NeimanB87

glad i found this forum. i planned on swapping my bulbs out this weekend....big help

Chazmo

Funny, I repaired the passenger side a while back when I started this thread, and now the driver side burned out. Guess it's time to get that side done too.

Planned obsolescence, anyone?

DryCycle

I just changed my driver's side parking light this evening. I was able to reach in behind the headlight assembly from the engine compartment after taking the washer bottle out of it's clip (just held by gravity, so no tools required). I had to work by feel, but after twisting the connector a quarter turn, it came right out. I left the harness connected, and there was enough free wire to pull the connector and bulb into view.
After that, the bulb pulls out, and installation went a little faster. It's a tight fit to get my hand in there, but not really that bad. A scouting picture with a cell phone and flashlight is helpful.

Chazmo

Wow, you must have small hands, drycycle. I'm going to try that tomorrow; still haven't fixed it.

EGbeater

I tried going through the hole behind the coolant reservoir tank like DryCycle described and there was just no way, for me (my hands aren't huge but I do typically wear size large gloves) especially w/o knowing where the parking lot bulb is.

I decided to just go through the fender liner on both sides of the car; it wasn't that bad, but I took some pictures in case others who haven't done this yet find this thread down the road. The pictures are all of the passenger side.

Step one: Remove the wheel (maybe not 100% necessary, but it only takes two minutes if you have a proper floor jack, and my car is lowered on coilovers and I'm running 255/35-18s on 9" wheels, so there's less clearance than with the OEM wheel/tire).

Step two: remove three fender liner clips... these are the ones you need to pull:



Step three: pry/bend the fender liner outwards along the molded crease lines to create enough of an opening for your hand. I pulled the lower edge of the fender liner that's behind the rearmost edge of the front bumper cover out too. It'll fight you at first but you won't break or damage anything.

See the big light gray bulb receptacle in the picture below? Yeah, that's not the parking light; that's the turn signal:



The parking light bulb receptacle is such smaller, located farther inwards and towards the bottom of the light housing, and on my car, they were both coated with black sticky crap so they're dark and hard to see.

You can just barely see it in this pic:



Removed. The bulb socket unscrews by rotating it counterclockwise about 45 degrees (from 6 o'clock to 4 o'clock), to reinstall is the opposite of course:



This is what it looks like after I cleaned it off with a rag and WD-40 and reinstalled it (the back of it is a pale yellow/white color under the gunk):



And this the factory Koito wedge bulb... which lasted well over a decade on my MY 2003, and 122k miles! You can see that it's listed as a 5W bulb, which means the replacement bulb is a 168. But I went with a 194LL bulb which has the same T3.25 wedge base but is lower wattage and somewhat dimmer, but will last longer as the current draw/heat generated is lower. I really just want to have the front parking lights working for two reasons: so I can easily see that I've locked my doors w my remote, and so the cops don't have an additional reason to pull me over—no front plate, lowered suspension, loud exhaust, and DWA (driving while Asian) are already enough reasons.

I found this info on another thread:

168: 0.35A current draw at 14V = 4.9 watts; 3 candlepower output
194: 0.27A current draw at 14V = 3.8 watts; 2 candlepower output

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckBBAS...bb_pdf/174.pdf



Once you've put in a new bulb in the socket, go turn the headlight switch to the park light position and confirm the bulb you just installed lights up (if it doesn't, the 10 amp "small lights" fuse in the fusebox under the dash might be out, but if it were, you'd have no working parking lights at all, and the rear license plate light would be out as well).

Reinstall the bulb socket with the new bulb (insert at 4 o'clock, press it forward into the housing, and rotate it clockwise to 6 o'clock position to lock it in).

Slip the fender liner back in place, reinstall the three fender clips, put the wheel back on and torque the lugnuts, and go drink a beer.

Chazmo

torque the lugnuts...

Yeah... I hate to admit I forgot to do that... once... on another car... which I still have... that was fun...

Thanks mucho for the pictorial walkthrough, EG!

gizzard

Under what conditions do the parking lights turn on? I was driving my car this morning with the headlights on and thought I saw my passenger side parking light out (I have a 2007). Now that my car is parked in my garage, I can't get them to turn on.

Chazmo

Well, both bulbs burned out within a year of each other. Now they're both replaced.

gizzard, sorry I didn't see your post. I suspect the MY07 obeys the same rules, but not sure... parking lights turn on with the first détente/stop of the light switch and stay on with the second (headlights on). If you had your headlights on and one of the parking lights wasn't on, well, it's out. It can cause an inspection failure, unfortunately (which I think is silly, but so be it).

psaltminer

EG Beater - Thanks so much for the pictorial. Thank God for the internet and the info you can find on it. I'll be changing a bulb this weekend to pass NY State inspection next week, but without fear or trepidation!!!

EGbeater

You are welcome, and I appreciate you taking the time to say thanks! When I needed to change a parking light bulb on my S2000, I was pretty surprised at what a hassle/headscratcher it was (on most cars, it's a no-brainer, 90-second job... it's not like the S2000 was my first car or anything ) so I figured I'd try to save someone else the braindrain.