Toyota Harrier Gen2 headlight bulb replacement

[m4rkw]

This is probably unlikely to help anyone else but what the hell. I'm going on a couple of very long road trips this year and wanted to replace my headlight bulbs before going with Osram Ultra Life so I don't have to worry about the bulbs going out.

The indicator and high beams are easy enough just like other toyotas, just turn the socket and pull them out. The regular headlights however are a different matter as you can see in the attached photos. There's a big grey plastic circle thing which forms a seal with the headlight assembly and it was damn hard to undo. At first it seemed like it wouldn't budge and i was putting enough pressure on it that I was worried the plastic tabs would snap, but the trick is to put something in the notch at the top and then just keep pressure on it. There's a rubber seal around it which adds a lot of resistance and makes it turn very slowly.

Once off you can reach in and twist the bulb out of its socket as normal. Remember to always wear gloves when handling halogen bulbs as the oil from your fingers can cause hot spots which can shorten their life.