Some headlight questions -- 2000 Tacoma

My headlights look terrible, renovation not doing the trick. I'd like to replace them with no particular upgrade to what's on there.

Searching this forum, I find some suggestions. Ebay has aftermarket stuff that seems hit or miss. Is the aftermarket stuff good enough? How about these reasonably priced replacements? --

http://www.headlightsdepot.com/catalog/toyota/tacoma/2000/headlights

I looked at some YouTube vids and saw one common problem. Under each headlight is a body colored metal strip held on by a nut at one end and a clip at the other. Those clips seem to break easily. Any tricks for not breaking them? Should I order some extra clips going in?

Thanks.

 

I got after market ones because they have a clear lens, for my personal opinion would better lighting at night I got these from eBay and really happy with these and no water goes inside paid around like 110 including the corner lights

 

Thanks, looks good! And an added bonus -- I've thought about putting black wheels on my white truck, now I know I will.

Did you have any trouble with those white filler pieces under the headlights?

 

Thanks man, Actually I did have a lil trouble, when u remove the front grill, has a bolt and has a clip on the side of the corner I tried to remove the clip and broke, but it didn't make a difference because when I put it back together just I tightened the bolt harder and it looked fine even I searched in YouTube even the guy that was showing how to remove it broke also, but at the end came out good anyway, good luck man

 

That clip for the filler piece is a real pain in the ass, I think I removed the grill and bumper to make it easier to remove it.

 

Which restore kit did you use? From what I hear most of them are crap, but I've always had very good luck with the Sylvania kits. It's all done by hand and takes a little time, but it's worth the effort. It took mine from dull hazy yellow to like new.

 

When I replaced my headlites a while ago, I think I figured out the trick behind that little clip. As best as I can recall, after you remove the little nut, then the filler-piece can be rotated (twisted) to un-snap it. Try grabbing it, and twist, so the the horizontal bottom comes toward you, and the top goes away from you.

 

That's exactly on how to remove the filler piece.

I just replaced mine as well. I tried polishing them first. That was a waste. I might have gained 20% in brightness. Found some new, aftermarket ones on eBay for $35 each. I couldn't log into PayPal fast enough. I'm very happy.

 

Nice, I'll have to remember that for the next time I mess with them.

 

Thanks, good to know it can be done. In case I screw up, is this the clip?

http://www.toyotapart.com/53245-04010.html

And 1200, I tried a couple headlight restore products with limited, short term success.

 

Not sure, but it looks like it. I didn't have to replace mine.

 

Yep, that's the part.

 

Any updates? How did they turn out/what did you end up going with?

I'm wanting to swap mine out as well. Just made a 700 mile road trip from Virginia to Florida on Friday and it was mostly at night. My headlights are so dim it felt unsafe. Ive tried the restorers and yeah, they are crap!

 

The best way to do it is to sand the headlights down (make sure it's always wet as you sand them). Then go ahead and buff them. After that, tape off the surrounding metal and trim and spray a coat of clear on them. Did that to mine and they came out great.

 

Bought mine on ebay around 2 years ago.....no problems so far

 

I ordered from Headlight Depot which I'd seen mentioned here in a couple other threads. After looking at some You Tubes on replacement, I also ordered a couple of the clips for the bottom filler pieces (linked above) and some grill clips, all pretty inexpensive. It was a cool day in the 40's, old clips and, yeah, clips broke. Good thing I had new ones.

It was pretty straightforward except for things being a hair off on the front left where I'd had some body work when a tree landed on the house, taking the carport roof down (the Tacoma lived and saved two other vehicles from being squashed ). So the fit was a little tight and fiddly but it worked out.




All easy enough and well worth the effort, have no fears.

EDIT -- I forgot to mention I tried to ballpark adjusting the beams, they're not quite right. Despite turning the adjusters more than a bit, I could see no change. The only other time I adjusted headlights was many years ago on a VW bug and changes were very easy to see. Any ideas, does it take a lot of turns to make small changes?

 

Not sure how you guys are removing your headlights, but it shouldn't involve breaking stuff. Remove the grille and the three bolts from the headlight. The clip on the bottom part of the headlight bracket can be pushed from the inside using your finger. No need to go tearing it out and messing if the filler pieces. Just reach up under the bumper and find the clip and push on it. That's all.

 

2000 tacoma prerunner headlight replacement

 

which headlights did you use?