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Replacing headlight bulbs in my 2002 Prius

Discussion in 'Generation 1 Prius Discussion' started by Semilogical, Feb 6, 2010.

  1. Semilogical

    Semilogical New Member

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    Non mechanical type here asking a question about changing headlamps on a 2002 Prius. I've purchased the lamps but have a problem determing how the heck you get to them inside the hood!

    Either you have to have really small hands or you have to remove the whole lamp assembly to get to it.

    I'm totally lost here!

    Anyone able to give a noob a little help here?
     
  2. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Hi new poster. Small hand do help. For the driver (left) side, remove the top of the windshield fluid reservoir. That should be enough so that you can unplug the light's cable connector and remove the wire-like device that hold the bulb assembly in there. New install reverses the steps, but be sure that the new bulb envelope has no fingerprints etc. in it. Cleaning with rubbing alcohol and finally handling it with a clean cloth is good.

    For the right (passenger) side, the radiator overflow tank and perhaps some air inlet tubing has to be removed. This is all the detail I can remember right now. Am far away from my 2001 Prius now but I changed the headlight bulbs twice.

    Perhaps someone else can offer more details here.
     
  3. BenBurch

    BenBurch Junior Member

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    Anybody got more on this? Have to do this job too.
     
  4. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I haven't but there is a YahooGroup, "Prius_Technical_Stuff" message that addresses this:

    Yahoo! Groups

    In fact, Doug's original posting on the subject is in "toyota-prius":

    Yahoo! Groups

    These two Yahoo Groups offer a tremendous number of helpful posts from messages going back to 2000. If (or when) you replace your headlights, please take photos and share.

    Thanks,
    Bob Wilson
     
    1 person likes this.
  5. BenBurch

    BenBurch Junior Member

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    I shall take pictures! Thanks so much! Also have the Chilton's manual on reserve at the library, so I should be good to go with that write-up.
     
  6. nambinhvu

    nambinhvu Junior Member

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    Not sure if anyone will see this, but the small light in the corner of my 2003 prius is dead, but I have no idea how to pull out the old one too replace it. It looks like there's a tab you push in, but it doesn't appear to do anything except hurt my thumb. Haha any videos, pictures, and/or ideas?
     
  7. kutcht1

    kutcht1 Member

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    Look in your glove box manual as it has steps on how to do this. There is not much room so like said on the drivers side the windshield bottle top needs to come of by one small bolt as I just did this last week. I also was wondering how to get to it but the manual let me know.
    TomK