Low beam bulb installation
 

Greetings -

I have a bit of a problem with the driver side low beam bulb on my 07 Mazda 3. When this bulb burnt out a while back I replaced both low beam bulbs. Passenger side went just fine but driver side was very uncooperative. It was really difficult to get the bulb to line up correctly (pointed straight ahead). Whereas the high beams have sockets where you can just insert the bulbs and twist them clockwise a little ways to lock them into place, the low beams use clips. The low beam bulbs/sockets don't seem to have any type of tabs or guides like the high beams so all I could do was try to get the bulb flush and centered against the socket, snap the clip into place and hope for the best. After switching on the headlights and looking at the front of the car, that low beam would invariably be shining at some crazy angle. I must have gone through the procedure a half dozen times before getting it right. Now the left low beam is once again shining at an angle and I really don't want to have to go through the whole guessing game again.

So, am I missing something here? Maybe the replacement bulb didn't have tabs/quides that it should have had? If that's the issue then I have no problem with replacing both low beam bulbs with ones that install easier, even though both of the current bulbs work OK. Thanks in advance and sorry for being so longwinded.