How do you replace a Mazda RX8 headlight?

Answer 1

All of this refers to halogen lamps. If you have the xenon lamps it isn't recommended you try to replace them yourself.

The owner's manual shows the basic process.

Access the headlights from above the front tires, the headlights are behind the mudguards.

It helps to jack up the car to make more room to work above the tire, but you don't need to remove the tire.

There is a top and a bottom mudguard. You only need to worry about the top mudguard; the bottom one doesn't come into play.

Use a Phillips screwdriver to remove enough of the push-type rivets to bend the front part of the mudguard down and back over the tire. This gives you access to the back of the headlights.

The rubber gasket over the light assembly just pulls off, but it's not easy to do. You can grab one of the two flaps that stick out with a pair of needle-nose pliers and just pull.

There is a black plastic piece that holds the lamp in, and aligns it correctly; this piece is held in place by the retaining clip and the lamp plugs into it.

Don't touch the glass on your new lamps! Oil from your skin will vastly shorten the life of the lamps.

When reassembling, you can reuse the push-type rivets on the mudguard (if they're unbroken and not too brittle.) It's much easier to insert them if you remove the center part of the rivet, pinch together the four arms of the outer part and insert it into the mudguard and the hole behind it. Once that's in place it's easy to reinsert the center part. If you need new push-type rivets, be sure to get the proper size. Some available in auto supply stores are too short and almost impossible to snap close. Mazda parts, of course, fit best (and cost the most.)

HOWEVER, I strongly recommend against trying to do this yourself. I'm an experienced home mechanic (I work on my race cars), and I just caused a several hundred dollar repair replacing an $8 bulb: that retaining clip mentioned above is *completely* inaccesible, and if you pull in the wrong direction... *snap* goes the cheap plastic bit that holds it, and now I think we'll have to pull the whole fricking bumper off to get the broken headlight assembly out (the broken bit being an integral part of that assembly) and replace it.

Frankly, this is engineered like CRAP by mazda, and I say that as one of their biggest fans (I currently own 3 mazdas).