How To Replace Low Beam Headlights On Your 1998 Es300 Lexus ? Includi

[ken2323]

Alright I'm writing this because I looked throughout the forum and couldn't find any CLEAR instructions or pictures to change a low beam bulb on a 1998 ES300 Lexus ... so I told myself if I figured it out I'll take pictures and here it is...

1. Buy an H7 bulb for your LOW BEAM HEADLIGHT REPLACEMENT

This can be found at Wal-Mart or Auto Zone...or wherever you choose...I choose the brand Sylvania it was the only choice... it ran $14.99 at Auto Zone I think I saw it at Wal-Mart for cheaper

2. Find the Low Beam area under the hood

It's the one with the rubber piece the other is for your high beams

3. Disconnect the wire...

Just pull it out it's pretty easy, think Legos

4. So now it should look like this...

7. Take the rubber piece OFF

There's a tab and you got to pull hard. It's kind of like a slip on so don't worry about pulling too hard. It's kind of like a cap on a Pringle's top, it's MEANT TO COME OFF...so just pull

8. There's a clip that holds the bulb in place all you have to do is take it off... if you look at the clip you push a certain direction it's no biggie...

9. Pull the bulb out and you have... DON'T THROW THIS AWAY

10. Pull apart the bulb... it's like a plastic piece and the bulb itself...it's again like Legos so just pull it apart and it'll look like...

11. Place the bulb you just bought back in the plastic piece.

12. Just reverse what I just said...

13. Try it out! I hope this helps a lot!

[total1]

These directions are EXCELLENT! :D I did this in my garage so light wasn't as complete as being outside in the sun. I put a flashlight between the anti-freeze reservoir and the engine and pointed the flashlight at the area in which I was working. I used a Sylvania H7-ST bulb I purchased at a local Wal-Mart for my 1997 ES300.

1) Step 3: I just wiggled my connector a little and pulled it away from the 'bulb-connector' which is what you see in Step 4.

2) Step 7: Relative to the bulb 'boot', I left mine 'attached' at the top so as to just reseat it once I was finished.

3) Step 8+: The hardest part of this whole operation was reseating the clip as that took about 60% of my actual time. The clip that you need to seat is the looped end so you don't need to reseat the whole clip portion under the 'J' loop. I had to put my hand behind the plastic fill entrance for the windshield washing solution in order to get the clip to work.

4) Step 9 & 10: I'd add at the end that the bulb is 'keyed' relative to its placement. There's not an actual 'key indicator' but you need to notice how the bulb is positioned when you remove the bulb with its rear-end attachment. Putting the bulb in 'upside-down' will shine the light UP and not down.

5) Step 11 & 12: The boot just pushes back into its place. Make sure it fits in by pushing all around the boot until it's snug in its housing.

HTH,

:)

Alright I'm writing this because I looked throughout the forum and couldn't find any CLEAR instructions or pictures to change a low beam bulb on a 1998 ES300 Lexus ... so I told myself if I figured it out I'll take pictures and here it is...

1. Buy an H7 bulb for your LOW BEAM HEADLIGHT REPLACEMENT

This can be found at Wal-Mart or Auto Zone...or wherever you choose...I choose the brand Sylvania it was the only choice... it ran $14.99 at Auto Zone I think I saw it at Wal-Mart for cheaper

2. Find the Low Beam area under the hood

It's the one with the rubber piece the other is for your high beams

3. Disconnect the wire...

Just pull it out it's pretty easy, think Legos

4. So now it should look like this...

7. Take the rubber piece OFF

There's a tab and you got to pull hard. It's kind of like a slip on so don't worry about pulling too hard. It's kind of like a cap on a Pringle's top, it's MEANT TO COME OFF...so just pull

8. There's a clip that holds the bulb in place all you have to do is take it off... if you look at the clip you push a certain direction it's no biggie...

9. Pull the bulb out and you have... DON'T THROW THIS AWAY

10. Pull apart the bulb... it's like a plastic piece and the bulb itself...it's again like Legos so just pull it apart and it'll look like...

11. Place the bulb you just bought back in the plastic piece.

12. Just reverse what I just said...

13. Try it out! I hope this helps a lot!

[mburnickas]

Might want to add "DO NOT TOUCH BULB (NEW) WITH HANDS" AND/OR OLD IF KEEPING FOR SPARE. :)

Nice first post! and welcome to LOC!!!!!!!!

[ken2323]

Might want to add "DO NOT TOUCH BULB (NEW) WITH HANDS" AND/OR OLD IF KEEPING FOR SPARE. :)

Nice first post! and welcome to LOC!!!!!!!!

Thanks! yeah don't touch the new bulb with your bare hands. Wear rubber gloves if you want. The oils on your hand will cause the bulb to heat up more than it should and it'll go out. My Hyundai XG300 (don't buy it, lol) burnt through the bulbs like nothing and I realized it was because I kept touching the bulbs.

