How to Replace Headlight Bulbs 2002-07 Mazda 6

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years.

Hi everyone. Today we're going to be working on this '07 Mazda Six, and we're going to be installing quite a few parts that we stock at 1aauto.com. If any of these parts or any other parts you need, click on the link in the description and head on over 1aauto.com.

We're going to be removing the front bumper, which also involves disconnecting electrical connectors for the marker assembly. First practice on anything you're dealing with electrical on a car, is smart, is to disconnect the negative cable. And in that way I just take a 10 millimeter wrench for this model. It's a 10 millimeter bolt on it. I take that negative, and I set it aside. I don't want it to touch anything. Now I'm going to cover up that positive that should have been covered. So now we're pretty much safe to disconnect anything electrical and not cause any surging going back.

We're going to start by removing these two upper screws on each side. It's a Philips. One is metal, and the other one's a plastic body clip. It still has a Philip's drive on it. I find the best way to do these, is let the weight of the screw driver, if you push down like that you're never going to ... you can see how it skips itself. So just pop it up. You can use a body tool, or you can use your fingers to lift it up. And do the same two on the other side. Plastic likes to break easy, so gentle. Once these four top screws are taken out, you're going to need to raise and support the vehicle. I have two post lift, so I'm going to raise mine up to go to the undercarriage. You at home can jack it up and put jack stands underneath on a nice secure spot.

Once you've raised the vehicle and supported it, we're going to remove these four little bolts screws, and it's an eight millimeter head for the socket. There's four on each side, and then there's going to be two bolts in the middle that are a 10 millimeter head socket. This one the clip is broken on it, the plastic has broken off, so obviously I can't show you removing that one. So I'm going to move over to the passenger side, take the same four off on this side. Alright, so now I'm going to switch over to a 10 millimeter socket, so I can get the two center bolts. Once these two bolts are down, we have to lower the vehicle to midway, because you're going to have to get into the fender well to remove the inner fender well bolts. So those two are out of the way, I'm going to bring your vehicle down.

So once I've got the vehicle to a comfortable height, I can remove these two plastic body clips, and they're a Philips head on. So in these are your real ... You've got to gently unscrew the plastic, and hold ... you might have to hold the base and spend some time. So just use your finger to put pressure on it. And it's a plastic clip, so this top is the same as that way. Do you see how the whole thing spins, so I have to hold it on the other edge and just slightly unscrew. If it doesn't work, don't get discouraged, because we're going to use a flathead screwdriver to pry it out just like this one. It is not cooperating.

So because it didn't want to work with me, I've got a little pocket screwdriver, and I'm going to wedge it in here. You can try a trim tool. Sometimes the road dirt gets in there and it jams the threads up. Let's see if I can get it to come out just a smidge. I'm just going to use this enough. Now, we get enough of this pulled out, we can get our body tool pried in there.

Once the fender well is out of the way, there is one more mounting bolt up in here we have to disconnect. So now you're going to have to undo this last little screw in here, it's a Philips head on it, and let's hope the weather treated us kindly, and it will come right out. Now we have to do the same thing to the other side. We'll remove those two clips and that one Philips head screw.

So now that we've removed all our mounting bolts on both fender wells top and bottom, right in here is a nice little couple of clips, and we need to grab that bumper and just ... Hold it securely because it might fall out. I'm just going to pop that side out of there. We're going to go over to the passenger side and do the same. Now, we have marker lights are still attached, so when I go to lift this off we know that we have a harness that's still attached. So luckily it's working with me. If you want to see the marker light assembly, it's right there. So I'm just going to pinch the tab ... if I can see it. It screws, I can't, so I'm going to just turn it out and let that lamp sit. I'm going to move my way to other side holding on to the bumper, and remove this marker lamp the same way.

Let's see what else we have in here. So we have a crash sensor. So I disconnected the factory harness, to where a fog lamp would be. This car is wired for fog lights, but doesn't have them, so they just put this grill in and clipped that in so that dirt and grime doesn't get into it. So in the future if you wish to install fog lights, you can. So now with the bumper disconnected, I'm ready to remove it and walk away.

So now that you have the bumper out of the way, you can access the head light assemblies. So we're going to change both of them, we're going to do the driver's side first. There is four mounting screws. There's two on the top, one on the inner fender well, and then one in the front. It's down on the bottom half here, in there. Right there. They are a 10 millimeter socket. So I'm going to do the bottom one's first, so that way I can have the assembly in my hand. Ooh, caught it. Now I'm going to give it a quick tug out. No, I'm not. Except for the mounting screw down here. In here is the fifth mounting screw.

Now we can pull the head lift assembly forward. We're going to disconnect our main connector. There's a tab right there. I'm going to push down on that tab, and pull it out. And now we're going to switch our bulbs over, and that's our headlight assembly.

This H1 is the daytime running light bulb, we're going to set that aside. Then we have the turn signal bulb, which is this plastic gray color thing. We're going to twist it, and then we pull it out, and there is our turn signal bulb. We're going to push down on it, and spin counter clockwise, so that the tabs ... you've got a high, and a low tab. This is a 2357 bulb - amber 2357. It's crucial to get the amber color, because the lens is clear. To re-install you would do the same. You see a high notch, and a low notch, line up the two in these guides, push down on the spring and twist. You can see it right there. That's the walkman.

So first we're going to take out the low beam headlight, it's over here on the far corner. There's a tab, look that middle bar. I'm going to push down on it, and undo it from the hook let it come up. Now I can pull the bulb up. Just pull on the tab. This is a 1255 H1 bulb, set that aside. Now in here we have a running light - daytime running light. I'm going to have to use a pair of pliers to get in there. Let's see it first. Twist it, pull out. So the high beam is an H1 also, so you can get a blister pack of two bulbs to change both your high, and your low beam at the same time. I recommend that, because lights go by hours, and if they have the same hours on them, they're going to go out.

