Replacing Headlights

I wasn't sure if this was post was going to be humorous or just informative and it seems to be down right instructional and useful. I don't know how that happened.

There is a rule that most automakers follow during the design phase of any automobile; any non major part that will need to be changed multiple times during the life of the car should be hard to remove and replace. Take the headlights on the 1991 Jeep Cherokee for example.

The headlight itself is fairly cheap ($9.99 at your local parts store.) Now most normal people would think, ok, a few easy to reach screws should do the job. Ah but not the good people who make cars, no things are not done that way in Detroit (or anywhere cars are manufactured really.)

First the bezel surrounding the headlight must be removed (this is the silvery colored decorative trim enclosing the headlight and turn signals. To do this first remove two easy to find screws, one on the top right above the headlight and the other around the corner at the bottom left of the marker light (or side turn signal/reflector thingy.) You should notice that the bezel is now loose. Pull on it. Uh oh! its still attached somewhere. The repair manual does not include instructions on removing the bezel unfortunately.

After a ten minute search you should have figured out that it seems to be connected somewhere under the marker light. Certainly when you pull on the bezel it feels attached there. Unscrew the screws holding marker light in. Pulling the marker light out you will not see that the bezel is attached to the body with a hex head screw (and not the easy to remove flathead or phillips head variety.) So now you have to pull out your socket set. This will be in the back of the car and will have come open sometime in the past spilling out the sockets and making it damn near impossible to find the right one. After finding the right socket and removing the two screws the bezel will finally pull off with ease.

The headlight itself is held in by a bracket with four screws, two on the top, two on the bottom. Remove those and you can remove the headlight. Be forewarned that the headlight is covered in road salt and grime and your hands will now be covered with that as well. Gently wiggle the connecting plug that the headlight is plugged into. And the headlight will now be removed.

The new headlight can now be easily connected to the plug and everything else just goes in reverse, bracket, four screws, hex head screws (lose one though and give up trying to find it after a couple minutes, one will work well enough), screw the marker light back on, replace the two original screws and you are done.

For some reason I've done this twice in the last couple years to the same headlight. Go figure.

(The tail lights are even harder to do and if you you have a cracked lens forget about it, you will need to spend seventy bucks on a whole new assembly for them.)