This is not a question thread; more opinion and a step by step.

My passenger fog lamp blew out yesterday and so I replaced it. For giggles I checked the official recommended procedure to change the bulb and it's bonkers. It calls for jacking up the car, removing the lower access panel, removing the brake duct, then removing the bulb. I swear sometimes the recommended service procedures on these cars can be really asinine and leave me shaking my head... Having rebuilt my headlight motors I've had the headlights out quite a bit and know roughly how the fogs are situated. I figured I could go in through the top and turns out it's actually super easy. If you're thinking of going further and removing the fog lamp housings to upgrade them it's also very easy to go in through the top.

Bulb removal:

- Disconnect the large headlight motor connector on the fender liner to isolate the headlight (it's the flat connector behind the headlight assembly).
- Manually raise the headlight with the manual adjuster
- Remove the three philips head bolts holding in the bezel. Remove the bezel. The best way to remove the bezel is to both pull it out and upwards while simultaneously rotating the sides along the headlight body cover.
- The fog lamp is now visible. Rotate it counter clockwise from the base to remove. Disconnect the connector (it's better to remove the connector after removing the bulb since the snap prong is on the lower side).
- Installation is reverse of the above.

All in all, everything above to point of fog lamp removal took two minutes and seventeen seconds; I timed it on my phone. You'll also notice that the fog lamp hold bolt - there's just one - is also easily accessible so it's easy to change the entire housings out for upgrade.

Below is a rather terrible photo, but this shows looking down into the fog lamp area between the headlight and hood/fascia point along the frame rail.



Hopefully this helps someone in the future.

 

put hids in mine brighter than the headlights

 

I have been running HIDs in the stock fog light projectors for a decade.
WAY brighter than the stock headlights and have a nice cutoff.
I did 55w HIDs on my 99 and again on my 03.

Jim

 

I have been running HIDs in the stock fog light projectors for a decade.
WAY brighter than the stock headlights and have a nice cutoff.
I did 55w HIDs on my 99 and again on my 03.

Jim

 

Thanks for the info. I am getting ready to do that along with replacing the corner housings and installing LED bulbs(switchbacks) with the hyperflash harness. I want to go thru the top to do it all and want to remove the headlights to allow for easy access. How difficult is it to remove the headlights completely? I can't find any real instructions on doing that. I did fix my headlight motor issue by turning it 180 DEG and replaced the bumper stops, but when I tried to remove the two bolts holding the bucket they didn't want to budge and I was worried about stripping them. Anything tricks I should know going in? And what about reinstalling them? I assume the settings of the headlights would not change in doing this? Thanks.

 

Thanks Velocity, You've already helped me as this is on my list when the weather warms up a bit. I never thought about going through the headlight area.

 

MY headlight made noise when closing, I removed the linkage and cranked the motor 180 degrees. Then it made noise after opening. I got the replacement Dorman gear at Advance Auto for 20% off of the $15 price and installed it. Had to slightly enlarge the center hole with a drill bit as it would not slip over the shaft after taking the motor apart. Have read several posts about the brass or aluminum gears causing problems and decided to go with a nylon gear. The one in my 98 lasted about 20 years.

 

The headlight assemblies are not very difficult to remove at all.

- Disconnect the main headlight harness per my instruction to isolate.
- Raise the headlight with the manual **** per my instruction
- Remove the bezel per my instruction
- With the bezel removed you should see the large hold down bolts for the headlight frame onto the car. Remove the bolts.
- Disconnect the two headlight power plugs from the back of the bulbs as you pull the assembly out.

The only concern you may have to deal with is position of the housing when re-installing. It would be difficult to mark it somehow from the top. What I would do is finger tighten where you think it should be, then lower the headlight with the manual ****. If the door sits in too "low" to the body, raise it back up and pull up on the whole assembly. Tighten, then manually lower and check clearances.

You can also adjust the actual position of the body color door by removing the four torx bolts. Underneath them are four nylon bolts - one on each corner - that determine the position of the door.