So once you put the high beam bulb back in place, you see how it lines up, you've got a flat spot. It's got two notches. You see it's got a dimple here, lines up, we're going to pull down the metal clip, clip it onto that side and onto that side. Hook up our electrical connector, it's a spade, let that snap on in. Reassemble our cover. It's to keep any moisture out, it has the moister barrier, that rubber seal. It keeps the weather away. Twist and lock, it goes into the guide pins. Now we can reassemble the blinker.

The blinker bulb comes on this long adaptive. It's got little tabs that are going to make contact up here. So you're going to slide that in. Find which one works. You're going to slide that right in, push, turn clockwise till it snaps in. There it is. And then we're going to move down to the low beam. You're going to press that, take my lid of. Grab my H1 bulb, and this is located down here in the corner. It has one tab, not two, so I'm going to push down that metal single tab, unlock it, bring it up.

Pay attention to the flat spot, see my tab. So I'm going to angle it down in there, let that fall into place. I could pull that tab down, the lock tab. I'm just going to push on the top, slide it over, hook it. It's hooked into place. Find my electrical connector speed and just slide it on there. This is where you might need a pair of needle nose. I'm going to give it my best. I'll use a pair of pliers, get it down in there. There now it's aligned, I'm going to push into place. That's on nice and tight, I'm going to put on my weather cover to keep the weather out. You get your two bottom tabs, it slides right in. Give it a push down, let the top lock, sealed.

So now that we have our headlight assembly over here at the car, we're going to look at the electrical connector and make sure there's no damage to it. No burnt eyelets, they look good condition. The seal is still in there, so I'm going to reassemble, let this click in. Line my headlight up ... assembly up. You see a plastic ear tab right there. See this, that's going to get right in. Let's check our side over here, put this long tab in that slide hole for it. There we go. Now we get our mounting screws. So you have three of the short bolts, and one long. The long one goes into the side closest to the AC condenser. That's where the long bolt is located, and I want to re-avegate that you have four of the short ones, and one long one, because it's five total.

Now, I'm going to move to the side before I really tighten everything up. I like to get all my bolts in and started. The side one goes right in there. Now I can tighten them all down. Hand tight. The torque on these is actually 62 to 75 inch pounds. So if you have a torque wrench, and you'd like to torque them down, make sure it goes to inch pounds. And last one. It's a reverse procedure to do the passenger side headlight. So once you've done your passenger side, you're ready to assemble the bumper.

Let's install the front bumper. We start by picking it up and lining up the center. Try not to scratch the body. Just pick it up. You'll see the pins where it goes, then we can go to the side, and you want to put it on top of the lip there. Click that right in, push it in. Follow yourself around to the other side, and do the same thing. Now I'll put my body clip in on one side and then the other. So if you need to put a small screwdriver in there to help line up the other hole, this is what I would do just to push that body piece over. Maybe we're going to put the bolt in first. Do you see how it won't line up over there, it's not uncommon for once you've taken a body piece apart, for it not to line up 100% until you get it in there.

So I'm going to grab the mounting screw and see if I can't force it in. Now it seems like I have more of a chance of exposing this down there. There we go. I'm going to tighten this up, move to my other side, put this one in. This is where I'm going to raise up the vehicle and start putting my fender well back together. We're going to put the two screws that go up into the middle sheet metal into the body.

Now I'm going to put my sheet metal screw with the Philips head back into the end of the bumper flare here. I'm going to repeat the process on the other side before I put the plastic pins in. Before I snug it up, I just want to make sure that, that body is not sticking out or in too far. I like to try to get it to line up just right. Now I'm going to move to the other side. I'm just going to pay attention to that body trim again, the bumper where it meets the fender. Okay. Now I'm going to start installing my plastic clips on the inside fender flare on both sides.

Now I'm going to raise the vehicle all the way up. Before I attache the under the bumper splash shield, I'm reconnecting my connectors. This is the fog light connector to the fake fog les cover, and then both markers. I'm going to reattach both markers up on top. One there on the driver's side, and then one on the passenger side. So now I can attach ... Once I've attached my electrical connectors on the marker lenses, I put up the driver's side splash shield, and put my little screws in with my eight millimeter head socket. There's four on each side, passenger side and then driver's side. And then I have the two center bolts.

Now I'm going to do the same on the passenger side. Now we have two in the center. That's it, and we'll be done installing the front bumper. These are the 10 millimeter head bolts. They have a space around them, because they pick up the gap for the front thickness of the bumper. At one time this car had a splash shield on it, it seems to be missing, so that would also pick up the gap for the plastic that is supposed to go here. That it is it, we are done. Check your lights, make sure they operate properly before you head down the road.

This is a basic tutorial on how to aim the headlights on your vehicle. Find the access of your headlights, this is usually indicated with a small dot, or the headlight bulb size on the lens. If not, it's the actual center point of your headlight bulb. Transfer this mark to a vertical wall, with a preferably dark color that will allow you to back up 25 feet. Pull up and find the center line of your vehicle, as well as the center line of your headlight access. Mark the wall with the high of the headlights in a straight line going across at that access high. Back your vehicle up 25 feet from the wall to the front edge of your vehicles headlights. Turn your headlights on, and locate the adjusting screw, usually on the back side of your headlights.

You'll want to rotate this until the passenger hotspot, or focus of the beam is approximately two inches below the line, and the driver's side is four inches below the line. We change the height on each side, so you can still get a good beam to the offside of the road on the passenger side, and have the driver's side low enough to not blind oncoming traffic.

Thanks for watching.

Visit us at 1aauto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.