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Headlight bulb replacement, 2007 Forrester

55K views 9 replies 3 participants last post by  Paycheck's '07 
#1 ·
Anybody have the instructions for R&R of the low and high beam bulbs?

Thanx!
 
#2 ·
Low beams...

Can be done with the just the hood up.

The high beams darn near require removal of the headlight...which requires bumper cover removal.

Before you panic, not difficult. When I did our bumper cover it took 5 minutes to drop, and two of us about 3 minutes to put back up.

Look for

"headlight removal" (I had to go to NASIOC)
 
#3 · (Edited)
Quick little tutorial...

If this is explanatory enough...

There are 7(I think, 5 across the top, 1 in each wheel well) nylon "slide nuts". Take a small flat tip screwdriver pop up the center about 1/2 inch. Then remove the whole thing(don't worry about ruining any, where you buy the headlight will have boxes upon boxes of these things). The ones in the wheel well(right where the bumper cover and fender meet) are "hidden" under the fender insert(just pull it back). Once you have all 7(is it 7? I know it is an odd number...) removed...the rest is held in by "tongue and groove"...just give it a solid yank straight off the nose, it will come off.

The headlight cluster is held in by 3 10mm(could be 8mm, or 9...I forget) bolts. That may be all you need to remove to have enough room to change the high beam. If not, on the "corner" of the car there is a screw actually IN the fender to the headlight...and a "square white plastic slide"(the only white thing remotely close to the headlight). Once those 5 things are loose...it is in your hands.

Reverse to put back together. It is easier with two people to put back together because of the "gray foam bumper spacer". Once the bumper spacer is "in place" (this step took a couple of..."oops, not quite right") you simply knock the "tongue and groove" back in and replace the 7 nylon slide nuts.
 
#5 ·
Our '06...

Suffered from the dreaded "wet innards" problem. It was out of commission for 3 days. Mainly since it was the first time I had done it and only took one headlight cluster off at a time.

It took 24-ish hours to "fix" the clusters...

1 hour to take apart, pop the tabs with a heat gun(the 2nd one took a lot less time since I knew what I was doing)...

20 minutes to put the adhesive on and another 20-ish to give it time before putting both sides back together(which the first one took just shy of an hour total, 2nd one took <45 minutes)

24 hours to cure.
 
#9 ·
The owners manual gives fairly good directions too. Section 11-46 starts off with "Replacing bulbs".

Only thing I have "had" to remove to gain access is the battery and I just undid the battery clamp to slide the battery rearward, removing the little snorkle for the air box helped too.

H1 for the low beam
9005 for the high beam

Many also do a HIR(Halogen Infer Red) 9011(now HIR1) conversion for the high beam. Which requires you to trim a tab down on a HIR1 base to fit the socket in the headlight for the 9005. HIR bulbs were designed to produce 75% of the light output of HID lighting at a 1/4 of the cost. Since they still only draw 65 watts they pose no threat to the factory wiring, which is why it is a popular mod.

Trimming HIR 9011 and 9012 bulbs to fit 9005 and 9006 headlights

 
#10 ·
Thanx for the help folks. My fat fingers required moving the air duct and filler caps out of the way, but I got it done quick. The video really helped (and it was an identical car).
Now if I can just get Junior to do all the work.........
 
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