Removing Bumper and Replacing Headlight Bulbs For EK Civic
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.
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).
The white arrows indicate bolts / screws, whereas the black indicate clips.
So starting from the bottom (for some reason)
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.
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.
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:
Now with that removed here is the screw, as for the yellow stuff... not sure what that is.
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:
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:
2 here on top of the headlight that have already been removed.
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)
There is another here where the fender meets the headlight at the top.
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:
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:
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
