changing headlight bulb in Mazda 5

Great to see I'm not the only one! Wow. The first post was me to a tee! I've changed freakin' spark plugs on my other car, that was easier than this stupid clip on the passenger side.

I was going to try to pull out the headlight, but I'm not sure how easy a job that is, as when I undid the two obvious bolts on top, it didn't just pull out... Anyone got links to a DIY?

The end of the clip definitely scratches the plastic sides, so I'm thinking I'll snip off a couple of mm's too.

I was almost going to go to the dealer tomorrow, but I'm not going to be defeated by this!

EDIT - Darn, it looks like I have to remove the bumper to get the headlight out... Too much work.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...-to-bake-and-black-out-your-Mazda5-headlights
 
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This would have taken 10 minutes tops on my previous Forester XT but it took me 3 hours to complete the job on this Mazda!!! Not only that, it caused me painful finger tips because of confined space of the the frieken clips. Had i known this before, I would have NOT went out of my way to upgrade the bulbs. I didn't remove the front bumper but totally wanted to. I took off the fuse cover to give me better access to the driver side lamp and set aside the coolant reservoir for the passenger side. If the windshield washer tube wasn't in the way, it would have saved me a bit of time there. On a level of difficulty scale, this install would be a solid 8... the same rating I would give for strut/spring replacements.
 
Found the secret. When you have the spring clamp pivoted down as far as it goes, lift it up, not down. This will allow it to go down a little more. Let go of the spring clamp and it will spring down and catch. The catch for the spring clamp is the top of that black piece of flat metal with the screw on the non-pivot side. The natural position of end of spring clamp is right about at the screw. Hence you need to lift it up.
 
After years of frustration, i found two "secrets" that allowed me to change the bulb without tools and made the bulbs last longer:

the adapter must be precisely oriented so that it seats well. If it is just a little off, the adapter sticks out just a tiny bit and the clamp cannot easily hook.

Bulbs burn out very fast as the connection between the bulb and adapter loosens over time, thus the bulb flickers. by wrapping metal foil around the bulb prongs, the connection is tightened.

This design is horrible and should never exist.
 
The retaining clips I can agree are the worst I have ever dealt with. My 5 looked like it had some kind of accident or something when I got it. No way of fixing the projectors angles or anything. The passenger side retainer is so bad. It took quite a while to get back on. Take the time, wear something to help reduce the pain for the hour long fiasco.

I did do my HID upgrades. Quite easy to do, my only suggestion is to take your time and mount things properly and away from heat and possible liquid spills/rain.
 

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