How do you replace the headlight bulb located on a 2003 Chevy Trailblazer?

Answer 1

AnswerBehind the low beam and high beam lamps, on the back of the assembly, you can see and feel a round, cup-like, hard plastic piece. This is really just a rubber cap covering a plastic cylindrical housing, and is the "back-door" for lamp access. This rubber cap, or lid, can be pulled off with your fingers...if you can grip it just right and pull off. If this is too hard to do, then take a flat tip screwdriver and gently "pry" it off. Once you see how it is attached, your going to do a 180 and say, "gee, this is a pretty easy design" !

The bulbs do not pull out!! They are removed with a 90 degree twist.

If you are going to replace the passenger side low beam remove the air cleaner assembly first. To do this remove the cross brace, then the 3 screws on the air cleaner assembly. This will give you easy access to the bulb assembly. Test the bulb before you reassemble.

ADDITIONAL OPTION: On each side of the assembly, you will see a small, thin release bar that will pull up (I needed a small pliers to get one loose). Once both are in the "up" position, the entire assembly can be gently eased out. You won't get far because the other bulbs are still plugged in. However, you don't have to unplug any of the other bulbs or remove the air cleaner. Easing out the assembly simply proves more room for your hand to get a better angle at the bulbs. I simply reached around and removed the old bulbs as specified above and did the reverse to insert the new ones.

Also very important to do - the front grill MUST be removed before the headlight assembly can be eased out! The whole grill - not just the silver with Chevy emblem must come off. There are 2 clips on the back of the silver strip on each light - DO NOT try to take the silver strip off the grill - and 4 clips on the top of the black grill - there's no real delicate way to take this off - I just had to loosen the ones on the lights first and then give a good tug. Nothing broke so I guess that's how it's done. Also, I am replacing lights on a 2003 in 2009 so the release bars took ALOT of persuasion to move - I had to use a heavy duty chisel to pry all of mine up.

The above entry about removing the grill to replace the headlight bulb was not my experience. If you are replacing a burned out bulb there is no reason to remove the headlight assembly. You don't need a heavy duty chisel to replace the headlight bulb.

Thank you very much for the tips, worked wonderfully. Took me 20 minutes. I used the 'additional option' alternative. This was for the passenger side headlight. A couple additional tips that might help: 1. I only used a long flat face screw driver for the whole job. Its 11 inches in length, the handle being 5 inches. 2. You do not need to remove the aircleaner or the bar that goes along the edge of it-at least I did not. 3. I did not remove the whole grill. Here's what I did. 1. using the screw driver I lifted the two black tabs-the first one is very visible. Its at the top right edge of the headlight about 2 inches back; the left hand one is tucked towards the fender a little lower that the first one. This one is a little more difficult to get to and to pry up. 2. I unclipped the grill. On the top of the grill is a black plastic mondling. Behind it are the clips, two left & two right. I know the fear that the clips will break off but they don't-or at least they didn't for me. I used the screw driver to push them down and by pulling out they unclip. Align and push back in and they clip right back. The grill does not come off but it will give you enough play to pull the headlight out enough to get behind it. 3. I pulled the headlight out, forced it a bit, & pulled down and under the edge of the fender. There's a wire for the left hand orange light. I did not disconnect it however it is clipped with a male nipple. I did unclip that and pulled the wire out a bit to give more room. There isn't alot of room but enough for the fingures of my hand, (I have an XL hand), to work the bulb. 4. There's a round rubber plastic covering the access to the bulb that needs to come off first. Put it in a place that you will remember to put it back in before putting the whole light and grill back, I learnt the hard way. I uncliped the bulb wire, turned the bulb with my fingures counter clock wise and it came out. The replacement was actually easier to twist back in than what I expected. That was it, put it all back together, reclipped the grill. I read several tips on the different websites on how to do this and while all are accurate and helpful this one by the person before me was the best for me and got the job done. It does recommend to do more than what I ended up having to do, undoubtedly to give better access. For me if I would have needed to remove the whole grill including bolts and stuff rather than just unclip four clips & the two black tabs, I probably would have brought it to the shop.