which monkey designed these spastik headlights, i think stanley should stick to making screwdrivers... i decided to go for a little cruse in the dark and well i couldnt see where i was going so i decided i need new globes, not to hard to change... i have some nice indicator globe i thought i'd put in... well 7.6 hours later and with half the car apart, i gave up and put it back together, i was going to take out the little amber thing as i have chrome/amber indicator bulbs from my last car... i think monkeys designed the magna, ever other car i've had it's taken 2 sec to do that kind of thing..... atleast i know no one will steal my headlights in a hurry

Whoever designed the whole engine bay (3rd gen) is an idiot, but compared to the designer from Mazda who thought of putting a transverse layout V6 into a 626, then relatively the Magna designer doesn't look as bad. At least the Mazda designers got it right for headlight bulb replacements!


Normally I'd say "good on ya" for using lockable plugs so the plugs don't detach by itself, but in the case of the Magna, ARGH! There just isn't enough room to unlock the plug (by pressing down on a nibble on the plug) to remove the bulb.

In fact this is the first vehicle i've encountered where the headlight connectors are lockable, so the first time I successfully to remove it, I broke the connector off the bulb.

yeah i'd say that replacing the indicator bulb is the main advantage of having 2 piece parabolics. when i installed mine, i forgot to check if the indicator bulbs were in... eeeeeeer nope! damn that was a hard job, and i have large hands :( should get some little kid from down the street to do it

I don't know why you Magna owners are complaining. You ever try and remove the front bumper on a Verada?:rant: I thought about fitting my driving lights in the lower skirt until I saw the amount of stuffing around it would take. Oh and it took me an hour to change the lowbeam headlight globes to Phillips Visionplus ones. I've done a NewBeetle faster then that!

I don't know why you Magna owners are complaining. You ever try and remove the front bumper on a Verada?:rant: I thought about fitting my driving lights in the lower skirt until I saw the amount of stuffing around it would take. Oh and it took me an hour to change the lowbeam headlight globes to Phillips Visionplus ones. I've done a NewBeetle faster then that!


Yep, but it was a 2nd gen Verada, and that was pretty straightforward!

I've been able to change the low beam globes within 5 minutes on every other car i've attended to with exception to my 3rd gen :rant:

Yeah once a guy at autobarn wanted to show me how 'easy' it was to change one of my blown parkers on a magna. 2 hours later the guy had taken off half my air intake and grille... and needed to ask for another employees assistance to put my car back together.

... Oh and it took me an hour to change the lowbeam headlight globes to Phillips Visionplus ones.
Took me only 10 mins. :cool: Same day we figured it all out beforehand on Hellas (15 mins).

If you can't unclip the wiring harness before removing the bulb, I've been finding it a bit
better to unclip the bulb and take it out with the boot & wire still on it... then its much
easier to press the harness plug hard enough to unlock it.


Don't whinge too much about 3rd gen headlights access.
Our Evo7/8/9 cousins have to TAKE THEIR WHOLE FRONT BUMPER OFF to access the lights. :shock:

WTF? when i got my phillips vision headlights the guy at autobarn took like 10mins to put them in :bowrofl:

im pretty sure on the TL/TW magna you nees to take the wheel off then remove all the cladding to get to the headlights to replace a bulb.


i always thought that you should be able to replace a bulb in 2 mins... driving down the highway at night and you blow one, you think that you could just pull into a service station, 5 mins in and out.... not in one of these things... lol

im pretty sure on the TL/TW magna you nees to take the wheel off then remove all the cladding to get to the headlights to replace a bulb.

same case with mazda 6's.. its a bloody stupid setup. Because they are projector headlights, the globe sits a fair way back from the lense.. which puts it nearly all the way back above the friggen front wheels..

I had to pull half the front off my mrs' VL Commodore just to replace the globes

Was planing on doing the TR, But after this i don;'t think i want to!