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1994 STS license plate light replacement


KenD

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Okay, so everyone in the archives has their way to do it. I pulled the plugs (darn little things) out and pulled the carpet away so that I could get into the upper part of the trunk. I stuck my large hand into the opening and almost got it stuck trying to turn the bulb casing out of the socket and away from the housing. There, no problem, now I go to try and get the bulb out and NO WAY is it coming out.

My question is.....how do these bulbs come out. If I yank any harder on it to pull it out, it's gonna break. I already put a hairling crack into it. The worse part is that my girlfriend is standing there saying "I told you so!" Like I needed that while my hand is all bloodied up.

Thanks.

1994 STS Pearl White 260,000 KM (163,000 miles)

<img src="http://img45.photobucket.com/albums/v137/caesar/caddycaesar.jpg" border="0" class="linked-sig-image" />

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Can't offer any help on the bulb stuff but.... the Woman stuff, ya now what they say...Can't live with em.. Can't live with em. (WC Feilds)

2001 STS Mettalic Otter Grey, Black Leather, 213,000 kilometers - miles - ? Still running strong!

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I had the same problem with my 97. It seems the bulb gets very hot due to the lack of air flow in there and it melts the socket material around the bulb. I had to work mine around quite a bit to get them out.

When you finally get it out and replace it I would suggest you coat the bulb with dielectric grease so you can get it out the next time you have to replace it.

Dennis

BTW you don't have to push and twist these bulbs. I believe it is a 194 so your suppose to be able to just pull it out, obviously not the case....

Dennis
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Dloch, you're correct, it is the 194 bulb that goes in there so it should be as simple as pulling it out since I believe the 194 bulb is alot like the ones you put into your cozy little garden lights. They have the wire contacts on the outside of the bulb.

I may have to break the bulb to just get it out. The problem is that there is next to no room, wait, let's make that NO room to manoeuver your hand in there. Not only that, we're in a deep arctic freeze today and it's like -40 degrees outside. If I do it in the garage it's not much warmer. :angry:

They're probably the original bulbs also so I may have to give them a squirt of WD40.

Wish me luck.

1994 STS Pearl White 260,000 KM (163,000 miles)

<img src="http://img45.photobucket.com/albums/v137/caesar/caddycaesar.jpg" border="0" class="linked-sig-image" />

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Yes they have the little wire contacts on the outside of the bulbs. Don't know about you but I had trouble getting the socket out of the light assembly as well.

I removed the complete assembly so I could get at the sockets, all my license plate bulbs were burnt out. I replaced every exterior light bulb on the car when I did it. The police like to use the license plate light out excuse to stop people from time to time......... :unsure: I also brought my car inside the shop to do it which is a lot better than outside, especially now. I think I had two of the tail lights, one rear side marker, a front side marker a fog light and like I mentioned the license plate lights.

It's a 97 so I figured rather than change just the burnt out bulbs I'd do all of them and get it over with, I also changed the low beam halogens while I was at it. I believe it was about $ 75.00 when it was all said and done. I replaced the low beams with a bulb that produced a brighter/whiter light, certainly helps the night driving.

Good luck,

Dennis

BTW, the girlfirends hands are much smaller than your's, she should be able to reach in there a lot easier than you. Considering it's so cold out offer to put the blow drier in the truck with her and just close the lid................ :wacko: Tell her you'll let her out when the bulbs been changed, after all it can't be that difficult........ right?

Dennis
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:lol: Hey, I thought about putting the girlfriend in the trunk!! ;)

What type (name brand) of low beams did you put in? I'd be interested in replacing mine.

1994 STS Pearl White 260,000 KM (163,000 miles)

<img src="http://img45.photobucket.com/albums/v137/caesar/caddycaesar.jpg" border="0" class="linked-sig-image" />

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A friend of mine ordered high-output PIAA lights for his car (I think they were 9007s in his case; it was an '87 Olds Cutlass) and he really liked them. If I recall correctly, they were about 80 bucks for the pair. The lights were really super white after that. I was impressed. I don't know their life expectancy. Dloch, is this what you have in your car? I guess we'll find out when you post your info from home. :)

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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I replaced mine with Sylvania Silverstar's 9006ST. The difference was quite noticeable. If/when you replace them keep in mind the left drivers side unscrews in the conventional manner, the right is the opposite. I couldn't figure that out at first so I ended up taking out the whole lamp assy to figure out why I couldn't unscrew a fricken light bulb :blink:. duh.................... After that little episode I needed to re-align the head light, no big deal just be aware.

Considering the area is tight you may want to have the girlfriend get her smaller hands in there to do this as there is not whole lot of room to work.... :rolleyes:

Ya never know it may happen.... this way she feels involved considering your ignoring her while this is happening.

Dennis

Dennis
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Hey, thanks for the info. A co-worker of mine has the 9005's (I believe these are the low and high beam) and he said he didn't notice a difference on his 93 Camry so he's going to put the old ones back in and let me try it out to see if I like it.

So, I spent an hour in the garage last night trying to get the plate lights out and yes, I had to get the girlfriend to help since she's the only one who can actually reach and pull the friggin things out. Believe it or not, it didn't go too bad with her, she only complained 100 times that it was too cold. Pretty good for her I must say. She pulled out the assembly and I broke the bulbs and scraped out the rest of the glass as they were completely fused to the bulb housing. That was a PITA. But it's done and hopefully I never have to do that again. Unbelievable that GM would think of designing it like that. There's got to be an easier way.

Thanks for the headlight info Dloch!

1994 STS Pearl White 260,000 KM (163,000 miles)

<img src="http://img45.photobucket.com/albums/v137/caesar/caddycaesar.jpg" border="0" class="linked-sig-image" />

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You may not notice a change with the Camry depending on how the lights are switched on and off. If it's going through the switch in the dash I would tend to think that would have a large voltage drop when it got to the headlight itself. Without looking at an electrial schematic for our cars, which I will certainly do when I get my hands on one, I would tend to believe ours are switched with a relay. Now what need's to be determined is where this relay is getting it's switching power from, directly from the battery would obviously be best but I don't know for sure. I do know that I have seen as much as a 2-1/2 volt drop when measuring the voltage at the headlights versus that of the battery. Now having said that a number of thing will impact that voltage drop number and by how much. Obviously the length iof the wires is one the other being the size. Most headlight wire that I have seen are in the 16-18 gauge area depending on the make....... And if designing a system based on cost obviously the smaller wire is certainly cheap to purchase and on paper it can handle the amperage to power the light. The draw back is all the connectors and the added length the power must go through before lighting the bulb. The other thing I have noticed is this, the two headlights are connected in parallel to the feed wire, simply put the feed wire connected to the first head light is doubled in the connector with the wires feed the second headlight.

Long story short try them in your car to see if you see any improvement....

BTW with regards to the girlfirend helping you work on the car, tell her your bonding with her.. they tend to like to hear that stuff. I tried that when I had mine help me get the rearend back into Impala after I changed everthing in it and attached to it. In fact she insisted that she help me get the trans back in after I went through that, but boy does she b*&%$ when she gets oil and grease in her hair and stuff..........

Dennis

Dennis
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