How do you change a headlamp on a 2002 Nissan Altima?

Answer 1

Had to take mine to the dealer and pay $65.00. Don't think you can get to it yourself. I couldn't without dismantling half the engine compartment.

If you remove the cool air intake on drivers side you will have easy access to the head lamps. On the passenger side you will have to remove the windshield washer fluid tank. Remember that your low beams and high beams are two completely different head lamps. Unlike other head lamps where both high and low beams are in the light bulb.

That did help.....THANKS!

its not as hard as they make it out to be. Just be careful not to break one of the air intake clips like i did...it snapped right off...

For the passanger side low beam lights...This is slightly inaccurate. You must first remove two screws holding the radiator overflow container -- no need to remove the hose, just position the whole assembly out of the way. Next twist off the long tube that attaches to the windshiled wiper fluid container. You will now have room to work. Twist the grey cover on the back on the lowbeam lens assmebly about 1/4 turn until it comes off the lens assembly, this may take some effort and you may have to move it back and forth several times. You will see a wire clip, reach down near where the ground wire comes in and unhook the spring like clip. Move it out of the way. You can now remove the bulb. The low beam bulbs for the left and right side are the same. In my case, neither the bulb nor the fuse blew. The contact between the base of the bulb and the spring clip was faulty. The resistance made the base of the bulb overheat which melted the lens assembly. I had to cut out a thin metal collar to go over the base to support the bulb in the lens assembly and then put it all back together. Remember not to touch the bulb, and if you do wite it down with alchol before installing.

Great info! Changing the passanger low beam bulb only took fifteen minutes. My local Nissan dealership wanted one hundred and fifty dollars. Thanks.

Actually took longer to find the bulb than it did to change it. AutoZone didn't carry it in inventory - could order it - but, CarQuest had it in stock - less than six bucks. Thanks loads for the info. Saved a bundle...

Note that in June 2007 I found the lamp (Sylvania H1) right on the hooks on the Auto Zone sales floor here in the Cincinnati area.

Remove the two 10mm bolts holding the entire assembly in place. Pull out the assembly; this may take some effort since the bottom corner of the assembly is attached to the fender with a spring clip that tends to rust and stick. Once the assembly is out, everything is easy to get to and you won't cut yourself on the sharp metal edges found in the engine compartmen.

This pertains to the 2005 Altima and perhaps the 2006. There are two 10mm bolts on the top of the headlight and a pin on the inner side (towards the grill) of each light (which pulls straight out towards the front of the car). HOWEVER, there is a third bolt hidden by the front bumper covering on the outside front of the headlight. This is completely covered by the fascia of the bumper. I had to partially remove the front inner fender (one small bolt, three Phillips screws and plastic removable push pin/rivets (reusable), then reach under the now exposed insides near the headlight to remove a 10mm bumper bolt, and partially drop the bumper fascia to reach the hidden bolt. This allows the whole headlight assembly to be removed and easily access the back and all of the lamps. I did this so I could install aftermarket h.i.d. (high intensity discharge) headlamps in my car. I have installed h.i.d.s on a number of cars, but this was by far the worst and most time consuming of any of them. It really helps to know about that third hidden bolt!

On my 2002 Altima, I tried replacing on my own but managed to break the clip that holds the bulb in, so ended up taking it to the dealer anyway. In the end, the dealer said that this year of Altima had a voluntary recall on the headlamp, so they replaced both bulbs for free. So, before you try replacing the bulb, it might be worth taking it to the dealer to check if your year falls under that recall. Didn't find info on this particular recall on the Nissan website, but did find it on other websites after doing a search on altima headlamp recalls.