P5 Headlight Swap - please help
 

I hope I am posting this in the right place...

I have a 2002 P5 and my friend has a 2003. We both prefer each other's headlights, and are wanting to swap. I know that this involves removing the bumper (yippee!), and I also know that it has been done several times by other members.

I've done a search but was unable to find any how-to or pictures.

If you have changed your headlights, or know the steps to do so, could you please post it - preferably with pictures, if you have them - so we're not proceeding totally blindly? :)

Thanks in advance!

I'm interested too. I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.

is there any diffrence between the 02 and 03 headlights?!

There is no difference between the 02 and 03 headlights for the Protege5. I ended up doing this mod essentially blind, with the exception of a drawing from the shop manual. It really isn't that hard to do, just very tedious because you have to remove the entire front bumper cover to remove the headlights. (This involves removing about 30-odd screws and bolts; gotta love engineers.)

The real b**ch involves the outer edge of the headlight and the bumper cover. There's a little knob that sticks up from the housing of the headlight and the cover has a lip on it, with a hole, that slides over and essentially snaps onto this knob. Because the space between the top of the housing and the bottom of the actual headlight is barely larger than the lip, it's almost impossible to remove the cover without cracking the lip. If you do crack it, it's not that critical, but you want to do your best not to. The final trick is to remember where all the screws and bolts go when you're putting the cover back on. :D Hope this helps! By the way, if you're planning to do this, allow anywhere from 1.5 to 3.5 hours, start to finish, and make sure you have ramps, or something to raise the front end of the car 6 inches or more.

so what was wrong did one of u have busted headlight or something to take the time to switch identical headlights lol! :)

Nope! Just wanted the black housing, and didn't feel like going to the extra work (and possible screw up) of painting my original ones. Plus, one of the other members of our local group here has an 03 but wanted the silver housing, so we simply switched.

in order to swap it, you have to remove front bumper first.

Man, I gotta remove the whole front bumper to change the headlight on my 03 P5? what a nuisance! Anyone have any detailed instructions on how to do this? I'd really appreciate it.

thanks

^ Yep, you do. There's no way around it.

It actually is pretty straight-forward, you just have to remember where the 30 something screws, bolts and plugs go. :) Go to http://protege5.ugly.net and download the manual - all I did when doing the swap is look off the diagram of the front end that shows the various screws, etc. We were able to get the bumper off, swap the lights, take a short lunch break, and put the bumper back on in under 2 hours. It helps having the front end either on jacks or on ramps, gives you more room to work.

Good luck!

Ok, thanks for the response. IF I don't put my car put on jacks or ramp, I will still be able to remove the bumper right? Like I don't have to go under the hood to remove some screws?

I will give it a shot cuz it seems like it will be straightforward, just a bit meticulous. It's all rather annoying that i need to remove the headlamp. I went to change the bulb and the small plastic nub broke off the housing so that metal retaining clip doesn't hold in place anymore. I don't want to spend $400 for a new headlamp assembly so I want to try to retrofit something. But i need to remove the headlamp cuz the access is so limited in that area.

You'll need to jack your car up - 90% of the bolts/screws you have to remove are underneath the car. So unless your elastic man or something, there's no way you'll fit under the car. :)