If your just changing bulbs you can just go through wheel well (turning wheel for each side) then reach right in to repla bulbs. Or go up under bumper and you can reach bulbs. This procedure he shows is only for removing whole housing. NOT for just replacing bulbs.
My first car was a 1968 Chevelle. 307 small block V8. I had almost no mechanic skills. I was able to change the oil, replace a starter, replace an alternator, replace bulbs, replace the radio (with an 8 track player!!) and do a quickie tune-up using common tools. I have a 2006 Lucerne, Pepboys will charge me $240 to change the bulb. This process is insane.
My 2007 Lucerne is the best car I have ever owned in my 37 years of driving. But this is the ONLY THING ABOUT THIS CAR THAT I ABSOLUTELY FUCKING HATE!!!
This is absolutely beautiful, I’m a mechanic and that process is stupidity at it best. Lots of times you have regular joes just find way easier ways to simplify the process of reducing the amount of work and then posting it here to help another save some time and money
This is a great introduction on how the headlights are installed and removed. But there's only one thing that would be a problem that wasn't addressed, before you install your bumper back on turn on your headlights to make sure they work, because if you do all this work, and you replace the headlights or the bulbs and you put the bumper back on and everything and they don't work then you have to do all that work all over again. So make sure your bulbs or your new headlights work before you put your bumper back on and your grill very very important. Just because you went out and bought new parts doesn't mean that they're going to work
A sincere thanks to you, CarCareKiosk, for your EXTREMELY helpful video. I just spent 4 hrs. replacing the headlight assembly on my '06 Lucerne which I could not have done without your very thorough video. And screw you, Buick engineers, for this completely asinine design! CarCareKiosk made the breakdown and reassembly look so easy--believe me, IT IS NOT.
Excellent video sir and thank you for posting it. Just got a replacement lens assembly in today for this car....it's my wife's..... and thought I'd look it up before I tackled it. Wow. I've worked on cars for 50 years and never saw a more ridiculous fucking way to have to change the bulb. I agree with the other posters that the engineers need to be put up to a wall and shot.
Thank you for the good video. If I knew what had to be done to replace a head light or any of the lights in the front of the car I would not bought the car and I would not recommend it to anyone.
@@shawnmcculley2995 not true. My girlfriend's old Pontiac G6 2006 was so easy to work with when changing the light bulb. This vehicle on the other hand (her current one) is absolutely ridiculous.
It’s absurd what you have to do just to replace low and high beams! The 2011 impala is same year as my Buick and it is so easy to replace a damn lightbulb!
Not looking forward to all that!! Wow. Good video instructions! Thanks. (Just a thought, immediately after plugging in the new headlamp would be the right time to hit the headlamp switch and make sure the headlamp works (high and low) before starting to put anything else back together. Probably a no-brainer, but can't hurt to mention it, I suppose.) Thanks again.
Great video. Just changed two headlight buckets. It would have been much harder to find all the hidden hardware without your fine video. Many thanks Gentleman.
If you dont want to go through all that. And you need to change the high beams or low beams just remove the screws, pull and hold back the plastic near the tire, reach to the front disconnect the cable , rotate the Bulb and pull it out.
I replaced my lows with leds... So much better, I love that white and brighter light. Now I'm wondering if I can replace the high beams without removing the whole front bumper.
Yes you can but it helps to have a lift. If you don’t have a lift, then use good ramps but be sure to chock the rear tires man. You can reach through to change bulbs all day long without taking the bumper off of this car. I have large hands and I still can make it. Might have to pull some of the clips but it can definitely be done.
A neighbour of mine as a '06 model and he just reached his hand in the opening to replace the headlight bulb, so it can be done without removing the front. Just a tight fit.
@@crlaw75 And you need a pretty good grip to do the half-turn to pull the bulb socket out. But it is doable...frankly I've had a Lucerne for 8 years, only changed 1 bulb ever. If anyone is doing it any more frequently than about every 5 years, time to buy better bulbs.
