slvr05rl

Hey guys, new to the site. Just bought a '05 KB1 and I'm in love with it! I'm having a really hard time finding some DIY's as far as replacing the headlight (HID bulb) & foglights go. Don't say "search!" because I've used that thing more than a hooker on 10th Street lol I cannot find a decent writeup on these and I was wondering if anyone knew of a decent one. Like I said, I've searched and searched and have not found the greatest of info. I'm slowly learning that these cars have little to no writeups on them lol Thanks in advance

oo7spy

First off, welcome to the forums! Maybe you don't know the best ways to search? There are tons of write-ups here. The fastest and easiest way is to find the "search this forum" toolbar in the main 2G RL forum. The top right one above the sub forums searches all forums, and the one below the sub forums searches only the main forum. The absolute best option is to click on "Search" between "New Posts" and "Quick Links" (above the worthless red search bar) and choose "Advanced Search". There you can select specific forums, time periods, order of results, threads or posts, etc.

Still, I have to point out that the "write-ups" for the fog lights and high beams are in the owner's manual, so please, .

If your specific headlight question is in regards to the low beam, there are varying opinions on the best route. The dealer will claim you have to remove the bumper and the headlight assembly, but I believe that is BS. There is nothing wrong with going in through the engine bay if you can reach everything. The next best option IMO would be through the wheel well liner.

bugeyes

+2 for the wheel well liner

projektvertx

iTrader: (2)

It's perfectly do-able to replace the headlight low-beams from the top. HOWEVER, being that you are looking to replace both headlight low-beams and fog lights, wheel liner is the route to go.

slvr05rl

Right on guys, thanks for the info. & the welcoming. I know "how to search", it's just finding the exact writeup I found hard to find lol But, I'll look more into it. Got some 6k DS2 replacements with some yellow fogs. Yeahhh buddy!

SHUJeff281

After reading all the information on this forum about users who have changed their lowbeams, I decided to tackle the job myself. Even though I have zero mechanical skill or knowledge, reading other users experiences gave me the courage to try it. Here’s some info from my experience on my 08 RL.

Passenger side: The easier side (NOTE: not to be confused with the EASY side) I originally planned to do this all through the hood as many users have said it’s possible. So I removed all the plastic engine bay covers, removed the battery (better safe than sorry) removed the WW filler neck and unscrewed the back cover of the lowbeam. Turn the igniter (looking at the front of the car) clockwise until you hear a click/pop, the igniter is now free from the bulb. Try to move the igniter out of the way the best you can. On the 2008 the wires that go to the igniter and from the igniter to the AFS sensor are barely long enough to get the igniter sufficiently out of the way to release the spring. This is where I decided this would be much easier to go through the wheel well liner.

Once you get the tire off and remove the 4 or so plastic pop screws and the one real screw that is just inside the fender, you can pull the liner down (pull hard), stick your head up into the space and look directly at the back of the light housing. Having done it this way I now realize that getting the bulb properly aligned from the hood would have been sheer luck. There are a few notches in the plastic base of the D2S bulb that need to be aligned with the light housing. The square notch needs to be at 12 o’clock which puts the electrode that runs the length of the bulb at 6 o’clock. Once you have the bulb notches aligned, push the retaining spring back into place and reattach the igniter. Since you are now looking at the back of the bulb, you once again turn the igniter clockwise until you hear the click/pop. Replace the housing cover and all parts you removed and you’re done with the passenger side.

The Driver side: Unfortunately unless you feel like removing the entire airbox, you are not able to go through the wheel liner on this side as the intake for the airbox is in the way. Your only real option is to go at this one through the hood and unless you have a second elbow located mid-forearm, or some circus freak flexibility/dexterity, this isn’t going to be quick or easy. I removed the top portion of the airbox and this gave me a significant amount ofadditional room so I highly advise you do this too. Again, the short length of the igniter wires and AFS sensor on my 2008 are a real nuisance. I used thisOEM/4 prong claw flexible shaft pick up tool 25291 at AutoZone.com to get the bulb into the housing and rotate it until I had the notches aligned and even with the grabber tool, I dropped the bulb twice. That should probably only take a few thousand hours off the bulb life. This side just takes time to get it right and eventually, I got the bulb aligned, spring reset and everything reattached.

My advice is to reattach the battery, but do not secure it down until you turn the lights on to make sure everything is properly aligned. I used Morimoto xb35’s @ 5500K and they are GORGEOUS!! If you are not amazed by how much whiter and brighter your bulbs are, you probably have something misaligned. I now completely understand why Acura charges as much as they do for this job. Like I said above, I really have no mechanical skills at all, but I’m beginning to wonder if there have been some redesigns in the engine bay of the 2G RL from 2005 to 2008. There are an awful lot of forum users who have said this job takes 5 minutes and I have no idea how that’s possible.

Hope this helps everyone who wants to replace their bulbs.

oo7spy

Awesome.

slvr05rl

So, I replaced the fogs (no problem) but good grief is that huge airbox that sits behind the driver side foglight a pain in the ass!! lol So, I figured, why not remove it? WRONG!! I probably spent at least 2 hrs trying to remove that pain!

projektvertx

iTrader: (2)

Not saying replacing the bulbs is a cakewalk on this car, but I didn't thing it was horrendous enough to justify the dealer charging $150 ++++.... I suppose it does help that I have a D2S retrofit on my Camry so I sort of knew what to expect when tackling this job The biggest issue as mentioned above is the space constraints really.

slvr05rl

Yeah, luckily I have small arms so the fogs weren't that difficult (minus the intake box on the driver side) I still have yet to tackle the headlights