Parking (marker) lamp replacement

Carl_G

Carl_G

Member
2003 4Runner: I've searched the forum with no success on the following.

The front driver side amber parking light has burned out. I have replaced a headlight before quite easily but this parking lamp is a pain. Very hard to reach and twist. Toyota will charge $280 to replace it as it involves removing the front "fascia" (not sure what that means)
but it sounds legit. (my service dept. has been very reasonable) At this point I'm not going to replace it due to cost. It's not really that noticeable.

Any ideas/tips?

Thanks
 
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The lower outer bulb next to the fog lights? On mine it's the blinker/daytime running light.

I've replaced that before no problem. Easy as changing any bulb on the vehicle. Does NOT require a fascia removal, which, even if it did, is not that big of a deal.

$280 to do this job is INSANE!

If I've got the wrong part, please correct me and maybe post a picture of what you're looking at, but if it's what I think it is, this is no sweat.
 
2 things

do it yourself, it's easy. i think it's in the manual, so.......RTFM

never ever go back to that dealership, they are trying to rip you off
 
Super easy to replace, you don't have to remove anything. Just crawl under the front of the truck and reach up under the bumper. It's slightly uncomfortable but you just twist the socket loose and pull the bulb out. Just a heads up, make sure the socket is in good shape. I kept blowing bulbs and found out my sockets were toast. Had to replace both of them but again, it was cheap and an easy fix. Definitely not worth $280!!!
 
stand in front of the bumper and use your right hand to take off the driver side bulb, left for passenger side bulb. use some force and wiggle a little. do it yourself, it cost no more than $10.

edit: you don't have to follow which hands for which bulbs.. that's just how i do it.
 
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Thx for the ideas everyone. I took some photos to clarify which bulb it is.

464715ac-5321-8deb.jpg
464715ac-5374-c9e7.jpg


And i read the factory manual which advises to remove the headlight. I tried this but cannot figure it out.
 
Oh THAT one. Yeah, totally different than the one we were thinking of.

I think you might actually have to remove your headlight assembly to get to that one. Again, it's not too difficult. I pulled mine when I blacked out the headlights. If you search the forum for "black out head light mod", you can find a write-up on how to do it. It's been a while, but from what I recall, the only tricky fasteners are the ones in your fender wells, behind the liners. It's only 3 or 4 bolts.

Good luck! Definitely don't pay the dealer $280 to change some little bulbs. That's ludicrous... Dealership once quoted me $100 to change the bulb in the center info display. $5 bulb that took 5 minutes to change (if that), but they claimed they needed to disassemble the entire center console and center stack assembly to get to it (1 hour worth of labor). It was actually only one bolt. Told them to kick rocks!
 
No need to pull the headlights to get to that, it's just a tight fit. You might have to pull your battery to get to it but that's it.
 
you might be able to get to that drivers side one by just taking the battery holder off and tilting the battery back to get your hand back there. If not, pop the battery out and you should be good to go.
 
JDSupreme said:
you might be able to get to that drivers side one by just taking the battery holder off and tilting the battery back to get your hand back there. If not, pop the battery out and you should be good to go.
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No I tried. You would not believe how difficult this is until you try.
 
I wouldn't even consider doing the driver's side without pulling the battery. You may want to play with the passenger's side first - to get a feel for the angle of the connector.
 
Just get your hand in there you'll be fine. Its quite simple. All this fuss is for nothing its not that hard......Heck just for fun I'll send u little led's to throw in there Yellow or blueish white... PM me if serious.
 
Whitebeauty said:
Just get your hand in there you'll be fine. Its quite simple. All this fuss is for nothing its not that hard......Heck just for fun I'll send u little led's to throw in there Yellow or blueish white... PM me if serious.
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I did get my hand in there, but it was not fine! Thx for the bulb offer though
 
i did it without taking off my battery. like i said above just twist and wiggle hard as f*(&. work on the passenger side first to get a feel of it since there's more room there.
 
REDMY said:
i did it without taking off my battery. like i said above just twist and wiggle hard as f*(&. work on the passenger side first to get a feel of it since there's more room there.
Click to expand...

Negative my friend, unless I can convince Chuck Norris to come over that bulb isn't budging.
 
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