# The goddamned headlight retaining clip on my Mazda 3 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 14, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748 "2010-09-14T18:20:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/21 "2010-09-15T19:50:21Z")
Trouble with the JB Weld idea is that I will eventually need to change the bulb out again, so the stupid thing needs to be able to open. 😛 I guess it’s going to be duct-tape city for me until I can get past the next couple of weeks and actually have time to troll the junkyards. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/22 "2010-09-15T20:07:07Z")
You’re just talking about something like [this](http://scottfinn.com/Motorcycle/Maintenance/ST1100/HeadlightRetainerClip.jpg), right? You can’t just make a workable part with some heavy gauge wire and pliers? ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/23 "2010-09-15T20:20:53Z")
My daughter has a New Beetle. The headlight went out. We looked in the owner’s manual for instructions for changing it. It said “Go to a VW dealer.” Seriously - changing a headlight was not DIY. Yeah, right. I did a quick bit of googling and found step-by-step instructions with pictures. I printed them out and my daughter carried them with her owner’s manual. It’s a pain in the patoot to change, but it \*can \*be done by a mere mortal. She’s about to trade it in on a Fiesta - it’ll be interesting to see what Ford says about its headlights. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/24 "2010-09-15T20:42:13Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > You’re just talking about something like [this](http://scottfinn.com/Motorcycle/Maintenance/ST1100/HeadlightRetainerClip.jpg), right? You can’t just make a workable part with some heavy gauge wire and pliers? Here’s a tangential question; where would you buy heavy-gauge wire? Hardware store? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/25 "2010-09-15T20:45:13Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > > [@DCnDC](#): > > > > You’re just talking about something like [this](http://scottfinn.com/Motorcycle/Maintenance/ST1100/HeadlightRetainerClip.jpg), right? You can’t just make a workable part with some heavy gauge wire and pliers? > > Here’s a tangential question; where would you buy heavy-gauge wire? Hardware store? Pretty sure Home Depot has wire in any size you need. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/26 "2010-09-15T21:17:23Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > You’re just talking about something like [this](http://scottfinn.com/Motorcycle/Maintenance/ST1100/HeadlightRetainerClip.jpg), right? You can’t just make a workable part with some heavy gauge wire and pliers? Very much like that. I’d rather have the factory part because it’s bent in the correct topology, but yeah, I’ll probably end up cutting a wire coat hanger for it. ---
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/27 "2010-09-16T02:07:23Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > Are you sure you want to get into this? > > I got blasted for suggesting that $2.00 worth of hardware (key) $5 worth of electronics and $8 worth of programming shouldn’t make buying a spare care key a $350 experience. > > The local mechanics, dealers, and parts managers who frequency the SDMB tore me a new one for having such a blaspheming attitude. As much as people villify GM, I must say that a new “chipped” key for my Pontiac was only $27. AT THE DEALER, no less. ---
**Author:** ![BayouHazard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BayouHazard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BayouHazard)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/28 "2010-09-16T04:40:16Z")
Just a question: aluminum’s conductive, right? He could take the whole housing out and kludge a spring clip from an aluminum can, provided he was prepared to put a couple of screw holes in the housing, right? Oh, and had a good pair of tin snips. Although I also imagine braided copper would work?(not straight copper-too brittle). Not knowing the configuration/specs, I have used brass coat hangers of the type you get from the dry cleaners to hold things on that wanted to come off on my various old cars… also baling wire, utility wire (fastenings aisle, Home Depot or Lowe’s,) and JB weld. Duct tape only if you don’t care what the car looks like, and it will mark the paint. Helps to use pliers to apply the baling wire-needle-nosed for preference. (Have yet to try the idea of fixing any exhaust leaks with a de-ended tomato can, a pair of screw clamps, and j-b weld inside the tomato can to form a tight seal. When that becomes necessary, I’ll tell you how it holds-it should work for some time.) But if you go to either the electric supplies or fastenings part of a hardware store and let your imagination go, you should be able to find a good working fix for 10$ or less. **Just take the part with you!** JB weld on a radiator itself will only last you about two weeks, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/29 "2010-09-16T05:27:31Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > You’re just talking about something like [this](http://scottfinn.com/Motorcycle/Maintenance/ST1100/HeadlightRetainerClip.jpg), right? You can’t just make a workable part with some heavy gauge wire and pliers? How does someone break a clip like that ?😕 ---
