Golf Mark IV headlight bulb change

[Georgiebt]

I understand that the headlight bulbs on a mark IV are not easy to change. Can anyone help with a guide?

[sumomus_01]

I need this guide too? Anyone? Just looked in my haynes manual and it shows you how to do it, looks a peice of cake, however, the jokers show you on a light unit that has been removed which i am trying to avoid. Help

[scruty77]

Depending on which bulb has blown if it is in the nearside headlight next to the battery, either remove the battery making sure you have the radio code, or remove the bumper & remove the headlight unit. The offside headlight bulbs are easier to get to but still need to remove parts to gain access.

Removing the bumper is not as big a job as it sounds, because you are only removing the painted cover, various screws around the inner wheel arch liners, grille, underneath the front spioler & i think there is a hidden bolt behind the towing eye cover.

Cheers Scruty.

PS. Use a good quality bulb to ensure correct beam pattern & reliability.

[rio1981]

Depending on which bulb has blown if it is in the nearside headlight next to the battery, either remove the battery making sure you have the radio code, or remove the bumper & remove the headlight unit. The offside headlight bulbs are easier to get to but still need to remove parts to gain access.

Removing the bumper is not as big a job as it sounds, because you are only removing the painted cover, various screws around the inner wheel arch liners, grille, underneath the front spioler & i think there is a hidden bolt behind the towing eye cover.

Cheers Scruty.

PS. Use a good quality bulb to ensure correct beam pattern & reliability.

Spot on couldnt have said it better, bumper is not as hard as it sounds just got to know where the screws and stuff are. I took mine off sometime ago im sure i read a guide written by someone on here or just google it.

[torvil]

Hi I have changed both sides since owning our car for 7 years and I have read the horror stories. Providing you don't have big sausage fingers you can change both sides without removing the bumper or lamps.
I have to remove the battery if I need to change the nearside bulbs, but can change both sides in 20 minutes.

[herby0001]

Yes, for nearside bulbs, the removal of the battery is a must. However, I found that plenty of patience and good lighting is required too!

[homerj9]

or be lazy like me and get halfords to fit them I think it cost about 3 pounds per bulb,and by the way the guy who changed mine grazed all his knuckles lol well worth the money.

[batteryman]

Managed to change both mine without dropping the bumper, removing the light or removing the battery. Offside is easier because of more space, nearside was an absolute pain but I've got quite small hands which I'm sure makes it just possible. As regards bulbs I always use Osram Silverstar - VW use these as standard original parts.

[tetskoma]

Hi

I've been looking around the forum to change the headlight bulb on Golf MK4 (gt tdi 2001), but I couldn't find anything easy. I managed to change it in 10 mins this morning. I would like to tell you how I did it.

I am sure everyone can take off the black cover from the back of headlight. On passenger side, you have to remove another cover (fixed by two screws) first as well as the battery cover (I didn't bother to remove battery as it really doesn't give extra room to work on headligt bulb).

Yesterday I spent 10-15 mins to unclip the wire(spring?) on the headlight bulb. Some say push down and slide it to one way to unclip it. I examined the driver's side and it looked like I had to do so. I tried to another 10 mins, but no luck. It wouldn't move at all. My finger really hurt

This morning, I reluctantly decided to remove the wire from the bottom end - of course easily came off although I was scared that I couldn't put it back or dropped into the engine bay.

I was careful enough to remeber how it was attached and I did it anyway!! Before I put a new bulb in, I put this spring wire back into the position. I put one of the legs first into the hole and held the other leg as close as possible to the other hole. Then I pushed it in by using a long screw driver - it was a little bit awkward but wasn't difficult at all.

After I made sure the wire was attached properly, I put a new bulb in (a nice one from Halfords). And I needed a couple of attempts to clip the wire. I am not sure if I did it properly as I felt only one side of wire went into the right position. However, the bulb and the spring wire are fixed very tight.

Although I spent 30 mins in vain yesterday, this morning I managed to change the headlight bulb (passenger side) in 10 mins!! I am glad I didn't have to remove the battery or the bumper!!

By the way, my hands are quite big although I have relativelly thin(?) fingers (I am 6ft2 tall, my hand are not small). Also, I am not a mechanic or technical at all.

I hope this will be helpful to you.