Removing Bumper and Replacing Headlight Bulbs For EK Civic

[Paspa]

Hey there everyone, I have been a long time member at Ozhonda but have never really posted, I've tended to take advantage of all the good DIY tips to make my car that lil bit better looking while not giving back to Ozhonda, so I thought instead of taking knowledge from you guys, I might just try and give back some as well, so here is my guide on how to change the headlight bulbs on a 00' civic ek1

Well first thing is first, to change your headlight bulbs you will have to purchase some nice new ones, the bulbs for the ek1 are of H4 size and are very cheap, you can buy from anywhere such as eBay, forums, car retail outlets etc. these i bought from eBay just as a test and cost around $10.


http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/728/39155841.jpg


Bumper Removal

Tools required:
- Socket wrench with 10mm socket
- Philips head screwdriver
- Patience

Now that the easy part is done, it's time to actually go outside, to your civic and attempt to remove the bumper, there are several screws, bolts and clips that i have outlined in the random photo i stole off the interwebz below (don't worry rest of the photos are taken by me).


http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1603/68754645.jpg

The white arrows indicate bolts / screws, whereas the black indicate clips.

So starting from the bottom (for some reason)


http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/1483/79699378.jpg

Here is what the underneath of your car should look like if your car is dark green and it’s a relatively sunny day, and if you have an extremely koolllll!!11!1 custom number plate like mine, surprised no one else chose it tbh.


http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/3899/71665470.jpg

Ok so here is a close-up of one of the 10mm bolts, obviously yours shouldn’t be half sticking out, I unscrewed it a little bit so you can tell what they look like, there are two of them under the car.

Once those are removed me can move over to the screws located under the fenders.


http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/7913/41085901.jpg

this is what you should see just looking at it, under that flap lays quite a small Philips head screw, I was quite afraid that the screw would fall between the rubber guard and the fender and be lost forever, so I just decided as a precaution to remove the guard first using the clips next to it shown here:


http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/212/33297421.jpg

Now with that removed here is the screw, as for the yellow stuff... not sure what that is.


http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/3522/83694028.jpg

So repeat the above steps until both the screws are removed from both fenders.

Now that we have done the bottom and sides, time to move on to the top, simply remove the clips from the grill and the ones next to it as shown below:


http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/5008/92675887.jpg

I just got a flathead screw driver to put pressure on the inside so it would easily pop out, because my finger nails are far far too short.

Ok now for the easy part, simply just slide the bumper forward and it will easily come out, congrats your bumper is now removed, time to move on to the part we actually wanted done in case you have lost track by now (to tell you the truth I almost have).


Replacing headlight bulbs.

Ok so now that the bumper is removed upon quick inspection you should be able to see a whole lot of bolts surrounding the headlight keeping it in place, in order to reach the headlight bulb we will need a little bit of room unless you have long skinny hands, I can assure you mine are short and bulbous so the only option was to gain a little leeway.
So first remove the bolts surrounding the headlight as shown below:


http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/8973/68620201.jpg

2 here on top of the headlight that have already been removed.


http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/788/60326923.jpg


http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/9453/59479236.jpg

below the headlight there are 2 bolts that are holding some weird looking metal thing in place (as shown above), once you remove the 2 bolts it is free to fall off without warning, so just make sure you remember which way it goes (I tried to put it on the wrong way, believe me it won’t work)


http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/4641/98831787.jpg

There is another here where the fender meets the headlight at the top.


http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6595/95771562.jpg

Now this little bastard took me a while to find, at the bottom left of this extremely poor photo (blame the positioning of this damn bolt) you will see a very awkwardly placed bolt, it’s the only one really out of sight and you should find it quickly when you know it exists (wished I read the guides online more thoroughly before I went all gung-ho with my toolbox).

Ok so now that all those bolts are removed and stored somewhere safe it’s time to do what we came here for, get to the heart of this glass shell, so just move the headlight around now so you have enough room to get to the electrics at the back.
So behind the headlight you will see this rubbery item:


http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/1508/90581430.jpg

Rip the sucker off, quite satisfying really, there will be a plug that provides power to the lil thing, so just remove that.
This will then expose the bulb with the most retarded looking yet effective pin in history, so this is what you should see:


http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6813/79540174.jpg

now there is one screw holding it in place, so get out your trusty Philips head screwdriver and make short work of it, making sure you don’t drop it, remove the pin gently and remember how it goes back on or you will be sitting there for a while feeling a bit annoyed at yourself.

**Note alternative method without removing the screw is to slide the u shaped hook to the left and the pin will pivot out allowing you to take out the bulb without dropping the pin etc, Thanks to TbM for pointing out this method**

finally remove the old bulb, replace it with the new one, put the pin back on, put the screw back on, plug it back in, put the rubber housing on, put back on all the bolts and now repeat the steps for the other headlight.

