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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 and maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20+ 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 change the headlight mounting brackets on this '97 Dodge Intrepid, same as any '93 to '97. Tools you'll need are Phillips screwdrivers, both regular length and short; 3/8 inch and 10 mm sockets with a ratchet and extension; a T15 torque driver; and a flat level surface to aim the headlights.
There's actually a bolt right up in here that you want to get to. You want to remove a series of screws, one, two, three, one way back in there. You want to remove a series of screws, one, two, three, four and then one underneath here, five. I'm going to fast forward through taking those screws off. You need to turn your wheels. I do have the car up on a lift, not necessary, it just makes it a lot easier to video. Like I said, fast forward through taking those screws off. There is a sixth one. It's up higher. You'll probably see me take it out. I didn't show that one to you in the first clip, but you do want to remove six screws. Pull it down, out, like that.
Now you'll see me use a 3/8 socket to remove the bolt up in that corner. I'm not sure if they're supposed to be 3/8 inch or 10 mm, but 3/8 inch seemed to work for me. Remove that one and also do the same thing on the other side of the vehicle. Now there's five 3/8 bolts to remove. I'm going to use some air power. There's not going to be in there with that much torque. We'll speed up through doing that. The biggest problem I had here actually was the bolts would get stuck into the socket, so I just use a screwdriver to poke them out. We'll finish those up. Once the bolts are off each side, you can go ahead and pull and on this side. If you have fog lights, disconnect the fog lights from each side and your cover is now off. You don't have to, but generally, and most likely, if you're replacing this bracket, your headlight or your parking light is all busted up anyways, but to remove the parking light, there's a little tab right there. You push that sideways and pull out lightly on your parking light and pull it out. Twist the bulb. Again, if you're replacing that bracket, you're probably replacing the headlight too, but mine is actually in good shape, so I'm going to take it off. T15 screws, one here.
I'm going to speed this up and take out the, there's three screws, two long ones on the side and one shorter one in the middle that you just need to loosen up. Take the headlight out and unplug it. You can pretty easily see the bracket held in by four 10 mm bolts, one, two, one that comes up from the bottom here, three and then four right here. A little more fast forward as I remove those four bolts and remove the bracket. Old bracket, new bracket from 1A Auto. The only thing I do recommend is the bolts are a different thread. I actually just remove the clip off the new one and put the old clip on. Make sure your harness is up through there. Speed up as I tighten those up firm, not over tight. Notice that I did thread all the bolts in first. Reinstall the headlight.
Fast forward. You are going to notice that I turned those screws a little longer than when you take them out, a little bit tighter fit and a little bit better tolerances on the new one. Then I'm going to use a Phillips screwdriver and there are two screws, the one towards the inside of the car controls the left and right aim of the headlight. The one on the outside of the car controls the up and down. You want to adjust them. You can actually look at your old bracket to get a preliminary idea of where they should be. When you adjust them, you have the green leveling bar right there in the middle. Make sure that's right in the middle when your vehicle is on a level surface. Then reinstall the parking light.
A quick word on headlight aiming. Basically, you want to have the vehicle on a level surface and ideally you want to have a wall 20 feet away. According to Massachusetts law, both the headlights should be aiming straight ahead. There shouldn't be any left to right. They should be aiming straight ahead. The low beam headlights should aim one inch below the level of the headlight bulb. The high beam headlights should be concentrated at the same level as the headlight bulb.
You can see on each side it goes into a couple clips that are up underneath here. Connect our fog lights. Then put it up into place roughly paying attention on one side. You want to get these up to where the; get these up to go into the clips. Push it back in. Same thing on this side. This is a little awl. It's always good to have one of these. Put it in the hole, line it up. If you line up one, you can go and find the other ones. I'll use the awl. You poke it through a hole and then find the hole in behind it. Line up the fender, hold the fender in place and then put the screw in. Remove the awl and put the screw in. Do that for all six screws. Get them nice and snug. They don't have to be extremely tight. You want them firm. We'll speed through here again. Put in those 3/8 bolts and tighten them up nice and firm. Again, I have the car up on a lift, not necessary. It just makes it easier to video.
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