I have a 2008 Buick Lucerne I love it to death but everything is a problem when you work on this damn car. Even changing the back spark plugs the last three back spark plugs are a pain in the ass. But like I said everything is a pain in the ass to work on this car
I just removed the rivets on the inner fender wall for the driver side and got my hand up in there and switch the bulb you have to lay on the ground. This is just for the driver side I don’t know about the passenger side
I also have a 2002 Lesabre. I bought this 2011 Lucerne and assumed the headlight assembly was the same. Boy was I wrong. On the Lesabre, there are two bolts on the top that you access under the hood. Easy as could be to remove and then you pull the assembly straight forward. Takes about 10 minutes in and out to change the assembly or bulbs. This Lucerne is a nightmare and ridiculously complicated in comparison.
Once you remove the wheel liner you can reach up from underneath and remove the headlight bulb. There is no need to remove the front bumper cover. Just look on RUclips and there are video's showing how to do it. I know because I had to do it.
Jim - you're absolutely right, to just change the headlight you can reach behind the housing through the wheel well - here is our video showing how to do this: www.carcarekiosk.com/video/2007_Buick_Lucerne_CX_3.8L_V6/lights/headlight. The purpose of this RUclips is to show users how to change the headlight housing (if users want to replace the whole housing)
awesome video, however, when buying replacements, the brackets at the bottom of the headlamp need to be switched. These brackets hold the bumper cover. The brackets are attached by two torx screws per lamp. If you look in the 4:07 time area you should see what I'm talking about.
At 2:50 you mention a tab. The one I did had 2 bolts. You have to remove the rear bolt and loosen the nut on the front bolt about 3 turns and tap the bolt straight up to unlock the tab. (The bolt has a serrated shank and pinches the 2 pieces of metal together and they wont slide forward until you tap the bolt upwards) Next advise, go to GM and buy a few replacement plastic retainers that you pry out, you're going to wreck some, or there might be some missing. Take note that different holes have different size plastic retainers. more advise. Replace all the bulbs even the small side marker and signal bulb. This took 2 hours and I have a lift. Yesterday I changed all 4 headlight bulbs in an 08 Impala in 15 minutes.
It's lot easier to just jack the car up and remove the panel skirts and reach up and untwist the bulb and replace it that way. Saved me $300.00 for someone else to do it or. Work smarter not harder I was taught.
I legit hate American vehicles now. How in the living fuck is changing the bulb on my ‘12 Audi can be done in literally 3-4 minutes whereas you damn near need a body shop to replace it on a Buick??
The best way to change the driver's side headlight and the fastest is removing the air cleaner above the driver's side tire in 10-15 minutes you can replace the head lamp
Whoever designed this ate copious amounts of lead paint as a child. Why the hell do you need to remove the wheel well cover and the bumper to take off a headlight housing? So damn stupid. Theres no reason to hide bolts in a completely inaccessible area for such an “easy” task. Mind boggling. This is definitely just so the dealers can make more money from people who dont want to go through the hassle. I just ended up fingering out the turn signal bulb after struggling for an hour.
Poorly designed car! There is absolutely no reason why changing a headlight should be so absurd! Auto industry does this intentionally sadly to detour customers from repairing it themselves and increase a revenue stream for dealerships and long term hopes of purchasing a new car.
My old 2003 Cadillac CTS was exactly the same. Had to go through this exact same process which was a nightmare to do in the middle of a cold, Canadian winter. Decided to replace all of the bulbs at the same time since I had everything removed. I thought that this nightmare was over when I bought my 2007 Buick Lucerene. Haha... Nope!! lol
If your just changing bulbs you can just go through wheel well (turning wheel for each side) then reach right in to repla bulbs. Or go up under bumper and you can reach bulbs. This procedure he shows is only for removing whole housing. NOT for just replacing bulbs.
Obviously...
you've done them this way?
Yes, works well but tight fit for hand
@@alm7707 I can second this. It's a pain in the ass if your hand is big, but it's way better than this
@@booqrdoit9138 It's incredibly difficult to do through the wheel well.