**Author:** ![ThePylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@ThePylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThePylon)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/30 "2010-09-16T14:03:20Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > > [@DCnDC](#): > > > > You’re just talking about something like [this](http://scottfinn.com/Motorcycle/Maintenance/ST1100/HeadlightRetainerClip.jpg), right? You can’t just make a workable part with some heavy gauge wire and pliers? > > Very much like that. I’d rather have the factory part because it’s bent in the correct topology, but yeah, I’ll probably end up cutting a wire coat hanger for it. You could get one of [these](http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32012&cat=1,43456,43407), too. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/31 "2010-09-16T14:38:44Z")
What was missing from your rant is this: why in HELL are headlights so DAMN difficult to replace anyway??? We were in the process of trading in our Dodge Omni (I know, I know, but believe it or not it was an _improvement_ over the Fiat my parents saddled me with in college) for a new car (a Mazda 626 as it happens). A headlight burned out between the time we struck the deal, and the time the new car was ready for pickup. I figured the honest thing to do would be to replace it before I delivered it to the dealer. Oh. My. God. It took 2+ hours, sending **Typo Knig** back to his lab to fetch the ratchet wrench set, and essentially taking off a good chunk of the car’s front end, just to GET to the damn thing. The replacement itself was 10 seconds. Then we had to put the whole mess back together. After dark. I don’t know if my Honda CR-V’s headlights are any easier to swap out - when one of them burned out I just told them to Fix It when it was next in for scheduled maintenance. The CR-V, however, has the charming feature of non-replaceable fuses. Or, more accurately, you could replace them if you could get to them. See, there’s this little pull-off panel under the steering wheel, and you can see 3 rows of fuses back there, but you can’t reach them. No problem, there’s a fuse-puller in the underhood fuse compartment. The layout of which of course doesn’t match either the diagram in the manual, or the diagram on the lid. When, despite this, I located the fuse puller, I was amazed to see it was about an inch long. No way was this gonna reach the driving-compartment fuses. Fortunately, some long needlenose pliers solved THAT problem and we replaced the fuse. Except the non-working device still didn’t work. Which made sense since the fuse we looked at was in perfect shape. Took it to the dealer, certain there was an upstream electrical problem. 32 bucks later, they replaced a _different_ fuse - one which was NOT labeled as controlling the device (the “cigarette lighter” outlet). As you can imagine, I’m pissed at Honda right now. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/32 "2010-09-16T16:18:30Z")
> [@BayouHazard](#): > > Just a question: aluminum’s conductive, right? He could take the whole housing out and kludge a spring clip from an aluminum can, provided he was prepared to put a couple of screw holes in the housing, right? Oh, and had a good pair of tin snips. > Although I also imagine braided copper would work?(not straight copper-too brittle). > > Not knowing the configuration/specs, I have used brass coat hangers of the type you get from the dry cleaners to hold things on that wanted to come off on my various old cars… also baling wire, utility wire (fastenings aisle, Home Depot or Lowe’s,) and JB weld. Duct tape only if you don’t care what the car looks like, and it will mark the paint. > > Helps to use pliers to apply the baling wire-needle-nosed for preference. > > (Have yet to try the idea of fixing any exhaust leaks with a de-ended tomato can, a pair of screw clamps, and j-b weld inside the tomato can to form a tight seal. When that becomes necessary, I’ll tell you how it holds-it should work for some time.) > > But if you go to either the electric supplies or fastenings part of a hardware store and let your imagination go, you should be able to find a good working fix for 10$ or less. > > **Just take the part with you!** > > JB weld on a radiator itself will only last you about two weeks, BTW. From above: “…but yeah, I’ll probably end up cutting a wire coat hanger for it.” > [@](#): > > How does someone break a clip like that ? The one I broke was made of very cheap metal. It didn’t take much. Essentially, one wrong bend (“Wait, i think I got it. Nope. Wrong way.”) It snapped like a bent paper clip. > [@](#): > > You could get one of these, too. Pretty cool. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/33 "2010-09-16T16:22:45Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > What was missing from your rant is this: why in HELL are headlights so DAMN difficult to replace anyway??? > > We were in the process of trading in our Dodge Omni (I know, I know, but believe it or not it was an _improvement_ over the Fiat my parents saddled me with in college) for a new car (a Mazda 626 as it happens). A headlight burned out between the time we struck the deal, and the time the new car was ready for pickup. I figured the honest thing to do would be to replace it before I delivered it to the dealer. > > Oh. > > My. > > God. > > It took 2+ hours, sending **Typo Knig** back to his lab to fetch the ratchet wrench set, and essentially taking off a good chunk of the car’s front end, just to GET to the damn thing. The replacement itself was 10 seconds. Then we had to put the whole mess back together. > > After dark. > > I don’t know if my Honda CR-V’s headlights are any easier to swap out - when one of them burned out I just told them to Fix It when it was next in for scheduled maintenance. > > The CR-V, however, has the charming feature of non-replaceable fuses. > > Or, more accurately, you could replace them if you could get to them. See, there’s this little pull-off panel under the steering wheel, and you can see 3 rows of fuses back there, but you can’t reach them. No problem, there’s a fuse-puller in the underhood fuse compartment. > > The layout of which of course doesn’t match either the diagram in the manual, or the diagram on the lid. When, despite this, I located the fuse puller, I was amazed to see it was about an inch long. No way was this gonna reach the driving-compartment fuses. > > Fortunately, some long needlenose pliers solved THAT problem and we replaced the fuse. > > Except the non-working device still didn’t work. Which made sense since the fuse we looked at was in perfect shape. > > Took it to the dealer, certain there was an upstream electrical problem. > > 32 bucks later, they replaced a _different_ fuse - one which was NOT labeled as controlling the device (the “cigarette lighter” outlet). As you can imagine, I’m pissed at Honda right now. Yeah, I definitely sympathize with this, too. Quite a bit of the difficulty stemmed from the sheer amount of bullshit I had to go through just t access the back of the damn headlight. Even after I took off 3,238 plastic covers and housings, and wedged another shitload of wires and hoses out of the way, my hand would barely fit into the access space. And there was no way to fit my hand in there and actually see what I was doing at the same time, so most of it was done by feel. