Headlight swap issues

moelaz · 02-24-2010, 08:14 AM

I was pretty excited about the prospect of swapping out the standard Halogen headlight bulbs for the Sylvania extreme silver stars on my 03 Boxster S . Well, I think I totally screwed up the left headlight assembly in the process of doing so. Here's what happened the female 5 mm doohickey one is supposed to turn to release the light assembly appears stripped. I forced the assembly out and in the process broke off this little triangular piece at the bottom left of the housing. I managed to glue it back onto the housing and it looks fine. Now here;s the real problem. The electrical connection for the light is now loose in the internal mount that holds is so I can't make the connection...so no lights on the left and the light unit won't snug up to the body because the 5mm doohickey is now loose and the nylon gear on the doohickey seems stripped. God what a mess I have made of this. The boxster is new to me and I absolutely love it.....Help!!!!!!

Do I need to purchase a whole new light assembly ...Ouch!!!! Or can I fix this? Also what to do with the loose electrical connector....? Sliding in the unit is to no avail as the electrical connections won't mate up.

Any help will be greatly appreciated .

I assumed this would be a simple procedure....Wrong!!!!

Moe Lazzaro

FANBOY · 02-24-2010, 09:02 AM

I think what you will need to fix your problem is the headlight tray. I think they are a little over a hundred dollars and it is what holds your headlight in.

headdead · 02-25-2010, 04:23 PM

PM sent. If I fix my similar problem I will post.

Wayne 962 · Wayne 962's Garage

Can you post a whole bunch of pictures? Standard headlight assemblies are *very* common so I wouldn't sweat it if they are broken. A lot of these get taken off for the Litronic upgrades...

-Wayne

headdead · 02-27-2010, 04:38 PM

- My 2000 Boxster headlight was stuck solid; rotating 5mm cam lock had little effect.
- Finally decided to break the headlight and/or tray to remove it, since I had no light anyway.
- Turned out the PO had cleaned his Bondo knife on the tray, cementing the headlight in. After breaking out the headlight and then the Bondo, the tray looks perfect and the headlight installs properly.
Sorry I can't help figure your problem out - mine was obviously one of a kind.
Stupid PO.
Might make an interesting thread: "Stupid things People Have Done to Porsches."