passenger side, where the body of the car blocks your view. TIP: This can be done with one hand, by holding bulb forward and swing retainer behind bulb. Then just hook metal spring over hook.
- Note the "TOP" of the boot, and slide the small hole over the bulb by pressing on each of the four rectangles imprinted on the boot. This is very difficult to do. A mirror placed in front of the boot is a great help in getting the boot back on. Ask your helper to hold the mirror. TIP: This can be done without a mirror by pushing small hole around back of bulb. But be sure outer four tabs are aligned (one of the four is larger then the other three)
- Re-rotate the boot back on clock-wise (as viewed from engine facing forward) back into place by pressing it back in the track and using the shaft of the screwdriver to rotate the boot back to its tight position at the mark. Reconnect the electrical connection after redistributing the grease in the socket.
- TIP: Test lights as you replace each bulb and before you put everything back in place
- Replace fuse box cover.
- Replace small air duct on Passenger side
- Replace plastic engine cover.
- Wipe your hand and pat yourself on the back as you close the hood. The whole process takes about 1.5 hours because you can't see anything you are doing and wonder if you are doing it correctly.
- Go get a cold beer as you realize you just saved a squid-load of money! Estimates from $100 to $600. A 61 year old woman with little experience and stiff fingers just did this on the drivers side in less than 30 minutes -- two beers for me!
Tips
- After inserting the new bulb, pull the W spring across and seat it in a slot in the fixture which holds the bulb. Note that (1) the spring is too weak! So the bulb can be wiggled a tiny bit even after it is inserted properly. This didn't mess up my beam alignment, however. (2) The handle to the spring sticks up away from the fixture where it is inconveniently vulnerable to being released when inserting the rubber boot. Toyota, this is abominable engineering.
- When removing the old bulb and inserting the new one, it may be helpful to look through the front lens. You can see a bit better if the bulb is seated properly.
- It definitely helps to remove the fuse cover when changing the driver side headlamp. (Absolutely!)
- 2 Discoveries on a 2005 that may make life easier: Dealer did not know whether the car had an HID or quartz-halogen bulb. Looking into the reflector from the front, you can read the voltage & wattage. Also, just to the left of the bulb there is a square hole (about 3/16") which gives a clear view of the hook of the retainer spring, and allows you to manipulate it with one finger on the loop.
- It's easy to break the retaining screw clips on the dust cover (step 2). Be careful when removing them.
- On instruction 9... it's helpful to realize that the retaining spring rotates out of the way when it is unhooked (the 'hook' is on the engine side of the spring on the driver's side) with small hands you can handle just the looped end of the hook to maneuver it through the clasp. Imagine the clasp as a 'G' sitting on it's back with the opening on top -- so you have to push down, out, then up to maneuver it around the clasp. It may be possible to do this with the rubber boot still on the light if you are struggling to get the boot off. Laughter at the idiocy of the design helps with lubrication...
- You may find it easier to slide (viz., shove, using just a dab of silicone lubricant) the boot onto the wiring plug first, then fit the plug over the bulb's three prongs, and finally to wiggle the boot into the cylinder where it can be snapped into place with a very small turn clockwise (~ 15 degrees).
- If you're replacing the driver side bulb, there is no reason to remove the front dust cover.
- The following worked for me, but it took a long while.
- The boot will stretch much easier if warmed in hot water a couple of minutes. Or when removing use a hair dryer to warm if the weather is cold.
- The headlamp covers, sometimes called boots, can be extremely difficult to turn, and often impossible to turn by hand. On older Priuses, the small fins which give purchase to fingers and screwdriver shafts will readily break if given half a chance. It can't hurt to employ a quality penetrating oil such as Kroil for 15-30 minutes, but in the final analysis, the cover design requires that the cover be pushed in -- to release the tension on its interior tabs -- as the cover is rotated counterclockwise (when viewing the cover from the firewall). To defeat this design, remember that the cover is made of a tough plastic similar to ABS: when all else fails, carefully but firmly press the corner of a flat-bladed screwdriver into the plastic cover near its periphery (or at the base of a fin, or where a fin used to be), and push or lever like Satan. The screwdriver will score the cover a bit but the cover will turn, S-L-O-W-L-Y, for perhaps 1 1/4". Now apply a thin-bladed screwdriver to the seam of the cover, and if it pops out readily, you've done the job. Otherwise, keep on pushing' and it'll happen for you at last. Finally, if all seems hopeless, it helps to remember MAJ Walt's Rule of the Three P's: Patience, Persistence, and Profanity make all things happen!
Warnings
- Don't touch the new bulb. It is a halogen, and the oils on your fingers will cause the surface of the bulb to overheat and fail.
Things You'll Need
- A Phillips screwdriver
- A long-shafted flat tip screwdriver (to aid in removing headlamp covers)
- Rubber gloves (to handle the bulb)
- Mirror so you get the boot back on.
