This 2007 Pontiac G6 came in with the complaint that the passenger side low beam headlight had stopped working. The vehicle’s owner stated the the light would come back on sometimes if she hit a bump in the road. That condition would indicate a poor connection and more than likely it would be at the bulb itself.
To remove the headlight assembly the fasteners that hold the top center of the front bumper cover in place have to be removed. The center portion has to be lifted up. This can be done with a small screwdriver. Two makes it easier.
Once the center pin is lifted far enough as shown below.
The whole pin can be pulled from the body panel.
Now the two screws that hold the light assembly in place can be removed. The screws have 7 mm heads.
The light assembly has to be lifted enough to clear the bumper cover and at the same time the outer corner has to be pulled away from the fender.
It takes some maneuvering around to free the assembly.
Once free of the vehicle the assembly has to be flipped over to gain access to the harness connector. First the thumb latch has to be lifted slightly.
Then the connector bodies can be separated as shown below.
Now that the assembly is on the bench the cover over the low beam headlight bulb can be removed.
It turns to the left and can be a little stubborn.
Once the cover is removed the bulb and socket can also be rotated to the left to free the bulb from the housing. As suspected the bulb and harness connector have heat damage and both need to be replaced.
If you need one of these harness connectors please click here.
When splicing in the new harness connector this trick works well. There are two black wires that originally were crimped into one of the terminals in the socket. The new socket comes pre wired and only has one wire on each side. Join the original two wires together with a splicing terminal. Strip enough insulation from the wire from the new connector so that the bare wire can be folded in half. That will double the size of the wire on the new connector so that it will properly mate with the splice terminal that was used to join the two black wires together. Of course the heat shrink tubing needs to be installed on to the wiring before joining all three wires together.
The new bulb and harness connector installed into the light assembly.
Another one done.
Hi Rick,
Glad to hear you got it fixed. A disposable lighter works well for the heat shrink tubing.
Thanks Sparky, the clip came apart easily so I was able to bring the assembly inside. I don’t have a soldering iron or the heat gun for melting the tube connector together so I did use wire nuts which seem pretty solid. I do agree that the way you did it is superior and would be the way to go.
Hi Rick,
Wire nuts are made for splicing wires in a stationary environment. Not a mobile environment. They also tend to work better on solid core wire and not multi-strand. You could do the work on the bumper but then you have to worry about damaging the paint. Other than in extreme cold conditions, I do not see any hazard of breaking the plastic pieces as long as you exercise reasonable care.
Great post! Why not just use two wire nuts? Also couldn’t you just disconnect the battery if you want to splice the wires with the assembly still sitting on the bumper and not removed? I’m afraid of breaking one of those plastic connectors but I’ll give a try as I like the idea of wiring it from my workbench.