HIR bulb replacements - HOW? (1 Viewer)

[tlin]

Feel free to throw a jab or two my way for asking this one.....

Got my HIRs in the other day, went to start replacing this morning. I'm surprised by the apparent amount of work required to get the light buckets out of the FJ80. I'm crawling under the truck, unscrewing and unbolting everything I can find since the lens would easily "pop" off after removing the retaining clips.

Am I doing this the wrong way? As it stands, there's at least one more bolt holding the light bucket in place and before I get into a yoga outfit trying to get that one out, please chime in if I am simply doing this the wrong way.

Yes, I tried searching, didn't find anything immediately useful. Thx!

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

The bulbs are inserted from the rear of the light housing.

 

[djsixbillion]

The bulbs are inserted from the rear of the light housing.

What he said; no need to unbolt anything for a bulb change. You can pull the radiator overflow bottle off its bracket and set it to the side to make a little more room on the passenger side.

 

[Overland Tailor]

Some information. Not so much on install, but information nonetheless..

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/430026-philips-hir2-3d-generation-9012-a.html


How to trim the bulb base to fit:

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-91565365470012_2267_311973



Enjoy~

john

 

[chairborne]

What he said; no need to unbolt anything for a bulb change. You can pull the radiator overflow bottle off its bracket and set it to the side to make a little more room on the passenger side.

Yep. I did the same thing as the OP, started pulling everything apart, till I realized I just needed to pull the overflow tank. Doh!

 

[tlin]

don't you just LOVE getting under the hood??

screwed/bolted passenger light bucket back up and went after the reservoir as suggested. she was pretty tight (no dirty jokes fellas), stepped back, thought twice about yanking up but saw the two obvious lifting tabs and decided to just give a little more oomph. well.......

• battery isn't stock (duh - 21 yr old vehicle). its terminals, however, face the front of the truck which are directly in front of the metal bar which clamps down the battery
• reservoir was wedged in there pretty tight so my additional force brought up pretty quickly - doing so unfortunately also lifted the battery strap (metal) up with it (clearly wasn't tightened down very well)
• metal battery strap now directly in contact with both battery terminals - terrific spark show and scared the bejeezus out of me

driver-side lights were hard to get out. i'm assuming the pieces in the way are associated with the A/C upgrades (upgraded to newer refrigerant system by PO) so actually getting those lights out required being on a ladder, twisting my arm like mad just to get access - wasn't fun but got it done.

tabs removed on new lights, low and highs replaced successfully.

while in there, also decided to give the air filter a check - why not? she's fine, put her back in. truck's now idling a bit rough (of course) - first time for that. lights are in - can't tell if they're brighter yet or not, will need to wait until tonight to tell.

thx for the updates fellas, very helpful. hopefully this is at least a wee bit entertaining for all your hard work

 

[chairborne]

don't you just LOVE getting under the hood??

screwed/bolted passenger light bucket back up and went after the reservoir as suggested. she was pretty tight (no dirty jokes fellas), stepped back, thought twice about yanking up but saw the two obvious lifting tabs and decided to just give a little more oomph. well.......

• battery isn't stock (duh - 21 yr old vehicle). its terminals, however, face the front of the truck which are directly in front of the metal bar which clamps down the battery
• reservoir was wedged in there pretty tight so my additional force brought up pretty quickly - doing so unfortunately also lifted the battery strap (metal) up with it (clearly wasn't tightened down very well)
• metal battery strap now directly in contact with both battery terminals - terrific spark show and scared the bejeezus out of me

driver-side lights were hard to get out. i'm assuming the pieces in the way are associated with the A/C upgrades (upgraded to newer refrigerant system by PO) so actually getting those lights out required being on a ladder, twisting my arm like mad just to get access - wasn't fun but got it done.

tabs removed on new lights, low and highs replaced successfully.

while in there, also decided to give the air filter a check - why not? she's fine, put her back in. truck's now idling a bit rough (of course) - first time for that. lights are in - can't tell if they're brighter yet or not, will need to wait until tonight to tell.

thx for the updates fellas, very helpful. hopefully this is at least a wee bit entertaining for all your hard work

If you checked the air filter and now it's idling rough, I suspect you tore the hose going into the throttle body. They are usually rock hard and its easy to do. I replaced mine due to the same problem. For a temp fix, RTV and some duct tape will work just fine until you can replace it.