My first car was a 1968 Chevelle. 307 small block V8. I had almost no mechanic skills. I was able to change the oil, replace a starter, replace an alternator, replace bulbs, replace the radio (with an 8 track player!!) and do a quickie tune-up using common tools. I have a 2006 Lucerne, Pepboys will charge me $240 to change the bulb. This process is insane.
I can't believe the amount of work involved here.. just to change a bulb! 🙄
I was literally just thinking the same thing as I was prying out plastic body ties.... some fn bolts would be to extravagant apparently 😳
My 2007 Lucerne is the best car I have ever owned in my 37 years of driving. But this is the ONLY THING ABOUT THIS CAR THAT I ABSOLUTELY FUCKING HATE!!!
This is absolutely beautiful, I’m a mechanic and that process is stupidity at it best. Lots of times you have regular joes just find way easier ways to simplify the process of reducing the amount of work and then posting it here to help another save some time and money
So... what’s wrong with saving time and money?
The amount of effort I have to put in just to change a damn headlight is insane.
Dumbass GM design
4 sure. Complete idiacy! Wonder what the engineers got paid? 5 yrs covered.
This is a great introduction on how the headlights are installed and removed. But there's only one thing that would be a problem that wasn't addressed, before you install your bumper back on turn on your headlights to make sure they work, because if you do all this work, and you replace the headlights or the bulbs and you put the bumper back on and everything and they don't work then you have to do all that work all over again. So make sure your bulbs or your new headlights work before you put your bumper back on and your grill very very important. Just because you went out and bought new parts doesn't mean that they're going to work
underrated advice
A sincere thanks to you, CarCareKiosk, for your EXTREMELY helpful video. I just spent 4 hrs. replacing the headlight assembly on my '06 Lucerne which I could not have done without your very thorough video. And screw you, Buick engineers, for this completely asinine design! CarCareKiosk made the breakdown and reassembly look so easy--believe me, IT IS NOT.
I need whole assy
Excellent video sir and thank you for posting it. Just got a replacement lens assembly in today for this car....it's my wife's..... and thought I'd look it up before I tackled it. Wow. I've worked on cars for 50 years and never saw a more ridiculous fucking way to have to change the bulb. I agree with the other posters that the engineers need to be put up to a wall and shot.
Thank you for the good video. If I knew what had to be done to replace a head light or any of the lights in the front of the car I would not bought the car and I would not recommend it to anyone.
No matter what car you buy you're gonna get screwed somehow. You can run but you can't hide!!
@@shawnmcculley2995 not true. My girlfriend's old Pontiac G6 2006 was so easy to work with when changing the light bulb. This vehicle on the other hand (her current one) is absolutely ridiculous.
Definitely will not be buying a GM car next time to give them the finger
Great job, thanks alot. Was able to remove headlight housings and modify 9012 bulbs to fit perfectly in the 9006 slots. So much better visibility now.
My car has xenon lights no information on it for replacement
@Duaine Larson lucerne? And are they the xenon fueled Sylvanias? I had those, the Sylvania LEDs are 5x brighter and 2x whiter imo.
It’s absurd what you have to do just to replace low and high beams! The 2011 impala is same year as my Buick and it is so easy to replace a damn lightbulb!
Let’s get a round of applause for Buick
(slow clap)
And repeat after me, hip, hip What?
Fucking idiots
More like Toyota
🙄 meh
Not looking forward to all that!! Wow. Good video instructions! Thanks. (Just a thought, immediately after plugging in the new headlamp would be the right time to hit the headlamp switch and make sure the headlamp works (high and low) before starting to put anything else back together. Probably a no-brainer, but can't hurt to mention it, I suppose.) Thanks again.
I’m sure he did that...
Great video. Just changed two headlight buckets. It would have been much harder to find all the hidden hardware without your fine video. Many thanks Gentleman.