Yeah I didn't think of the up/down position either, so just listen to what the above said... in the direction of the bulb

As for resetting the clip...if the bulb looks straight or looks like it did before you took it out it's fine...because I think there was a time when i was like...is it really clipped in? I think I jiggled the clip a little to see if it held right.

I think the hardest for me was realizing how the heck I was suppose to get the rubber thing out. Really I just had to pull hard! And that's about it!

-------------------------------------------------

TIP ON DRIVING WITH ONE LIGHT

You shouldn't lol. I wanted to fix it ASAP before I went out Saturday night and get pulled over for some dumb reason lol. I avoided it for two weeks though and I found that driving with your fog lights on helps the cops not pull you over, lol.

[Marc C Richard]

Thanks, Ken. Excellent step by step here. Only thing I would add is to pay attention to the orientation of the bulb assembly when removing it from the headlight housing. Upon re-install of the housing, I rotated it around a few times before it fit into place.

[backwoods lex]

Just seating the bulb properly is a true PITA for me. Right now both of my bulbs are out of allignment (which looks pretty funny on foggy nights). I just can't seem to get it right.

Nice writeup by the way.

[Aikibro]

Might want to add "DO NOT TOUCH BULB (NEW) WITH HANDS" AND/OR OLD IF KEEPING FOR SPARE. :)

Nice first post! and welcome to LOC!!!!!!!!

Agreed... don't touch the bulbs (particularly the new replacement ones).

But everything else is perfect... I actually took apart parts of the trim under the hood and took out the entire headlamp unit because I wasn't sure of what I was doing... got to the rubber dam part and got stuck. I even searched this forum but without luck. Did a random search on the net and it brought me right back to the forum, to this thread.

I'll add, my car is a 97 ES300 and the procedure is the same... once you snap the rubber dam out of place and unhinge the clamp (I unscrewed the top retainer screw partially to get it out) everything else was a breeze.

Great post.

[Alowin]

Ken - Very well done instructions. Thank you.

A few further notes: The H7 bulb fits '97-'99 ES. The '96 ES uses a different bulb and assembly.

While all is disassembled, take note of how the spring will lock back in place. Hard to see that later.

The tab on the circular metal base that comes with the glass bulb goes UP. (If DOWN it will not seat correctly.)

[whw]

Unfortunately, I got my replacement bulb from Lexus. That was a Dumb-a** move. It cost me $45! Glad to know that in future I don't need a genuine Lexus part and can just go to Walmart.

Alright I'm writing this because I looked throughout the forum and couldn't find any CLEAR instructions or pictures to change a low beam bulb on a 1998 ES300 Lexus ... so I told myself if I figured it out I'll take pictures and here it is...

1. Buy an H7 bulb for your LOW BEAM HEADLIGHT REPLACEMENT

This can be found at Wal-Mart or Auto Zone...or wherever you choose...I choose the brand Sylvania it was the only choice... it ran $14.99 at Auto Zone I think I saw it at Wal-Mart for cheaper

2. Find the Low Beam area under the hood

It's the one with the rubber piece the other is for your high beams

3. Disconnect the wire...

Just pull it out it's pretty easy, think Legos

4. So now it should look like this...

7. Take the rubber piece OFF

There's a tab and you got to pull hard. It's kind of like a slip on so don't worry about pulling too hard. It's kind of like a cap on a Pringle's top, it's MEANT TO COME OFF...so just pull

8. There's a clip that holds the bulb in place all you have to do is take it off... if you look at the clip you push a certain direction it's no biggie...

9. Pull the bulb out and you have... DON'T THROW THIS AWAY

10. Pull apart the bulb... it's like a plastic piece and the bulb itself...it's again like Legos so just pull it apart and it'll look like...

11. Place the bulb you just bought back in the plastic piece.

12. Just reverse what I just said...

13. Try it out! I hope this helps a lot!

[WheezerMF]

I've done this, and the decision re: whether to remove the battery is a toss-up.

Also, after years of searching for better light, I think LED technology is finally maturing. I have halogens, and the HID conversions are too prone to beam scatter, not to mention spotty QC, overheating, etc. Previous LEDs were no better than halogens, and also prone to scatter. A friend (an anal engineer!) put these in his Element, and after a month of dark midwest winter driving, is very pleased.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078ZW47N6/?coliid=I1CWC64PHELXON&colid=17MX913XQB5NV&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

I may or may not need the CANBUS adapters to fool the confuser into thinking everything's hunky-dory, but I'm going to order them and hope to return them unopened. https://www.amazon.com/HIKARI-Conversion-Headlight-Flickering-Resistor/dp/B07688V7V9/ref=pd_sim_263_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07688V7V9&pd_rd_r=55XAG40PV3FH2GWRT979&pd_rd_w=4Wkn7&pd_rd_wg=PGe3v&psc=1&refRID=55XAG40PV3FH2GWRT979