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Hi, I'm Mike Green. I'm one of the owners of 1A Auto. I want to help you save time and money repairing or maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20-plus years experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly: that's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.
In this video we're going to show you how to replace the parking light on this Chevy Venture. As you can see, as these switch from the before and after, a new set of lights on these vans really helps a lot in terms of both the look and obviously your ability to see. These parking lights should not require any tools, but if your truck is in the rust belt like ours is, you'll probably need some pliers and penetrating oil. Maybe even a screwdriver.
To remove the parking light here, it should be an easy job. GM tried to design it so it would be easy. There's actually a thumbscrew right here, and you can see actually one of the ears is broken off because on this vehicle it was pretty rusted. I can't even -- actually, I got it started now. You would take off this thumbscrew. If you can't get this thumbscrew off, you can use a pair of pliers and try and get it started that way. The first time I took this apart, I actually couldn't get this thumbscrew out.
First I'll show you the way it should happen, which is you remove this thumbscrew. Then you pull out on the light like that. There's actually a clip down here. You can see right here the clip actually stayed with the headlight bracket. Just use a flat blade screwdriver and push that clip out.
Now, if you're looking just to change the bulbs, they twist out. For this one, press down on all the tabs, twists out, and the bulb just pulls from the socket. Then this one twists out like that, as well. That bulb pulls out back in, as well.
Now, if your light got broken in an accident, or you just want to freshen up your van a little bit, you can see the light from 1A Auto is going to be a whole lot more clear. It's going to mount in just like the original. You can see there's the clip on and everything. Actually what I'm going to do is I'm going to reinstall this original one, just because I'm going to show you what to do if you can't get it apart the right way. I'll show you what I mean by that. Then after I do that, I'll show you installing the new one. You put that on, twist, put that on, twist. Then you have tabs back here. As you're putting the light in, you can look back and see those tabs go in to the right spot. I'm looking right through that crack. Then you can see down in. You can see that clip, and make sure that goes in the right spot. Just put it back on. Now I'm just going to put this in. Obviously, you put this in and tighten it up.
Now, if you run into where you can't get this apart, and when I first took this truck apart, I actually could not get this out. What you're going to want to do is basically take out the whole headlight assembly. You undo these two. Again, the first time I did this I actually used a big pair of pliers on these, because these are a lot easier to get to then this one that's way down in here. You see, take these out. These are actually not coming off correctly. These wing nuts should just come off, but it's actually . they're kind of rusted together, so they're pulling the stud up and out of the car. Once you get that out, then you basically have to lift up on the headlight, and out, and just pull the whole assembly right out. Then again, twist the bulbs in the parking light and then just pull your headlight free. Now you have the whole assembly. What you can do is you can use a pair of pliers and help. Use a lot of penetrating oil, and usually a pair of pliers will help you get this apart. Now I'm actually going to install a new headlight to compliment my new parking light. Just put that right in. I'm just going to use a couple of coarse thread screws in place of the original fasteners. I'm not going to tighten them all the way yet. Now with my nice new light, again, it's the same thing. Put the light in. You can see the tabs back there. Make sure our clip goes in the right spot there. Put our thumbscrew back in here.
Like I said, GM tried to make this so you could do this without tools, but up here in the Northeast things rust. That's basically what happens, so you need to use pliers, and screwdrivers, and stuff like that. Then when you put this together, just keep the light pushed in here a little bit. Tighten that up, and you're all set with a new light and a new headlight to complement it.
We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.