This is exactly what I need to do to my Buick thanks 😀i was going to pay to have the work done now ill make this a Weekend project
If you dont want to go through all that. And you need to change the high beams or low beams just remove the screws, pull and hold back the plastic near the tire, reach to the front disconnect the cable , rotate the Bulb and pull it out.
Thank you for the instructions on removing the 4th bolt
The video is excellent. It show 3 different processes. Chose which one you need to know like in my case, I needed to know how to remove the bumper.
I didn’t repair my girls Buick yet but you explained this great and I’m not a hands on car guy at all but I know I can do this 👍
I replaced my lows with leds... So much better, I love that white and brighter light.
Now I'm wondering if I can replace the high beams without removing the whole front bumper.
Yes you can but it helps to have a lift. If you don’t have a lift, then use good ramps but be sure to chock the rear tires man. You can reach through to change bulbs all day long without taking the bumper off of this car. I have large hands and I still can make it. Might have to pull some of the clips but it can definitely be done.
Thanks for this. Sucks that it's such a pain to change the bulbs on this damn car
A neighbour of mine as a '06 model and he just reached his hand in the opening to replace the headlight bulb, so it can be done without removing the front.
Just a tight fit.
@@crlaw75 And you need a pretty good grip to do the half-turn to pull the bulb socket out. But it is doable...frankly I've had a Lucerne for 8 years, only changed 1 bulb ever. If anyone is doing it any more frequently than about every 5 years, time to buy better bulbs.
I have a 2008 Buick Lucerne I love it to death but everything is a problem when you work on this damn car. Even changing the back spark plugs the last three back spark plugs are a pain in the ass. But like I said everything is a pain in the ass to work on this car
Thank you guys so much 🙏
I just removed the rivets on the inner fender wall for the driver side and got my hand up in there and switch the bulb you have to lay on the ground. This is just for the driver side I don’t know about the passenger side
Passenger side as well, not as much room though. I was never dropping the bumper to replace a fucking bulb so I made it work lol
I also have a 2002 Lesabre. I bought this 2011 Lucerne and assumed the headlight assembly was the same. Boy was I wrong. On the Lesabre, there are two bolts on the top that you access under the hood. Easy as could be to remove and then you pull the assembly straight forward. Takes about 10 minutes in and out to change the assembly or bulbs. This Lucerne is a nightmare and ridiculously complicated in comparison.
Making a bulb this fucking tedious to replace should be illegal
i guess buick thought the car would be dead by the time the bulbs burned out
Headlights have no business being this complicated 😂
Once you remove the wheel liner you can reach up from underneath and remove the headlight bulb. There is no need to remove the front bumper cover. Just look on RUclips and there are video's showing how to do it. I know because I had to do it.
Jim - you're absolutely right, to just change the headlight you can reach behind the housing through the wheel well - here is our video showing how to do this: www.carcarekiosk.com/video/2007_Buick_Lucerne_CX_3.8L_V6/lights/headlight. The purpose of this RUclips is to show users how to change the headlight housing (if users want to replace the whole housing)
@@CarCareKiosk did you miss the word video?
awesome video, however, when buying replacements, the brackets at the bottom of the headlamp need to be switched. These brackets hold the bumper cover. The brackets are attached by two torx screws per lamp. If you look in the 4:07 time area you should see what I'm talking about.
At 2:50 you mention a tab. The one I did had 2 bolts. You have to remove the rear bolt and loosen the nut on the front bolt about 3 turns and tap the bolt straight up to unlock the tab. (The bolt has a serrated shank and pinches the 2 pieces of metal together and they wont slide forward until you tap the bolt upwards) Next advise, go to GM and buy a few replacement plastic retainers that you pry out, you're going to wreck some, or there might be some missing. Take note that different holes have different size plastic retainers. more advise. Replace all the bulbs even the small side marker and signal bulb. This took 2 hours and I have a lift. Yesterday I changed all 4 headlight bulbs in an 08 Impala in 15 minutes.
It's lot easier to just jack the car up and remove the panel skirts and reach up and untwist the bulb and replace it that way.
