Alright, so I was able to get my hands on a tamperproof Torx-20 screwdriver bit and I plan on swapping out my D2R bulb tonight.

Besides moving some of the intake components out of the way so I can access the bulb housing, is there anything else I should watch for? Is it just a simple plug and play like other headlight bulbs? Any kind of special mounting (i.e. how the bulb fits into the housing)?

Thanks!

 

the cuts on the d2r bulb it self should face up, the clip is kinda of a pain in the A$$ to get back on, but its pretty simple took me about 10 mins

 

When you say the "cuts", do you mean the parts of the bulb that don't look like they are taped off (or blacked out)?

 

Wear latex or rubber gloves if possible- the oil from your skin gets on the bulb- gets crispy fried from the intense heat and shortens the new bulb life.
If you touch the glass- use rubbing alcohol on a paper towel to clean before final install into housing

 

by cuts i mean on the bulbs plastic piece they have little parts cut out so they stick right into place, ill try to take a picture of the bulb and show you what i am saying.

 

On the plastic part of the bulb, there's two small indentations. On the headlight housing, there's two things sticking out, so that the bulbs fit into it. if you look at this pic i got from ebay, there's two little groves, that part is up.

 

that notch is just about a few MM above the 8000k sign if you can't see it. good luck

 

I changed my D2R bulbs about a month ago.

I went with the OEM 4300K Philips bulbs because maximum light on the road is my priority. I like the blue color of the higher Kelvin bulbs but I won't sacrifice any amount of visibility to obtain that look.

In addition to the latex gloves suggestion, take your time when you're installing the new bulbs. There's not too much room to move around so be careful not to bang the bulb against anything or to drop it.

The spring loaded metal clip is pretty easy to figure out after you stare at it for a bit. Look at it carefully when you undo it and that will help when you snap it back into place.

You might want to use a flashlight or a shop light if you won't be in a well lit area.

Good luck!

Bob

 

Remove this plastic shield:



It will make swapping the bulbs easier by giving you more room. It's held on by I think 11 plastic clips (2 small ones and I think 9 large ones).

 

Thanks for all the help everyone! Really appreciate it!!

harminder, mytaliza - I see what you mean by the cuts or indents on the bulb base. Thanks for the tip, as I don't know if I would have been able to see that without removing the headlight housing (which I don't plan on doing).

Going to do it later tonight, so I'll update afterwards.

 

Yup, my driver side bulb clip is a PIA. I'm over 6 feet tall and my back started killin me (old man here at 32). my pax side went in easy..about 2 minutes. My driver side..gdam 30 minutes because I could not get my hand at the perfect angle..then, took a break and came back..bamm went right in. Stupid ass clip...those 4300 philips bulb are staying until I sell it!!

 

So, I swapped out my driver's side bulb tonight. No problems really, thanks to the advice of everyone who posted here. I found removing a couple of the plastic intake pieces, the plastic battery cover, and unscrewing the intake filter box and shoving it backwards a bit really helped give me enough space to remove/install the bulb without knocking or touching it.

Had to really give a good twist to screw the new bulb on fully. Oh, and I didn't have any problems with the metal clip holding the bulb in, but I've had experience with those on my old Civic and my brother's Impreza.

Otherwise, no problems. It looks so much better, as I had the passenger side replaced recently by the dealer due to an accident I had and they replaced the ballast and bulb. Point being, the driver side was the original bulb and had gone through a full colour shift, whereas the passenger side was a new bulb. Got a Philips D2R 4300K from eBay, and the colours match perfectly now.

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

always a pleasure. glad you did it right