Help! Daytime Running Light lense has come unclipped

My son has a 2011 Tacoma. In attempting to replace the inboard amber bulb, it fell into the lens. As I fished out the bulb, it unclipped the yellow plastic lens inside the headlight assembly. I have tried using dental picks to pull the lens back into place but no luck...

Has anyone come across this issue and if so, what solution? I suspect I need to remove the headlight assembly and try to work it

 

Is the lens now just loose somewhere inside the headlight? If so you likely need to take the headlight out and see if it can slip through the headlight bulb hole area. If that's a no go you may need to bake the headlight and separate the main lens from the housing to get it out and then put everything back together. That would be the worst case scenario.

 

IMO the best and easiest solution would be to get a replacement headlight assembly.

 

Thanks Jaimes...I'm curious about opening the lens with heating. I have an industrial oven for heating. I have attached a photo so show the problem. I was thinking of a suction cup that could suck on to the lense and pull it back into place...

 

Been there, tried that. We had a replacement headlight show up in our shop woh this problem. I screwed around with it a while thinking I could clip it back in. Long story short I gave up and sent it back and got another one. The clips are so stiff the only way you'll be able to do it is by taking the outer lense off

 

Thanks for the heads up Chris. What I am surprised with is how easily it came off the clip.

 

I'm at work right now but when I get home I can pull up the instructions for getting the outer lens off if you want to go that route. It basically involves heating the entire assembly in the oven for about 10-15 minutes and then pulling the lens off. Resealing is similar although you may want to add extra butyl rubber to the seal. In all honesty you may be better off buying a replacement light or living with the inner lens the way it is.

 

Thanks Jaimes, I'd appreciate that...

 

It depends how handy you are. It's not difficult to pull the lense off but it is time consuming. For myself I'd rather invest more of my time to fix it rather than money to replace it. But that's just me. If I had the extra cash to throw around I'd just go buy a new set of already retrofitted lifts

 

Here is a thread that covers how to remove the main lens. It's item 4 on the first page. As I said you may also want to consider buying an aftermarket replacement, but if you are willing to put in the work then it can be fixed!

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-retrofit-morimoto-fx-r-mini-h1-in-depth.303795/

 

Are these the original assemblies. If they are there is a recall to get updated assemblies if you do it by year end. I just took my 2011 in and got the updated ones at no cost.

 

Robert,

Thank-you for the suggestion. My understanding is that they needed to show damage (burning, bubbling) before they would replace?

 

Thx Jaimes

 

No problem, good luck with it!

 

It would be worth checking with the Service Manager. I took mine in earlier in the year before the melting started and they said bring it back before year end and they would take care of it so I wouldn't have a problem. By the end of this Summer I had some minor bubbling starting so it took awhile since 2011 (36,000 mi at time of change). Good luck.

 

Here is the update. Using a small tool and some good quality two sided tape I stuck it to the lense and it clipped back in. Trouble is that the clip is not holding the lense with much force. It could easily come unclipped again. I am wondering if this is also part of the recall issue? The lense itself is not discoloured or damaged in any other way. The bulb receptacle is discoloured but that is the only sign that I see of an overheating issue...