Posted: Apr 14 2004 at 9:53pm | IP Logged

Since my car has HID's, I decided I wanted to try to improve the lighting on the Titan.  I bought some Hella Optilux bulbs to replace the low and high beams.  After inspecting under the hood, it was obvious that the whole headlight housing has to come out to access the bulbs.

So I flip through the manual and it says that the headlamp must be removed (figured that part out on my own) and to take it to a Nissan dealer to replace the bulbs.  What!?  Pay the dealer to replace bulbs?  Riiiight.

I found two screws that hold the housing on, one on top, and one underneath (gotta lay on your back to get to it).  There are these two plastic clips that attach it to the grille, but I can't seem to get it to let go.  I don't want to force it anymore and risk snapping the plastic pieces.

Can someone else take a peek and see if I'm missing something obvious?  Anyone else tried to replace bulbs yet?

TIA.

Posted: Apr 15 2004 at 11:36am | IP Logged

RI Xterra wrote: If it's anything like the Xterra's headlights then you have to remove the screws and pull it out with a good tug....

Thanks for the reply.  I'll try again today during the daytime.  I was out there at night trying to do it with a flashlight.

Posted: Apr 15 2004 at 6:14pm | IP Logged

RI Xterra wrote: Yeah give that a shot.But make sure when you pull on it you try to pull it straight out to help prevent breaking any of the clips...

Well, I got them replaced.  Turns out the front grille needs to come off to access a screw which holds the housing.

Also there are 2 pegs on the housing that mates to the front grille:

If there's enough interest, I'll generate a how-to tech article and publish it somewhere on the web.  I'll report back later on how they perform.... it's still light out :).

Posted: Apr 16 2004 at 7:07pm | IP Logged

My initial impressions are that the new low-beam bulbs are noticeably brighter and whiter than before.  They're brighter because they're 55W bulbs versus the stock 51W, and whiter because they have a very light purple coating. 

For the high-beams I got 100W bulbs, but they're coated blue, and have a noticeable blue cast to the light.  I really haven't been on a dark deserted road yet to determine if they're an improvement.  I'll live with it for a while but might end up changing to a "standard" 100W bulb if the blue gets annoying (looks cool though when looking at the front of the truck).