Tacoma Needs Headlight Bulb & More

I’m in Utah and the Coronavirus is ramping up.  I decide to head home now!  I see my driver side headlight burnt out.  

I wasn’t worried about getting home but didn’t want to risk stopping for a bulb and putting it in, as I know from past experiences it is best to remove the car battery to get enough room to change the bulb on the drivers side.

I was a part time police officer many years ago and worked with the police through my years in the Fire Department.  Having a light out to a cop is like waving a flag at them, as stopping a vehicle with a light bulb out is a no brainer.  It is probable cause.

Well, I drove from central UT to my house in MA passing by police cruisers on the interstates for every state and I didn’t get one bite.  I guess to them they didn’t want the face to face contact.

On my arrival home I order up the replacement headlight bulbs and when I went to change the bulb the plastic tab that holds a spring that holds the headlight securely in place breaks off, leaving me with a bulb that will jiggle.

Above: My finger is pointing to where the tab that holds the spring broke off.

I then looked at both light fixtures had fogged lenses and they looked terrible.  Not to say they had done a poor job of lighting my way on my travels too.

I decided to order a new matching pair of after market light fixtures from Amazon for about $110. Above you can see how much clearer the drivers side was compared to the passenger side below.

I changed the drivers side leaving the foggy light on the passenger side.

I had to wait for a day of rain to pass to complete the other side.

The grill needs to come out to remove either light fixture.  There is one difficult bolt that holds the light fixture in and can only be reached by removing some fasteners in the wheel well to get to it, laying on the ground.

There it is with both light fixtures replaced and two new lightbulbs to have consistently in headlight intensity.

For those that know my truck I had a smoke colored lexan hood wind deflector I also removed.  Before I left in January, I was scraping ice off the hood and the lexan broke.  I left the rest there for my trip but it needed to be removed now that I’m home.

The reality of traveling with a vehicle is that things happen and repairs need to be made.  If the light bulb and fixture would have caused problems early in my travels I would have repaired them at my son’s in San Diego.  It’s nice to have a place to do things and the tools at hand while in the Southwest.

Happy Travels

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com