[Kingglory]

Hello Fellow Reatta Owners

I am replacing my headlights to Sylvania Silver Stars. How do you replace them? I cant find a thing in the service manual at all.
Any ideas?
Thanks

[Richard D]

I just changed mine to SilverStars with help from Padgett. It took about 10 minutes.
Open your headlights, disconnect the battery negative terminal. Unplug the headlamp connector. There are four Torx-15 screws, two on each side of the black head light cover. Remove them then carefully move the black cover around to get access to the four phillips screws that hold the headlamp surround in place. Remove old headlamp. Install new headlamp. Repeat other side of car, reconnect battery. Check alignment. On mine I noticed that they both were the same distance too low. A few turns of the vertical alignment screw did the trick.

[89REATTAJIM]

Originally Posted by Kingglory

Hello Fellow Reatta Owners

I am replacing my headlights to Sylvania Silver Stars. How do you replace them? I cant find a thing in the service manual at all.
Any ideas?
Thanks

Richard D's info sounds right. Pay attention to the routing of the wire loom going to the back of the headlight. If not correct, the wire can strain and break. Barney has had posts on this wire routing. I like my S Stars......... Jim

[Barney Eaton]

There is no need to disconnect the battery.
Unplug the connection on the back of the headlight before you open the headlight (have the hood open for extra working room) See the picture below that shows the headlight
wire routing..... the wire comes between the fender and the headlight assembly casting, lays on top of the casting and then plug into the back of the bulb.

[wws944]

Ronnie: I saw that you included these instructions on your web site. May I suggest replacing:

Carefully move the black cover around to get access to the four Phillips screws that hold the headlight surround in place.

With:

Carefully *remove* the black cover to get access...

[Ronnie]

Originally Posted by wws944

Ronnie: I saw that you included these instructions on your web site. May I suggest replacing:

With:

Carefully *remove* the black cover to get access...

I was using words that were used here on the forum.

How about it guys?... which phrase best describes how to deal with the black cover? Remove it or move it?

[Richard D]

Originally Posted by wws944

Ronnie: I saw that you included these instructions on your web site. May I suggest replacing:



With:

Carefully *remove* the black cover to get access...

Sounds good, but on mine, the passenger side the cover would not completely come out and I was afraid I might break the plastic that runs across the bottom. So I just moved it as necessary to reach the four screws then removed the headlamp. Could be a one of a kind problem on my car, even though it has never been in a bender.
Cheers,
Richard

[padgett]

"Eeling" might be better, it does take some careful movement to get the bottom out but is hard to remove the headlamp with it in place (unless you have the whole bucket out to rebuild the motors, then it is easy).

[wws944]

The cover comes off pretty easily, but you have to jiggle it around a little bit. No need to bend/break anything.

[Telco]

I agree with remove. I just replaced the headlights on mine, and had to, let's see, pull the top out a bit, push down into the recess area a bit, rotate the top forward, jiggle, and out they came. Install was reverse of removal. There was never any risk of breakage. It was the also only way my headlights would come out, because the screws had a bit of surface rust and didn't want to come out. Had I tried breaking the screws loose with the plastic covers in place there would have been some sick of breaking them with a slipping screwdriver. I'm going to have to replace the headlight mounting screws with stainless screws when I start working on the opening mechanism.