Headlights are crucial for safe driving during the dark and if one of your headlights is broken or not working, it’s almost as if you’re driving with one eye open. So with both of them broken, you could say you’re essentially rendered blind.
On the long way, you suddenly noticed that the headlights of your car are not working properly. What would you do then? Knowing how to replace car headlights beforehand can save you loads of time and money and give you a quick remedy when you are stuck on a dark highway with both of your headlights broken.
How to diagnose headlight problems in your car
- The first step to finding out the cause of any problem is to observe carefully.
- Switch on your headlights.
- Check if one or both of the headlights are out.
- If only one bulb is unlit, most of the time all you need to do is to replace the bulb with a new one simply
- It’s best to keep a bulb in the back of the car so you can use it whenever needed.
- If you don’t have a bulb at the moment, try tapping the bulb with the back of your hand.
- If the bulb lights up, you’ll know that the filament is worn out and the tapping motion causes the filament to shake, which temporarily lights up.
Equipment that will come in handy:
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How to replace car headlight – 6 Simple steps you need to do
Step 1: Collect the matched headlights with the make and model of the car
The first step is to find out which type of headlight bulb you require; check your car manufacturer’s manual or call a local repair shop and ask them for the required headlight of your car’s make and model.
Step 2: Find the headlight holder
Park and turn off your vehicle. Open the hood of your car and find the headlight holder.
Step 3: Detach the old headlight
- In most cases, all you need to do to extract a headlight bulb to simply disconnect the cable connections attached to the back of the headlight system.
- However, some models might need extra steps before removing the bulb, which is not that tricky to work through, so keeping the equipment mentioned before might come in handy.
- Just make sure you do not break any of the attachments. Carefully observe how you can open the headlight, and voila! All you’ll need to do after that is to change a bulb.
Step 4: Install the new bulb
Now, just fix the new bulb into the headlight holder, ensuring that your hands are off the bulb’s glass (stained glass bulbs can explode when hot), so using a paper towel to pick up the bulb would be a great idea.
Step 5: Place back the attachments
You will have to place back all the cable connections and clips now that you’ve screwed your bulb on.
Step 6: Check your new headlight
Power up your car and see if your headlight is working fine; if it still isn’t lighting up, you may have a problem with your wiring, and in this case, it is best to contact a local repair shop rather than trying to work it yourself as it could lead to severe accidents.
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