GA headlight

Noticed one headlight was burned out today. No problem, will just replace it. Lift hood, look down and what the? How do you get to that bulb? Lifted up the plastic cover but bulb still hiding down there...So looks like a trip to the local GM dealer for some info as to how to get at this thing. Walk in to the service dept. and two friendly fellows standing behind the counter. Can we help you they say. Why yes, Id like to know how to get a headlight bulb out of a 2000 grand am. Well sir there is a round collar that you remove and the bulb will pull out....Thank you but I need to know how you get to this collar. They both look at me like Im retarded and say its behind the headlight. I ask them if they have ever changed one of these before and both say no. Im ready to ask to talk to a technition when a customor who overheard the conversation spoke up. He told me about the two sliding clips to pull up which releases the whole assembly which gives you acess to the bulbs. I thanked him and asked the service boys if they heard that and could rember it in case somebody else might ask them. All that came back were two dirty looks. Went home changed both headlight bulbs and put them back together. Not a bad job if you find out how, but not from the dealer. Thats my story for today......

generally you can call a dealer and ask to talk with an actual tech. I'm lucky in that there are a coupla auto parts stores nearby with some knowledgeable folks working at them.

funcruise, are you in luck !

I posted this a few daya ago, with some pics...
Here is the link;
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=648649 (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=648649)

Hope that helps!

Well that was a streak of luck. Pictures and all...thanks. I got them changed yesterday ok [I thought]. Last night took it to the barn to feed the stock and the lights were shining up in the trees. Took them out again today and didnt notice the pins at the bottom of the lights and didnt get them into the slides. Just the top so the lights were still pushed out a bit at the bottom but think I have it right now.Only one thing...you have circled adjusters in yellow. I take it they are the pins that are verticle? Im not sure but do they adjust the lights up and down? They seem to go into the square plastic block at the top of it and there is a threded rod from the block to the headlight body. Now do you turn the verticle pin to adjust. Kinda confused on that one. Im still back in the days when cars and trucks were built much much simpler. Like sealed beams and stuff.......

yep

You should NOT have to adjust any aim...... If your lights are shining in trees, it simply means that you did not line up the guide posts properly, and your assemblies are not even secured in place properly neither. If you started to re-aim those aim adjusters without inserting those guides properly, then you threw everything way off and you're unlikely to get the aim aimed correctly when the assemby is not even reinstalled properly.
If the lights are properly reinstalled, there should absolutely not be any need to re-aim them. If the lights are up in the trees, then you must put those guide posts in correctly.

If you already tried to re-aim without inserting those guides the correct way, well.... good luck.
Been there .... done it... I learned the hard way too...

All is good now, I appreciate the help guys. Every days a learning experence. Cheers............

Sorry I didnt get back sooner funcruise.
But yes the adjusters use a torx bit to adjust.

These headlamps are tricky to get everything all lined back up so they get in right and secure.
They will vibrate while driving if they arent fastend at the top and bottom of the Metal latches. ;)

Hey, that's awesome... glad you solved it.. Believe me, I was going nuts when I bought new housings and installed them. If I were simply re-installing the same old housings, I'd just have to insert those three guides. But with these brand new housings, I not only had to line 'em up correctly, but they were way, way out of aim too because they were brand new and never adjusted yet.

I spent a few hours figuring out how to line them up, then quite some time to "eyeball" the aim to where I thought it was aimed right. Pontiac really used a brilliant style of housings & guide posts, lol....

But after I adjusted them to where I thought I would not blind oncoming traffic, I brought the car to a Massachusetts inspection place and asked if I could simply drive the car in to their bay and put my headlights on to see if I aimed them correctly. To my surprise, they were aimed right - on, lol. The guy even said ... "You can't get 'em any better than that"..

But anyways, glad to read that you have yours sorted out and installed correctly. Oh.. for future reference..... Be careful screwing / unscrewing that damn black retainer ring that holds the bulb into the housings. Those things break so easily; they would break if you sneezed on 'em, lol...

G.M has a newer & stronger version of them; they will be stamped with "rev 05" on them. Those are the latest and stronger ones.

When I had to change out my headlight bulb, I just looked it up in the owners manual.

I did too.... I got a kick out of the illustration in the owner's manual.... the woman working on it and her hand even has nice nail polish too, lol

One other thing with old housings are the adjusters sometimes are hard to turn or stuck and wont budge.

I've broken several tops off the adjusters with the torx driver :banghead:

Thankx for that update Tommy !
I wasnt aware they updated the black rings, its about time :shakehead

They need to release the adjusters too so someone can make aftermarket ones. :grinyes:
Not sure how they come off the housing, but I'd hope they do.....


I put this together today.
99+ Headlamp Removal/Replacement (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=653122)

Hi xero.. anytime. Glad I could help a bit. Yup, the black ones with the "rev 5" stamped on them seem a bit thicker and stronger. GM must have gotten many complaints !!