96 Camry Headlight Housing - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Majus · 05-01-2010, 05:39 PM

I noticed that my right headlight beam was way off (down and close to the front of the car). Further investigation showed that the lamp assembly itself is pivoted down. It can easily be moved upward into correct position but doesn't stay there because somewhere whatever should hold it in place is not holding it.

I noticed this the morning after I got it back from having a battery replaced by the dealer. They tell me the Headlight Housing itself is broken (not the Lamp Assembly) and I need a new one (about $75). I told them to order it over a week ago and it still isn't here so I started poking around and cannot find anything broken anywhere -- but it's very hard to see everything without actually removing the Lamp Assembly.

The upper tension spring on the right side of the housing appears to be in place and not broken. When the lamp moves down, basically it pivots on a diagonal with the upper left side of the Lamp moving outward and down and the lower right side moving inward and down.

Any thoughts on this?

***eyeball96*** · 05-01-2010, 05:48 PM

Pics would help a lot!

Taking the headlight off a 96 is a piece of cake...hell I can even do it!

Majus · 05-01-2010, 06:29 PM

That's a great idea which would be very helpful. Unfortunately I have never uploaded an image in any forum so I honestly don't know how to do it.

I don't see a Help link either although I did find information about using tags but that doesn't spell it out for me.

If you can give me some help along that line I'll be happy to post the image.

Thanks,

George

***eyeball96*** · 05-01-2010, 07:21 PM

Open an account on Photobucket.com..its free, then upload pictures from your computer. Then Using [IMG] , copy and paste to your thread. I'm definitely not a computer wiz, but I figured it out. So can you

.

Ok the headlight...open the hood, of course, you'll see one phillips head screw on top of the headlight, closest to the corner of the fender. remove it.(That screw holds your corner light on) Pull the corner light forward to remove it. Then removed two 10mm holding the grill in place, remove both them and the grill lifts off. (their on the top of the grill, you can't miss em)

Then remove the High and low bean headlight bulbs, they just twist out.
You have 4, 10mm bolts attaching the headlight (one nut in the area of the corner light) You'll see two on top and one in the middle, once you remove all four, the Headlight assembly lifts off.

If you need another 96 Headlight? I can beat $75

***projektvertx*** · 05-01-2010, 08:44 PM

Actually, there is a DIY on how to remove the headlight w/pics, should make things much easier

:

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t128837.html

It is pretty much identical on a 95-96

eyeball96, how many spare headlights do you have after switching around so many times last year

Majus · 05-01-2010, 10:06 PM

It's the site to upload an image to that has me stopped cold. Photobucket.com gives you a free account, but of course you'll get tons of spam and "special offers" because a user agrees to it when signing up. I'm going to pass on that; I get enough of it already.

The dealer told me the headlight housing, that is the plastic housing that the headlight attaches to, is what's broken. One of my questions about their statement is how they are sure of that since they didn't remove the headlight to look at it. There are no marks of any kind on the bolts holding everything in, no fingerprints indicating they even looked at it.

Tomorrow if I get time I will look into getting the right tools to remove it and inspect it myself. If I have to go through that them I'll just fix it myself, too. I will also look around and try to find a less invasive photo-hosting site that won't try and flood me with spam.

Thanks for your help so far.

***LynchburgCSI*** · 05-01-2010, 10:11 PM

Photobucket won't flood you with spam.

***projektvertx*** · 05-01-2010, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LynchburgCSI

Photobucket won't flood you with spam.

+1, I've had an account for over a year and I haven't gotten a SINGLE e-mail from them.

At the OP, I think you are refering to the Headlight plastic braket, what hold it to the frame?

Majus · 05-01-2010, 10:19 PM

Yes, that's it. It holds the headlight to the frame.

Majus · 05-01-2010, 10:25 PM

I just remembered that I can load images to to my Google account, so here it is (I hope)!

***projektvertx*** · 05-01-2010, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Majus

Yes, that's it. It holds the headlight to the frame.

Might just be cheaper to replace the whole headlight assembly.... Eyeball may be able to provide a nice set of DEPO's for cheap

And it'll look good too!

Majus · 05-01-2010, 10:30 PM

Well, I don't see an image so obviously it did not work.

Majus · 05-01-2010, 10:31 PM

The dealer quoted $75 for the part so that's not too bad.

Chris Crash · 05-01-2010, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Majus

Well, I don't see an image so obviously it did not work.

I always use tinypic.com

Once the image uploads, copy and past the link in the box that says something like "link for forums or messageboards" and paste that in here.

It should look like this [.IMG] tinypic.com/04tuwi93 [/.IMG] minus the periods.

Majus · 05-01-2010, 10:38 PM

I did copy the url that Google provided and inserted it as you show. Maybe Google has some restriction or other. Disappointing.