The method owners described
The bulbs are hard to reach with the headlight in place, and one owner couldn't see room to get his hands in under the nose cone flap. Everyone who answered said the same thing: take the headlight out.
- The headlight is held by one nut on the back. Undo it carefully, keeping a hand on the cluster.
- Ease the cluster away from the clam. Have a bucket with a towel just in front of the car to rest it on while you work (one owner, 2011).
- Dipped beam (2010 description): disconnect the loom, take the rubber bung off the back of the dipped beam unit, take the wires off the two terminals, release the wire retaining clips and pull the bulb out. Fit the new bulb without touching the glass, then reverse the steps.
- Refit with a wingnut in place of the standard nut. Three owners recommended it (2010 and 2011), and one said the standard nuts are a pain to undo. See below for the size.
We haven't seen a step-by-step for the main beam bulb. It is on the same cluster, so check how yours is held before you pull anything.
Getting at the nut
- A small ratchet with a short extension and a pivot joint, and a torch, about 20 minutes a side (2005).
- One owner found a small spanner easier than a socket if you have long fingers, because you can feel the nut and put the spanner on it. Another said a deep 10 mm socket and a mini ratchet made it easy on his NA.
- Tie string from the spanner to your wrist. A dropped spanner is hard to get out from behind the clam, and one owner cut his forearms and knuckles retrieving his.
- With a charge cooler fitted, the pipework gets in the way of the rear of the headlight (a Turbo owner, 2010). He said wingnuts are the answer there, and make a bulb change at the roadside just about possible without tools.
Wingnut: size and type
- M8 plus a shakeproof washer was the answer when somebody asked (2011). He asked if M6 would do, so confirm the thread on yours first.
- Nyloc wingnuts. Asked about, but another owner said nylocs wear out after a few reuses, which defeats the point. One owner worried a plain wingnut might work loose on a long run. Nobody reported that it had.
- One owner said his came from a stainless fixing kit.
Brighter bulbs, briefly
For which bulbs owners chose and what they said about them, see Bulb types and upgrades. In the headlight threads, one owner was pleased with Philips X-treme Power bulbs on main beam, and another fitted Ring Xenon Max +100% bulbs (H1 and H7) in 2009 and found them only slightly better than the tired 4 year old originals. He would recommend them for replacing broken bulbs but wasn't convinced they were worth swapping for working ones.
Replacement headlights: what owners said
- An owner doing ex-write-off cars asked in 2015 if a similar Vauxhall headlamp could be modified to fit behind a new cover glass. One answer was that headlights are "the killer": about £400 each second hand unless you are happy to do fibreglass work remodelling the clam for another make (an RX-8 was suggested as similar in size, but the angles may be wrong).
- Another owner said that, as far as he knew, plans to produce new headlamps had stalled. We haven't seen a confirmation either way.