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 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.
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 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.