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/34 "2010-09-16T16:41:03Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > What was missing from your rant is this: why in HELL are headlights so DAMN difficult to replace anyway??? Why make it easy for you to replace it yourself when they can just charge you a ridiculous fee to do it for you? ---
**Author:** ![BayouHazard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BayouHazard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BayouHazard)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/35 "2010-09-17T00:13:16Z")
How many of us here would like to strangle the handiest Japanese car engineer with our bare hands? _raises hand vigorously_ I will be replacing heater hoses this weekend-one of which MAY NECESSITATE TAKING THE ENGINE MANIFOLD OFF TO GET TO! There is no logical reason to bury it there-you know damned well they put it there deliberately to make the car hard to work on! This tops out the other heater hose hidden under the distributor, or the fuel filter that can only be removed by removing the vacuum brake can from the firewall. GRRR! ---
**Author:** ![BayouHazard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BayouHazard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BayouHazard)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/36 "2010-09-17T00:16:13Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > From above: “…but yeah, I’ll probably end up cutting a wire coat hanger for it.”. _Shrug_ I just like stuff to stay kludged I believe in the Kludge of Ages. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/37 "2010-09-17T00:16:54Z")
What about mid 90s Chevy Monte Carlos, you had to remove the air intake assembly to access the battery. The battery. One of the most common maintainence items. ---
**Author:** ![BayouHazard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BayouHazard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BayouHazard)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/38 "2010-09-17T00:45:59Z")
Now I remember my brother having to pull his engine to replace his harmonic balancer-which is just a tensioning pulley, after all-in his late 90’s Caprice that he had. He had to pull the whole damn engine out for a pulley.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/39 "2010-09-17T04:49:01Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > What about mid 90s Chevy Monte Carlos, you had to remove the air intake assembly to access the battery. The battery. One of the most common maintainence items. Or the late-70s Monza V8, in which replacing the left rear spark plug entailed unbolting the left side motor mount and jacking up the engine (and even then, required a special wrench attachment). ---
**Author:** ![hansel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@hansel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hansel)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748/40 "2010-09-17T05:33:58Z")
I owned a Mazda Protege in the 90s that was an awesome car when it worked–but it was a lemon, continually in and out of the shop for repairs until I replaced it with a Honda Accord. It’s not the lemon that will prevent me from ever buying Mazda again–my family has owned several, and my brother in law drove a Protege happily for several years with nary a problem. No, it’s that the catalytic converter burnt out as part of the whole failure cascade that was that particular car. I managed to drag it to a Carmax near work (there being a paucity of Mazda dealerships in Wisconsin) where they shipped it off to a dealer just over the border in Illinois for a (thankfully warranty) replacement. When it came back and they inspected the car, they told me “no way is this a new catalytic converter”. In their estimation, a reasonably sound used one was slapped in place. Their manager called the dealership’s management, had some direct words with them, and my car was shipped back to them for a proper replacement (verified on return along with paperwork). Since it was warranty work, I paid for nothing more than a bit of facetime at Carmax–and given what they protected me from, that was well worth it. So I call up Mazda to tell them about this, because you can be sure that the dealer in Illinois sent Mazda a bill for a warranty replacement, including a brand new part, which runs about $800, IIRC. Mazda didn’t care. I said “this is outright warranty fraud, by one of your dealers. If they got caught this time, you can be certain they’ve gotten away with it at other times, I would think. The Carmax people told me they’d speak to you about it–you have witnesses and independent verification!” I was told that the dealer’s word would be taken over Carmax’s, so there was no point in pressing the issue. Even with a neutral third party verifying it all. So, screw you Mazda. People complain about the cost of worker health care and pensions. How about unchecked corruption in your dealer network? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-goddamned-headlight-retaining-clip-on-my-mazda-3/553748.md?page=3)