How to: Headlight housing removal w/ sidelight bulb change (European)

[Chickenmuffn]

NOTE: This was done on European 2011 Ford Focus MK3.

This process took me about 30 minutes. I changed the stocked halogen sidelights to LEDs.

Before: Stock sidelights



Pop the hood, remove two screws as indicated. Gently wiggle the headlight housing up and out. Take care as there is still a wiring harness attached



There is one wiring hardness at the centre of the housing. Detach it, and the headlight housing can be pulled out of the car completely



Headlight is out of the car (left headlight)




Remove the indicated rubber grommet from the back of the headlight (this is the right headlight)



This is what it looks like behind the grommet



Get some needle nose pliers or use your fingers (difficult) to pull the bulb holder and bulb



Pull out the stock halogen and insert the LED



Before you reinsert the bulb assembly into the headlight housing, plug the headlight wiring harness back in and test the light. These bulbs can go in two ways but only one way works.

After: LED side lights
The picture makes them look a lot brighter and blue'r than what they are in person.



Hope this is helpful to someone.

[Sponsor]

[Altis]

Nice DIY with high quality photos. Thanks for sharing!

[Twenty]

You forgot a step:

-Send Euro lights to a North American owner.


I kid. Maybe. But thanks for the write up, we do have the small lights over here and some like to change them out.

[Chickenmuffn]

Ahh if only mine were projectors... I'm thinking retrofit soon :D

[VectorZ]

Ours do have the sidelights, one of mine is burned out already. Where did you find the LEDs?

[Chickenmuffn]

I found mine on Amazon. They are 501 bulbs. (also called T10/W5W/168/194) They are really inexpensive too, I got mind for under $4 shipped.

http://www.amazon.com/5-SMD-White-Hi...ywords=T10+LED

[unida767]

Hey Chickenmuffn nice write up and pics man thanks for sharing.

I might just go and do this now.

Same bulbs go in your puddle lights too.

[VectorZ]

I got the headlight out with no problem, but I simply cannot get the little marker bulb out of there! Any secret to removing it??

[Touring05]

Using a long nose needle plier is one way as stated above but you could get a small wrench to fit through the hole and turn the bulb holder counter clockwise. The rest is trying to fiddle it out of the housing. That is how I did it.

[VectorZ]

Originally Posted by Touring05

Using a long nose needle plier is one way as stated above but you could get a small wrench to fit through the hole and turn the bulb holder counter clockwise. The rest is trying to fiddle it out of the housing. That is how I did it.

Yeah I finally got it out, but of course the LED bulb had 3 of the 7 burned out. Tried to get the old bulb back in and I could NOT get it back into the housing. I just took the bulb out, put a piece of tape over it and put it back in the car. I'll just have the dealer swap it out next week. I don't have the time to *&^% around with it.