Front turn signal bulb replacement
 

So I figured this was a 10 minute job. My front right turn signal bulb burned out

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No problem, replacement is easy to find and cheap

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When I remove the amber light cover, I am supposed to just removed the old and push in the new one. But when i looked the tension spring and come loose, and there was a hexagonal retaining piece that was also loose in the housing.

Now I am not sure how to put it back together - also adding to my confusion, is that when I put the key in and turn on the blinker, I expect to be able to manually connect the bulb to the two contact points on the black circled piece but that doesnt light the bulb. What I am missing? I thought the order from back to front would be the retaining piece, then the spring, then the black plastic piece. Also, the other circled connector seems like it should attach to something.


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As far as I know, on the bulb base the two little posts (nibs) are staggered? These have to correspond to the socket orientation to reach appropriate contact bands function. You tired this with direct contact and didn’t get the bulb to light up suggests ground issue.

Now, did any wrong bulb manipulation cause damage to the housing or was it already damaged, so getting it back together will have to be examined.
I believe the contact bands are screwed down to the housing. Was the bracket not screwed down and/or if that is where the break in ground occurred.
Can’t decipher the picture but if that’s circled, a Brown wire is ground and also should have a terminal spade to attach onto the contact band bracket when fitted, ground to the body.

A long time since I did much electrical tracing but a Power Probe tool was handy to test lighting and switches w/o popping fuses to check connections rather than using the ignition. Simple test light or mm works too, Power Probe is bit more convenient.

When I removed the outer lens with the two screws, and then gently rotated the old bulb to get it out, I could see that the spring and the retaining metal piece were loose. There was one additional screw that held the gray plastic housing in place, that I also removed. So when I wiggled the housing to see what was going on , it was initially very tight, then came loose. So I may have detached the ground in the process, but its not clear where it should go.

Brown ground to the side of the bulb housing. Look closely for the flat section.

Got it !! Thanks - the spade connector for ground attached to the very easy-to-miss flat protrusion on the bulb housing. Getting it back together after that was still a bit tricky, with no extra slack at all on any of the wires but I managed it. 10 minute job closer to an hour