[t2biker]

Has anyone found a way of removing the headlight unit , without removing the front bumper ?
The indicator bulb housing has broken or melted and need to be rebuilt !
So the headlight unit has to come out !

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[SarahStreet]

You need to remove the lower valance, front grille and front bumper to give you the access that you require.

Just to make the labour rate for such a simple job even higher, both front wheels need to come off, plus the wheel arch liners, which will give you access to the wiring harness that you also need to separate before you drop the bumper. Then you just need to remove the air intake assembly if it's the N/S Lamp.

Finally, you need to have very small hands, as its somewhat cramped.And a lot of patience.

Good luck!

 

[Andy131]

Unbelievable - then again maybe not.
Take a look at the Freelander 2 - a couple of bolts, lift a catch and the whole unit just slides out, why does it have to be more difficult than that?
I have the hands of a gorilla and sausage fingers to boot, why to car manufacturers make service items a complete pain to fix?

LR are not the worst, try the lights on a Citroen C1

 

[SarahStreet]

Ah yes, but L359 was designed by Ford ENGINEERS, not by an egomaniac determined to make life as difficult as possible for anyone other than.......err.....designers!

Laughably, this entire teardown on a warranty claim is quoted as .7 units on Topix from start to finish. Not the >1hr that in reality that it would take, not accounting for clips and fasteners that inevitably snap and break on removal/refitting of everything

Perhaps you can now understand why the techs don't warranty work where possible, as it's a loss-leader from the off, and affects their monthly KPI's in a negative fashion.

 

[RPR]

When I owned my Volvo C30 headlamp removal was so simple, pull out a sort of a tent peg from back of assembly and out the whole unit popped and you just disconnected wiring loom plug.
Other manufacturers should take note!

 

[SarahStreet]

Other manufacturers should take note!

Other manufacturers (including JLR) did take note. As component reliability improved, the "design" department deliberately designed vehicles to make any minor service work a major ball-ache. They simply copied Toyota's model from the 1990's......make super-reliable vehicles (they bypassed that bit) that seldom need any repairs, but allow the dealers to stripe the customer financially should any basic work need carrying out.

Unfortunately, somebody dropped a few sheets of paper including the Toyota repair flow-chart on their way into the D&E meeting at Gaydon one day......the Nett result that we see today is that it now takes over an hour to replace a simple turn signal lamp.

Happy days......(this is progress, allegedly!)

Vote Geraldine!!

 

[Andy131]

here's hoping that 0.7 units means 0.7 days
Can you imagine, get ramps from garage, get stands from garage, get jack from garage, drive up ramps, lift car and fit stand, repeat from other side.
Strip off wheels, wing liners, bumper(cover), remove headlight, find you have ordered the wrong part.
repeat in reverse order.
In the rain
All Saturday gone, do it again next weekend with the right part hopefully

 

[t2biker]

To answer my own question,
You don't need to remove the whole of the bumper !
Remove front radiator grill, remove the screw / plugs under the grill, remove the 4, 10 mm bolts holding the headlight unit in place,
Remove the plastic trim from the front wing , remove one 13 mm bolt holding the bumper to the wing,
This now gives you the flexibility to push the bumper down to remove the headlight !!
Then repair indicator housing in headlight !! :roll:

Many thanks for the comments

 

[SarahStreet]

Be sure to check that your headlamp wash/wipe system, parking sensors and front driving lamps (fog lamps) are all still operative, and you haven't damaged the harnesses, connectors and/or pipes by doing it this way.

 

[JMacG]

To answer my own question,
You don't need to remove the whole of the bumper !
Remove front radiator grill, remove the screw / plugs under the grill, remove the 4, 10 mm bolts holding the headlight unit in place,
Remove the plastic trim from the front wing , remove one 13 mm bolt holding the bumper to the wing,
This now gives you the flexibility to push the bumper down to remove the headlight !!
Then repair indicator housing in headlight !! :roll:

Many thanks for the comments

Hi t2biker - I'm doing the same job myself. Could you tell me what you mean by "remove the plastic trim from the front wing'

Cheers

 

[JMacG]

Hi,
Has anyone found a way of removing the headlight unit, without completely removing the front bumper ?
There was a post on this site a few years ago that recommended the following:

Remove front radiator grill, remove screw/plugs under the grill, remove the 4, 10mm bolts holding the headlight unit in place.
Remove the plastic trim from the front wing, remove one 13mm bolt holding the bumper to the wing on the side where the headlight has to come out.
This apparently gives enough flexibility to push the bumper down on one side a sufficient distance to remove the headlight unit.

I'm not sure what 'removing the plastic trim from the front wing' actually entails but has anybody tried this method with success?

Any help would be appreciated.