2014 Tacoma Broken Headlight Nightmare & Fix

As I was casually cruising down I-10 yesterday, I noticed a bunch of 18-wheeler shredded tire debris on the highway. Sure enough, the car in front of me ran over and kicked up a piece of rubber about the size of a tennis ball towards the front end of my truck...

My first thought was- "sh*T it messed up my freshly painted skewp hood that I just swapped!"...So when I get home, I pull into my garage and shine my iPhone light all over the front end of my truck....no damage?!? How can I be this lucky?!?!

Then I glance at my passenger side headlight and see the lens is shattered to oblivion.....why of course....had to be something. I was actually kind of glad it was the headlight lens and I wouldn't have to have downtime in the body shop again...

So today I go to the local auto panels shop to pick up a DEPO replacement headlight. $130 cash deal...not bad! I took it out of the box and went to go see how it matched up to OEM....The quality is OEM spec A++....I mistakenly just half-assed placed it back in the box and head back to my shop to swap out.

I get back to my shop, pop off the grill, remove the easy fasteners and clips up top...climb under, pop off the fender well and unfasten that one last bitch of a bolt underneath...finally able to remove the broken headlight after being a contortionist.

Now I can install my fresh new DEPO replacement....well, turns out..not so fresh after all....one of the main upper mounting tabs broke off when I put the headlight back into the box. Dumb, rookie mistake...should have known better...damn tabs are so fragile...guess I was just antsy to get my truck looking clean again.

Busted out the Gorrilla glue...which stuck to nothing but my fingers....stuff never works. So I got a piece of galvanized 16GA sheet metal and shimmed a little bracket in order to rivet the tab back on. Worked out great....highly recommend this for fixing any broken tabs. Really didn't feel like going to the auto parts store for epoxy or JB weld.

This is such a silly ass thread to even post about, but I am overly excited about the fact that I was able to fix the broken tab and pass along this info to anyone else who might end up in the same frustrating scenario as I did.

I dont post much, but was excited to share with Tacoma guys that would get me...salud









No newb for headlight work either...retros I did 8 years ago. Cadillac CTS projectors, bulbs, and ballasts.











My Previous Toyotas

 

It happens to everyone

 

Looks good! I wish I was that lucky when it came to the tree I hit in the woods the other day.

You're everywhere this morning.

 

Well I guess that's one way to fix it.

Hey I was down in your area last week. I flew into El Paso and had to drive to Van Horn.

Do they always divert the entire eastbound side of I-10 and stop all the cars at the border patrol check point? We had officer Mendoza ask us (with a slight accent) if we were citizens of the USA. How is that for irony?

 

Haven't driven that far out east lately, but I do remember there always being a Border Patrol checkpoint there. Any highway leading out of El Paso there are checkpoints. Yes, most of the CBP Officers are Hispanic lol.

 

I love the 80 mph speed limits! The funny thing is that it's still not fast enough for some people. I must have seen at least 5 or 6 state troopers along I-10 waiting to catch people in the 120 miles between Van Horn and El Paso.

 

I have the same issue at the moment. Bought aftermarket headlights but the broken mount piece is plastic. JB Weld did not work at all.