Welcome to mazda, here are some headlight clips

C

crash_happy

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2002 P5, 1996 MX-5
Those are words I wish I could hear somewhere. . .

I just bought an 02 P5, which the previous owner informed me "needed new headlights". The headlight clips were missing, and he wasn't able to figure out a replacement, so just pointed the high beams down and drove with them on all the time.
After looking at the maintenance records for the car, it looks like Midas changed both low-beam bulbs last year, and I'm guessing flubbed the install and lost the clips. . .
Great.

Anyway, I'm in Alaska with one of the few P5s here, so the chance of finding a used set of headlights to snag the clips from is about 0%. Since new housings seem to be ~150+ each, I would like to try and find a solution that is a bit more economical. I'd rather not do an HID retrofit or sedan swap, so I guess I'm mostly wondering if anyone has had success either sourcing or fabricating their own clips?

Any suggestions on the best way to approach this? Since it is Alaska and is dark all the time, I NEED to get the lights fixed as soon as I can. If I have to get new housings I will. . .but there has got to be an easier way, right?

Thanks for the help!
 
Thanks for the link. I actually just got a message from somebody who has a set going spare.
Looks like a good community around here!
 
Have you looked down in the splash guard area for them? Might be worth the look see. Could still be lodged down there from whenever Midas knocked them off trying to replace bulbs.
 
Nope, but that is a great idea. . .I'll definitely have a look.
It looks like the car has gone a couple thousand miles since they went MIA, so I have some used replacements on the way just in case.

It SEEMS like this is a common enough part that somebody could make some $$ off a limited production run, but maybe not. . .
i12drivemyMP5 said:
Have you looked down in the splash guard area for them? Might be worth the look see. Could still be lodged down there from whenever Midas knocked them off trying to replace bulbs.
Click to expand...
 
Im missing the one for my left headlight. Is this a piece that you can only get from Mazda or a junk yard?
 
It appears that this isn't a part you can buy separately, so you either have to get a new headlight assembly, or find them at a junk yard/from somebody who did an HID retrofit. I just did the latter. . .

David1206 said:
Im missing the one for my left headlight. Is this a piece that you can only get from Mazda or a junk yard?
Click to expand...
 
Whoever invented those things was an evil, evil person.

Ones in my Celica were quite similar, so may not even have to be another protege to scavenge from.
 
Whoo.. turns out I need some of those too. Guess I'm going out to the junk yard tomorrow. On the other hand, maybe I should look at a prototype wire making place and see if they can make a couple. Hmmm.
 
Hmmm, so I got a set of clips from a member here (thanks!) and went to replace my bulbs and put them in my P5 last night. . .aaaand now I'm stumped.
Instead of finding a pair of H7 bulbs in the low beam reflector as I was expecting, I found a pair of 9003 dual-filament bulbs (used in the sedan). Not real surprising, as the last person to change the bulbs screwed it up anyway, and apparently also put in the wrong bulbs. . .but the 9003s are three-prong, and so is the factory harness they plug into on my car. There is no way the harness would take a two-prong H7 as-is, since the prongs are much closer on the H7.

Is the low-bean harness (the white clip) actually the same for both P5s and the sedan? The wiring harness appears to be all-original, and has both high-beam and low-beam plugs, so I'm stumped as to why the plug won't take a two-prong H7.
 
That's how they come from the factory, the Protege sedan has a single H4 (9003) bulb and the P5s had separate H7 low beams and 9005 high beams. The harness can be used, the 3 prong plug is for the H4 bulb in the sedan. The P5 used the same plug just with an adapter and the plug only has 2 wires on it instead of 3 due to the separate high beam plug.
 
Ah, okay that is exactly what I was wondering. I saw mention of the adapter, but I assumed that was part of the bulb. . . and apparently that got thrown out with my last headlights. I guess I need to get https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)?
Thanks!

hornsfan10609 said:
That's how they come from the factory, the Protege sedan has a single H4 (9003) bulb and the P5s had separate H7 low beams and 9005 high beams. The harness can be used, the 3 prong plug is for the H4 bulb in the sedan. The P5 used the same plug just with an adapter and the plug only has 2 wires on it instead of 3 due to the separate high beam plug.
Click to expand...
 
I took two vehicles to Midas 20+ years ago and they screwed up on each one. Monkeys with wrenches could do a better job than those guys.
 
Finally got the bulb adapters yesterday, and tried to make sense of the clips without a diagram. . . either I hadn't had enough coffee or it's just damn confusing, but I spent a couple hours trying to get them to sit correctly in different orientations, and was two bolts into removing the front bumper to pull the housings when I finally realized that my housings were slightly broken where the spring clip is supposed to "pivot" next to the large head screw on the left side. After I realized that, and discovered the correct orientation, both bulbs went in in a grand total of about two minutes. The clips sit securely, they just don't swing out like they're supposed to.
Frustrating job, but most of that was was user-error. . .it really isn't a hard process. Just dumb.

Thanks for the help!
 
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