Saved me $300.00 for someone else to do it or.
Work smarter not harder I was taught.
So I can reach it where
You can reach it from bottom. But won't be able to use a led bulb with fan due to frame unless removing housing
U guys are the best I appreciate it 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾🙏🏾 true heroes cause might need to change mine quick and will be going under then lol
I legit hate American vehicles now. How in the living fuck is changing the bulb on my ‘12 Audi can be done in literally 3-4 minutes whereas you damn near need a body shop to replace it on a Buick??
To change a light bulb i have to go through this, GM Really damn manufacturers
If I might make a suggestion, buy a Toyota or Lexus next time! This is why GM will always be on their ass!
Great video. Thanks
The best way to change the driver's side headlight and the fastest is removing the air cleaner above the driver's side tire in 10-15 minutes you can replace the head lamp
Do u have to remove the wheel well lining and those bolts just to replace the bumper? Or is tht just to get to the bulb assembly
Excellent video!
If you're trying to replace the bulb and got some long arms I just got into the wheel well and could reach it from there.
Wow
STOOPID design. Way more work than it should be.
try replacing a heater core.
Is this really the only Fing way to change the light? Might as well buy a new car.
Could you remove the grill without removing the bumper?
I could on mine. Then again the bottom. Was attached with a tiny metal wire so prying the rivets up was all I had to do
My god I gotta do all this to change a bulb?!?
No it's another way and easy way to do this without taking the bumper off just go up under
Damn GM engineers.
Good thing I was in a minor accident and bumper cover, grill have been removed by other car 🤪
What a shit show to replace bulbs lol.
Anyone know what size i need for 4th bolt 10mm isnt working
I agree.
You should wear gloves, just not the Disposable kind 🙄
All this for a GD headlight change? Tear half the car apart....? Gotta love good engineering on these American cars WTF?
I need a bulb in my 2009 rt now and wtf!
I actually just did it with no tools in 1min just lay on your back in front of the front wheel
anybody know what tool is needed to aim headlight ?
A long skinny flat head screwdriver. Clockwise up... counterclockwise down.
Thank you, What were they thinking when they came up with this design? So Stupid? 🤪
Ill just buy a new car
def needs to be forced forward hard to remove. thanks
I cannot undo the bolts by the fender lining for the life of me
We found an easier way!
Whats thats lol trash whole car cause I need to do mine soon
Explain then.
Who's idea was it to design it this way...smh
You don’t have to pull the whole damn bumper off to replace the assembly.
Really? How then? I saw no other way. The bumper fits into the front of the lens assembly.
Ok
What demented individual ever designed this ridiculousness?
Yooo I’m not doing all his sh**😂
Whoever designed this ate copious amounts of lead paint as a child. Why the hell do you need to remove the wheel well cover and the bumper to take off a headlight housing? So damn stupid. Theres no reason to hide bolts in a completely inaccessible area for such an “easy” task. Mind boggling. This is definitely just so the dealers can make more money from people who dont want to go through the hassle. I just ended up fingering out the turn signal bulb after struggling for an hour.
It's tough, agreed!
All this BS just to change headlamps.
Why keep repeating the same directions
That is so stupid
Poorly designed car! There is absolutely no reason why changing a headlight should be so absurd! Auto industry does this intentionally sadly to detour customers from repairing it themselves and increase a revenue stream for dealerships and long term hopes of purchasing a new car.
My old 2003 Cadillac CTS was exactly the same. Had to go through this exact same process which was a nightmare to do in the middle of a cold, Canadian winter. Decided to replace all of the bulbs at the same time since I had everything removed. I thought that this nightmare was over when I bought my 2007 Buick Lucerene. Haha... Nope!! lol
Agreed, except people like me wont buy another Buick if this is the best their engineers can do.
You do not need to do this for thelacrosse trust me
What do you do?
E
I hate this car Soooo much
Only 100k miles.... and I bought it with 80 3 years ago
😠
I honestly was just hoping I was doing it the hard way.... er.... nope 😅