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DIY: Headlight Assembly Removal

50K views 12 replies 9 participants last post by  ravver4 
#1 ·
Another day, another DIY.

So this one is removing the headlights. Its a fairly quick job once you get the hang of it, I can get them both out in about 15min, first time expect 30-45min. This is for an 08-10 HL, 11-13 will be different, but the basic idea and mounting practices will be identical. You can use this as a guide to find fasteners. The FSM says you have to remove the entire front bumper in its entirety, I don't. If you did, you would double or triple the time involved. So I'm going to show my method.

All you need is a:
10mm socket and ratchet, maybe a 3" extension
medium sized phillips head screwdriver
knife or any tool for prying.

So here goes nothing...again.

So goal of the day, rip the headlights out...


First thing you need to do is remove the plastic cover over the grill/radiator that spans the width of the engine compartment...


It is held in with 11 plastic fasteners circled below:


So when properly installed these fasteners look like this:


Many people think you have to lift the central cap up to remove it. If you enjoy torturing yourself, go right on ahead :D Otherwise do it the easy way. Push the central cap down into the fastener, you'll fell it snap and come loose. Its at that point, you can pull the fastener up and out of its hole.


When removed it'll look like this, see how one of the "legs" is longer than the others? That is a locking mechanism. Lift that leg and push the central post back up through the fastener. Not all the way though.


It should look something like this when its prepped for reinstall. When you go to put it back in, put it in the hole like this, then push the central cap flush to the top of the fastener, then its locked.


Now for the grill, its held in with 6 fasteners and 6 clips on the bottom. The fasteners are shown below, yellow is plastic fasteners and blue is 10mm centering bolts.


These are the plastic fasteners, this is their locked state.


To unlock them, use a knife (or something to pry) and lift the central cap. When looking like this, remove the fastener. These are the same kind of fastener I talked about in my rear bumper DIY, if you saw that. These won't be anywhere near as annoying as those. I've never had these seize.


Just so you know, this is the centering bolt, 10mm


So on to the lower clips, there are 6 and shown below.


They look like this. If you reach from behind the grill (between it and the condenser), you can get your hand on those clips. If you start at one edge, lift the center tab while pulling the grill straight away form the car, it will come free. Work from one side to the other while pulling and the grill will come out quick.


Those clips fit in slots in the bumper cover shown below


So then your left with this:


There is a centrally located plastic fastener, its the exact same as the grill ones, remove it


The only other fasteners that need removal from the bumper cover are the 2 in each wheel well. No need to touch the ones on the bottom. With that in mind, here are the fasteners in the wheel arch. Yellow circle is a phillips head screw, blue is a plastic fastener. You supposedly have to turn the plastic fastener 90* and pull it out. When I always do it, it simply pulls out.


The yellow screw


And blue fastener


One that is done, you need to pop it free. See the top fastener, it kinda forms a loop, it sits over an extrusion on the body that the screw goes into. To get it off you have to pull the cover toward the tire to get the loop around the extrusion...if that makes sense. For the lower fastener, simply pry the clip open a bit and it pops off the bumper cover. You want it free like this on both sides:


Because I don't fully remove the bumper cover, you don't have a lot of slack to work, so you can only do one side at a time. You can work the bumper cover off the foam bumper and off the side enough to give slack around the headlight. It will look like this when done. The bumper has the ability to bend quite a bit.


Now to the headlight fasteners. On top there are a few, the left ones are covered by a piece of plastic that can be bent out of the way.


So bend up that plastic and you expose all the top fasteners. The 2 larger ones are phillips head screws, the small one is a tiny phillips head screw, take them all out. Be careful when you reinstall, if you over-tighten you can and will strip the plastic it screws into.


Last fastener on the headlight is a 10mm bolt on the side shown below. Normally the bumper covers it, but its should be visible now. You may have to bend the cover down by hand a bit to get a ratchet into it, but no big deal.


So the upper fastener that is covered by plastic sits onto a extrusion on the body, it keeps the headlight form moving and fits on there tight.


Simply pry from under the tab and force it straight up so it comes off that circle. It will pop loud when it comes free.


There is a single compression style plastic clip on the back side of the headlight on the bottom inside corner. I circled its basic location below, simply pull the headlight straight forward (away from the car) and it will pop free. Push the headlight in to re-install.


