2008' Accord, Changing headlight bulbs.

Hello:
i would like to know is there a simple way to remove and install new
9006 bulbs in a 2008' Accord?

 

Did you read the owner's manual?

 

That isn't normally an "owner's manual" thing though - it is more of a
"service manual" thing. Owners have to know how to replace fuses in an
emergency but headlights are considered a service shop deal.

So... do you know how it is done? I don't, but here are some clues taken
from my daughter's 1993:
1) Identify the bulb, There will probably be a low and a high beam bulb
and perhaps a running or parking light bulb. Turn on the low beams and hold
your hand in front of the lens on the opposite side so you can identify the
socket.
2) (From here on a flashlight is helpful.) If the rear of the bulb, and
the wiring, are accessible from the back proceed to the next step. If not,
look to see if the assembly comes out easily.
3) Once you have access to the back of the bulb, look to see how the bulb
is held in. If there is a collar around the bulb it will have to be turned
CCW about a sixth of a turn or so. It may be very tight; I had to
judiciously pry it around the first little bit with a screwdriver. Patience
is the most important tool in the box! If there is no obvious ring, try
turning the bulb CCW a sixth of a turn instead. Either way expect it to be
tight - silicone spray is useful to get it loose.
4) Once you get the bulb loose lift it out to where you can most readily
remove the socket from the base. There is a locking tab to pry up or press;
look closely. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly. Do not touch the new
bulb glass with your fingers - the oil from your skin can cause premature
failure. A clean shop towel or non-lotion tissue is good.
5) It is recommended (I recommend it, anyway) that you replace the bulbs
in pairs: do both sides. The second side won't be a mystery at least.

Mike

 

Actually, the Owner's Manual goes into a great deal of detail on headlamp
bulb replacement.

<https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/pubs/om/ATA520/ATA52008OMA.pdf>
See page 329.

 

Replacing a blown headlight isn't important enough to be done roadside like
a fuse?

It's covered in my owners manual.

 

Ummmmm... it's been in the manual for every car I've ever owned, Honda or
otherwise. A "service shop deal" to replace a headlight bulb? Are you
kidding?

 

I've read every manual for every car I've owned (and had the manual for) and
never saw anything but the recommendation to replace them in pairs - no
kidding! I stand corrected for the Honda.

Mike

 

No - most people carry spare fuses but not spare headlights or other lights.
After all, you have two headlights but many fuses have no mate. If you are
carrying spare lights you probably already know how to change them. If you
are carrying spare HID lights you probably are in a whole different league
;-)

So I'm told. I am very surprised; I've never seen it in any owner's manual I
have had.... but I stand corrected.

Mike

 

Headlight replacement being a "service shop deal" made me do a double-take
as well.

Today I took my wife's Accord in for tire balance and rotation. During the
half-hour that I was there, I was really surprised to see two different
able-bodied men bring their vehicles in for an air check!

I always figured that only ladies or disabled men were taking advantage of
that service. Go figure....

 

OTOH, a lot of people take their cars for oil changes and I am always
surprised how few do their own brakes. I changed the headlights in my
daughter's other car, a 2004 Malibu (her husband is now the main driver of
the Honda [eek!]). I didn't look to see if the procedure was in the owner's
manual (I am not the owner) but it was in the Chilton's. First step: remove
the bolts that hold the light assembly to access the bulbs. Last step:
re-aim the headlights. My wife would change fuses but would never wrestle
with headlights, on the road or in the garage. If she didn't have a mechanic
at home she would take it to a shop. The headlights in her Prius are like
those in the Malibu: inaccessible until the headlight assembly is removed.
There are indeed instructions in the owner's manual - three pages of them.
Well, I'll be!

Mike

 

You need to open the manual first to see it in there... ;-)
I saw the head light replacement info in ALL of my user manuals.
Camry 1995, Sentra 1994, Accord 2004 - what cars did you drive before?

 

1984 Nissan (no owner's manual with it when I bought it) and more recently a
1985 Volvo 765T. I know for positive it had nothing in the manual for
changing the headlights beyond "replace in pairs" because although the car
has gone to salvage the manual is still here. The headlight replacement is
something I did on vacation once, but only because I had to. Remove the
grill, remove the headlight bezel, remove the retaining clamp, replace the
sealed beam, reverse the procedure. The Nissan was about the same -
something you don't want to do in the dark. Ditto with my daughter's '93
Accord - it was tough enough with a screwdriver, silicone spray and plenty
of light. The right lamp required removing the coolant reservoir, too.

Mike

 

We've made great strides here in the 21st century... You should try
joining it.

 

The Volvo and Nissan had glass headlight lenses - sealed beams, you know -
not plastic (see TeGGeR's apt comment in this thread).

