headlight bulb removal?

[thebarber]

just curious as to how the bulbs actually come out? do the pull straight out of the back of the headlight, or do you twist them first?

i ask as im getting hid's in the coming month and it would be nice to know beforehand....

thanks

[sycloneman]

I figured it all out after taking the second lamp assembly and looking more closely as to how the spring was placed. I must say it was the most work I ever had to perform on any car, GM or otherwise. That spring setup is for the birds!

[paulsaveo]

once I had the three bolts out, I used my long handled needle nose pliers and wedged them inbetween the headlamp housing and plastic portion of the stabilizer and pried alittle and it popped right out. I wasnt changing the bulbs though, I was removing the headlight assemblies so I could drill out an opening for the unused lens to relocate the bumper mounted side marker into the headlight assembly

[mcthumber]

I replaced both headlight bulbs this weekend. Piece of cake. Certainly not as easy as some cars but after doing some reading it was very easy.

--Remove Grille (3 screws and 2 plastic screw clips)
--Remove headlight unit (3 screws. Takes a bit of wiggling but comes out pretty easily)
--Peel back the rubber boot
--Used a blade screwdriver to gently pry the connector off the 3 prong bulb (much easier than pulling)
--Unclip the bulb wire (much easier than waht I've read here)
--Replace boot
--Plug in
--Test
--Replace everything in reverse order

When removing the whole housing is so easy, I see no sense in trying to work in the cramped space when the housing is left in place. There are a couple of demos on Youtube that help a lot.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

--Mike

[Pickles]

You clearly have a newer aveo. This guide is for the old ones. And fyi, you don't need to take off grille to take headlight assembly out, and you don't need to take the assembly out to change the bulb, although I see you addressed the last part in your post

[mcthumber]

My Aveo is 2006. You can't get to the 3rd headlight enclosure screw without removing the grille.

I guess you could do it without removing the enclosure but it sure seems easier if you do.

[Pickles]

Exactly, 2006 is the t250 body. And I never take off the grille to get to the 3rd screw. All I do is put an m10 socket on an extension bar. Anyways, all of this is irrelevant because the early body style is much harder to change the bulbs on

[kevin7898]

i would recommend not getting hid's in the stock housing, i did and the actual light output was awful, way less than GE nighthawk platinum's which after spending lots experimenting i found to be the best halogens. in about three weeks my hid projector lenses and hid kit will be in, i will let you know how well that works in this thread.

[mcthumber]

This video shows exactly what I did. He did a nice job explaining everything.

Chevy 2005 Aveo headlamp Replacement.wmv - YouTube