Ok, so after my headlight blew and I went to change the bulb only to find out the plug had melted, I take it to the dealership only to be told you have to change the whole headlight and cannot simply replace the wire, so I get on EBay and get myself a headlight from a scrapyard and have just gone to fit it.
Removed the top 2 screws and loosened one side of the grille and it all seems so easy (As it should be), then I realise it is still attached by a bolt on the underside of the headlight, so I look at the other light unit only to figure that it is in a completely inaccessible place without dismantling your car. After looking on here it says you can access it from under the car so I jack it up and have a look and all I can see is plastic so I would either have to remove the splash guard or remove the wheel arch liner, to replace a headlight?? What a joke!!
I have had nothing but trouble since buying this car, it's the first Ford I have owned and needless to say it will be the last. Not impressed!
There doesn't seem to be anything I can pull back without taking it off, I don't know if the sport model is different to any of the others, I would guess so cause it looks nothing like the Focus' in any tutorials i've watched.
I think someone on your side of the globe with a mk2 will need to chime in.
In the UK, do you have access to owner's guides like Haynes or Chiltons? That, to me, would be the best option as far as having instruction on how to replace the light.
Your car is still an MK1, not MK2 as Mac is suggesting. MK2 Foci didn't come around till 05. I looked in my haynes manual and it has the directions for both European and American light removal. I'll scan the page you need and post it up.
MKI 1998-2004 with the facelift from 2002-2004 (European)
MKI 2000-2007 with the facelift 2005-2007 (United States)
Easiest way to access that bolt is to reach up from underneath. You don't need to pull the fender liner at all. It should be right behind and above your directional indicator light assembly.
I am pretty certain special laws are in place in Great Britain.. wherein any mechanical device has to be run by the Queens inspectors.
ANY part which is too easy to work on, or has too few moving parts has to be redesigned to meet the "english madness" laws.
So mechanics and such can make a living wage since no ordinary person will be able to fix ANYTHING.
I am certain that is the reason.[driving]
Also, all those inspectors used to work for Lucas, or were trained by Lucas engineers.. So that might be a hint of what kind of 'tomfoolery' they will add to make stuff impossible to work on.
Any mention of the Prince of Darkness strikes fear into my heart. I owned a 65 MG so I have firsthand knowledge. Good thing is that once that headlight bolt is removed, you never ever ever have to put it back in. Peace, John
Ok, can anyone explain exactly what the fenderline is and where this one screw is cause from my view of under the car all I can see is plastic and without removing atleast 3 screws including one that can't be removed without taking the wheel off, I can't move this plastic and therefore can't access any part of the car!
I will sell the thing before I remove a wheel to change a headlight cluster!
Please help me, you can probably guess i'm not too good with cars.
Is there anyway you can take some pictures and upload them on here using Photobucket , copy the img and paste here.
That way we can all have a better understanding of what it looks like underneath compared to the Us models. Ahhhhhhh I have my old headlights out some where I can take pictures of those and show what bolts that are on these headlights .
This picture is of the top of the light housing , its held on with 2 Bolts .
This is of the Side where the bolt goes into from underneath
This is a shot of the light from the bottom
And here is a small tab that drops in a hole , when you put it back in . Thats the tab to the left of the Red image on the box .
And thats off of a 2007 Sedan - Driver's side headlight assembly.
I can't get pictures of the underneath now, i've had to put the car down as it's bloody snowing again!
Is the fender liner you refer to the wheel arch lining? If this is the case there is a screw at the bottom that it seems like I would have to take out but I can't access it without removing the wheel.
Sorry for the lack of updates, I finally bit the bullet and decided to just take the wheel off to loosen the fender liner only to find out that the nuts where too tight for the awful standard wheel brace to undo so I invested in an extendible wheel brace and eventually got the job done.
Needless to say this pointless amount of pissing about to get a headlight out was frustrating and I left the stupidly placed lower bolt out when I put the car back together. So the job is done but i'm far from impressed with the setup. Hopefully I can now get back to liking my car now haha.
Pic 7.3, thinking 8 mm. head. On your back looking up, no need to remove any major parts.
ALL cars are built like this now, what you don't like on one will be better on another but other things you will hate even more. The result of CAD design which allows parts to fit in miniscule places they couldn't be designed to before. Try working on imports, no better.
While i'm sure that works on most Focus models, the sport is different as I stated already in this thread if you get under the car and look up the whole of the under carriage is covered and all you can see is plastic.
With this model you have to remove the wheel to access the screws required to loosen the fender liner enough to reach up and undo the required bolt.
The frustrating thing is that the bolt is unnecessary, it doesn't strengthen the security of the light cluster hence why I left it out, the light will not come out if it has just the top 2 bolts. Why didn't Ford just make it with 3 bolts on the top side like other manufacturers i've had experiences with?
Anyway, it's done now.
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