 

Yes, I know. My point was that the method for changing headlight bulbs
has changed since the mid-80's/early 90's that you're talking about. You
might find it easier now, if you were to get a car of less than 16 years
old...

 

(Oops - a different thread)

Simpler, but not necessarily easier. Capsule lamps are often a wrestling
match to change - one my old fingers have an increasingly tough time with -
unless they fail prematurely, as the OP's did. And newer cars are at least
as likely to need something removed to get to the bulb. The last lights I
changed (in my daughter's Chevy) required removing the light assembly, and
that car is a 2004. Her Accord uses capsule lamps that are a booger to
change because the plastic is no longer willing to move.

Other than styling, I don't know why sealed beams fell out of favor. They
had no problems with condensation, lens clouding or reflector deterioration.
The lamps themselves were only slightly more expensive than capsule lamps
and I never heard of them getting into the mysterious premature failure
problems that occasionally crop up with capsule lamps. I have seen several
threads complaining of lifetimes of only a few months - sometimes on one
side, sometimes on both sides - and I have never seen a solution. I remember
my mother having cars that took headlamp bulbs back in the '50s... this
seems like another step backward.

Mike

 

Sealed beams are indeed a better way to go. I am facing a complete
front bumper removal to deal with the massive amount of condensation
on my 98 Civic. What a pain in the arse! I wish it were as easy as my
87 Accord.

 

I think older cars didn't have instructions in the manual because the
replacement of those sealed beams was so easy and obvious. The ones I did,
on several cars, required removing 3 or 4 screws on the rim, popping a new
bulb in the socket, and replacing the rim and screws. I'm no ace mechanic,
but I didn't really need to look that one up.

As for the sealed beam topic, I think the newer lights are much brighter and
more efficient, and to build them into sealed beams would be significantly
more expensive than making them in pieces as they now do.

mg

 

Sealed beams had low output and poor beam distribution.

Sealed beams were state-of-the-art for 1940. Problem is, by 1980 they
were still state-of-the-art for 1940. No other country on earth except
the US was forced by its government to install 1940 headlamps on cars
made forty years later.

Sealing technology in 1940 was crude, to say the least. It was very
difficult back then to properly seal the rear of the headlamp from
moisture, especially considering the rear of the headlamp was fully
exposed to road splash. Sealed beams were an attempt at alleviating this
problem through the simple device of making the back of the reflector
permanently, well, sealed.

There is absolutely no reason why a sealed beam lamp cannot have the
very same lens, reflector and bulb as a replaceable-bulb lamp. In fact,
the earliest sealed beams actually /did/ have an entire ordinary bulb
"sealed" into the reflector. However, sealed beams were solely a US
government imposition. Nobody else in the world thought they were worth
imposing, so the entire world's stock of sealed beams ended up
conforming to US law. That's why they're all so crappy.

The US did eventually (about 1981 or so) allow halogen sealed beams with
output and beam pattern closely matching regular sealed beams. These
eventually were suppplanted by the new aero lamps.

Replaceable-bulb lamps that conformed to the two standard round and
rectangular sizes were widely available all over the world for decades
(except in the US, where they were prohibited).

What changed everything was the advent of "aerodynamic" styling, lower
hoodlines and ever-more crowded engine bays. It's this that makes those
bulbs so damned difficult to get to. Also, bulbs last quite a lot longer
than they used to, so there's much less need these days to be able to
get to the rear of the lamp assembly.

Lens clouding is another fact of government regulation. Apparently the
safety nuts thought broken plastic presented less of a hazard than
broken glass to the pedestrian who gets run over by a car.

The NHTSA requires that plastic lenses must have an epoxy coating that
resists abrasion. It's this epoxy which clouds and yellows. How often
have you seen cars with yellowed headlamps, but the marker lamps right
next to them are crystal clear?

Moisture-caused reflector deterioration was the primary reason the old
separate-bulb lamps were outlawed.

Sealed beams were made mandatory for the 1940 model year in the US.
Prior to that, every car used replaceable bulbs.

 

Tegger wrote:


"What changed everything was the advent of "aerodynamic" styling, lower
hoodlines and ever-more crowded engine bays. It's this that makes those
bulbs so damned difficult to get to. Also, bulbs last quite a lot longer
than they used to, so there's much less need these days to be able to
get to the rear of the lamp assembly."

Here's the big problem with those replaceable halogen bulbs: they
tend to fail in Winter, which is the same time that people in colder
climates find that the plastic is too stiff to flex properly. Add that
to the general inconvenience of working on a car outdoors or in an
unheated garage in Winter, and the fact that you have to worry about
getting even a tiny bit of skin oil or engine bay grease on the bulb
while maneuvering it into place, and you have people like Michael (and,
often, me) wishing for the days of sealed beams again.