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Removing and Replacing a Car's Headlight

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Hi, my name is Mark Boudreau from Spectrum Auto Painting and Collision Center and today, I am showing you how to change the headlamp bulb and a tail lamp bulb in your car. Right now, we are going to remove the bulb from the socket, identify what kind of bulb it is, where you can obtain them and then reinstall the new bulb into the headlight. First, let us remove the bulb from the socket. In this case, I have got my protective gloves on. We pull this bulb directly out of the socket, like so. How do I know what type of bulb to use? You look on the back of this bulb, there is going to be some identifying markings. In this case, we see an H7, so it is an H7 type of bulb. So, here we have our new H7 halogen bulb. We open it up. I have protective gloves on or a paper towel or a cloth would work. We just want to make sure that we are not going to contaminate this lens of the bulb. Remember contamination can lead to early failure of the bulb or its breakage. Now, we are going to reverse the procedure for installing the bulb in the socket. There is a small indicator lip here on the back of the bulb itself and we find the matching point on the socket for that and we install the bulb directly into the socket, pushing in until it has a firm seat. Now, we are going to install the socket and bulb back into the headlamp housing, like so. Careful not to contaminate the bulb on any of the other surfaces, we take the bulb and socket, slide it back into the headlamp housing at the same position, push in firmly and then twist the two couplers on the back and we are done.

Now, I am going to show you how to identify and install a tail lamp bulb.

Expert: Mark Boudreau

Spectrum Auto Painting & Collision Center

P: (703) 671-2402

When you step into Spectrum Auto Painting & Collision Center, you walk into an award-winning body shop that will immediately surpass your expectations. A clean reception area; greeted with a hello; comfortable seating; original art.The philosophy of the staff at Spectrum is "We are here to provide service. We just happen to fix cars." Mark Boudreau, who started Spectrum in 1993, says that when people More »