At this point, you need to start getting all the electrics unplugged. On the back of the headlight there will be 4 things that need your attention. In each of the circles below will be a light conection. The 2 on the right will rotate and pull out, the one the left will be your H4 headlight connector, it will simply pull off the bulb, no twisting. There is a wire harness clip that grabs onto a edge that sits between the adjustment screw (silver cap with phillips head in the center) and the headlight bulb (left circle). That will also need to be removed. At this point nothing is holding the headlight in anymore.


The headlight can be pulled out now, maneuver it straight away from the car. You will likely have to bend the bumper cover down a little to get clearance. Not a big deal. Now pay attention to this, this is important. The metal fender is as sharp as a knife around the side of the headlight. If you aren't careful, when removing, the lens of the headlight will hit the metal fender, and it WILL dig a channel into it and scratch the snot out of it. It will happen as easy as a knife through butter. Be VERY careful, I've circled where it would happen. I've done it twice on old assemblies, its incredibly frustrating.


And boom, headlightless highlander. Put the bumper cover back into its approximate location and do the other side.



Reverse to reinstall.
 
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#5 ·
As always, awesome write-up SP. Hope to never have to do this but, it is great to know the help is here.

Thanks Again !
 
#8 ·
Removing the bumper is super simple. Once you've removed the grill, the central plastic fastener under the grill, and gotten the side of the bumpers free in the wheel arch; the only thing left is the lower fasteners.

Basically on the bottom there are hex screws along the front edge as shown below in blue:

There are like 2 under the passenger side, 4 in the center, and 3 on the driver side. Once those are removed, the bumper will pull off. The fog light wires will need to be unhooked from the bulbs to fully remove though. And that's it.
 
#9 ·
At this point, you need to start getting all the electrics unplugged. On the back of the headlight there will be 4 things that need your attention. In each of the circles below will be a light conection. The 2 on the right will rotate and pull out, the one the left will be your H4 headlight connector, it will simply pull off the bulb, no twisting. There is a wire harness clip that grabs onto a edge that sits between the adjustment screw (silver cap with phillips head in the center) and the headlight bulb (left circle). That will also need to be removed. At this point nothing is holding the headlight in anymore.
Sweeney,

Thanks a lot for this awesome post and the many others you have contributed over time! I am a long time lurker, first time poster.

Regarding that "adustment screw" you mentioned in this post (which helped me locate it). Is there a ratio you know of on turns to amount of vertical adjustment the HL gets from the turns? I just sat out there turning that sucker for 20 minutes it would seem and my HL did not move a centimeter. On my '08 Highlander Base Model that screw is a 5/16th bolt but the toothed wheel it is in is exactly like your pic.

I am not sure how my passenger side HL got to be pointing so high up, but it is way off and I really need to get it to move down. Any ideas or help would be much appreciated! Thanks again for the awesome post/pics.

Lax
 
#10 ·
Dumb question, but did you try the other direction during your 20min spree?

Yes, there is a ratio, no I don't know it, no its not in the FSM. However, it doesn't take much turning to get a sizable change in beam direction. I generally turn them by hand and I don't have to move them much to get changes. Though because i'm moving it only a few degrees each time I rotate it by hand, I'm not sure how much exactly I'm doing it. Its not much though.

If you rotate one direction to lift the beam (this will drop the back of the bowl), you'll reach the end of the internal threaded rod as your moving the reflector mount toward the front lens and the end of the shaft. You can continue to turn all day and it won't do anything; it'll be spinning on the end of the threads.

The size/type of bolt will change depending on housing manufacturer (OEM is denso, my housings are TYC), but location will always be the same.

If you've tried both directions on the adjustment screw with no joy, you'd likely have internal headlight damage. All those parts are plastic, and can strip easily. You can take the black rubber seal off the back of the headlight, grab the back of the bulb/reflector, and try to lift it (would lower the beam) while turning the screw to "catch" good threads. Don't go crazy on lifting it, just give it a helping hand to try and get working. Otherwise there isn't much to be done....
 
#13 ·
Hey - This is an amazingly detailed post and pictures and I'm grateful you took the time to share your knowledge. My first question is: I know the post is about a Highlander, but would your instructions be basically the same for a 2013 RAV4? I am mechanically challenged, but I'm also cheap and I like to do for myself whenever I can bumble through it. I have changed a headlight assembly years ago (I think it was a Ford) and I don't remember it being anything as complicated as this. I'd appreciate any advice you or others in this forum can offer. Thanks in advance.
 
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