**Note, Do not handle the bulb with your fingers, as any of the natural oil from your hands that go onto the glass bulb itself will heat up and lessen the life of the bulb in question, thanks to ej8 for pointing this out**
**If you do happen to accidentally touch the bulb, you can clean it off with Isopropyl alcohol(metho if you dont have iso) on a tissue or clean rag, thanks to TbM (again lol) for this useful tip.**

After putting back on the bumper, sit back and enjoy, as it's time to reap the fruits of your labour :p


http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/6117/20328900.jpg

[ej8]

lol was there a reason why you took off the bumper? You could change the bulbs without doing so ;)

[Paspa]

hey ej8 thanks for the reply; because of how the headlight is mounted if you try and work on it in its standard position you will find there isn't much leeway or room behind it where the bulbs are palced specially if your hands aren't very coordinated or slim.

The only way I could get the back of the headlight in a position I wanted was to remove the bolts holding it in place, however two bolts which are at the front beneath the headlight are hidden behind the bumper, so I had to remove the bumper before i could remove those 2 bolts to see what I was doing without fear of dropping the pins or screws or even worse the bulbs lol.'

Hope that helped, thanks.

[blastnpast]

Nice write up!

I'm also with EJ8 I don't see the need to take bumper off to change light bulbs even my helms manual suggests to pull the plug when in normal position.. Only thing is the p/s fluid container needs to be removed from original position for the LHS bulb to be replaced

[Paspa]

Ah thanks for the input guys, seemed extremely difficult when I was looking at the engine bay and seeing how tight everything was and with the power steering fluid in the way, I just found it easier for me to remove the bumper

[TbM]

Rip the sucker off, quite satisfying really, there will be a plug that provides power to the lil thing, so just remove that.
This will then expose the bulb with the most retarded looking yet effective pin in history, so this is what you should see:


http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/6813/79540174.jpg

now there is one screw holding it in place, so get out your trusty Philips head screwdriver and make short work of it, making sure you don’t drop it, remove the pin gently and remember how it goes back on or you will be sitting there for a while feeling a bit annoyed at yourself.

That screw doesnt need to be removed to replace the bulb which is probably why you had trouble doing it without removing the bumper and headlights. heres how you undo the clip without removing the screw.

http://youtu.be/Xm-KJgKqQNs
Its alot quicker that way and as blastnpast has said you just need to move the ps reservoir to get to the other bulb, you dont have to undo the hoses it just lifts up off its mount so you can get to the back of the headlight, i can take a video of how to do that if you like.

[Paspa]

ahhh i see that does make things alot easier thanks alot for that tbm, i might make another guide shortly on trying to do it with the above method that people have mentioned, hopefully i will be making many more guides in the future i have my eyes on making a guide on how to run wires from the interior to the engine bay for amps / neons etc.

But once again thanks alot for all the feedback guys =]

also updated original diy noteing how to remove the clip thanks tbm.

[TbM]

No worries mate always here to try and help where i can :) Its good to hear your planning more DIYs i look forward to reading them :)

[ej8]

haha i know what you mean TbM. The first time I changed the light bulbs i dropped it and it took me awhile to find it.

Also don't forget not to touch the actual bulb. Oil from your fingers will heat up on the bulb and eventually blow them up

[Paspa]

haha I'm glad your looking forward to reading my future DIY's TbM, I've been using too many of the DIY's here on ozhonda and not making any of my own, so I thought I may aswell start somewhere, and ah thanks for mentioning that ej8 I totaly forgot about that I'll add that into my DIY aswell thanks.

[TbM]

FYI If you do get oil on the bulb you can clean it off with Isopropyl alcohol(metho if you dont have iso) on a tissue or clean rag:thumbsup:

[Paspa]

thanks for the tips as always TbM, if I could rep you and ej8 I definitely would, you guys are practically writing my DIY's for me =p

[Bulbasaur]

i can probably understand why he took off the bumper. i had to take off an civic EP something but honda bumpers are easy... unlike cars such as mitsubishi magna... omg there were soooooo many screws just for a bumper i swear

[EG52NV]

i can probably understand why he took off the bumper. i had to take off an civic EP something but honda bumpers are easy... unlike cars such as mitsubishi magna... omg there were soooooo many screws just for a bumper i swear

I would have imagined that headlight replacement on an ep would be like on a jazz, you access via wheel well by bending back the plastic wheel guards...

[Paspa]

ye removing the bumper although there are quite a few steps is quite easy and quick, however ej8 and TbM are correct it would be alot faster to just go straight for the bulbs.

[Bludger]

10/10 for effort.

[tiksie]

Good write up mate.

For future reference, I have big hands and I also couldn't get my hands in there.

What I did was removed the airbox on the driver side which gave me heaps of space.

On the passenger side, pull the power steering reservoir off the bracket and place it behind it; No need to remove the hoses. Voila, you now have space to remove both bulbs.

[JDM-derek]

you removed your bumper? keen and bothered lol

[JDM-derek]

but still good write up no doubt.