Loose Headlight Bulb

[steelgrey75]

After much swearing and grazed knuckles I finally managed to fit 2 new headlight bulbs in my car. The drivers side bulb is a nice tight fit bug the passengers side bulb wobbles around in the headlamp. I've tried rotating it in all directions to get it to fit in correctly but the only way it seems to fit is how it is now (loose). The lights work but if I bang the headlight the beam pattern bounces up and down so I just can't imagine this can be right. I've refitted the original blown bulb and that also is loose. Any suggestions??

[korat102]

Did you bend the retaining spring clip when you extracted the old bulb? Sounds to me as if it's not pressing hard enough on the bulb mount. If you bent it, the most likely remedy is a trip to the dealer to get a new one and dismantling a few things to get access to fit it...

Alternatively, if you can get the headlamp unit out easily, you can try bending the clip back into the right shape with a couple of pairs of pliers...I take no responsibility for it breaking or getting even more out of shape though!!!

[steelgrey75]

It's possible the clip became bent a little. I tried so hard to be as careful as I could, but I swear these are the worst designed headlights I have ever encountered in my life. I have had no other problems with the car, but changing the bulbs is absolutely ridiculous and Toyota ought to be ashamed at such a poor design.

[Druid Boy]

I had a similar problem with my 06 Avensis. It was simply the fact that, because I couldn't cope with the pain of having to break my arm in 15 places to get anywhere near the back of the light, I had struggled to get the metal spring/retainer into the correct position. With a bit of fiddling it located correctly in the end. A right pain in the ...... wrist though.

[Roker]

Terrible design, try the driver side indicator bulb. The local garage failed to remove this I had to do a 40 mile round trip to Mr T to get it changed