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how to change front marker bulb??

21K views 13 replies 7 participants last post by  mozo1 
#1 ·
Hi all

03 Murano AWD, normal halogen headlights.

one of what my in car booklet calls a "front side marker light" the bulb is out, the orange stripish thing part of the headlight assembly.

I must be really dense, as I searched the site and couldn't find instructions. How the heck do you access the bulb to change it out?

some time ago I had to change out both then broken front fog lights for new, if I have to go in through the inner wheel well arches again now to get at the back of the headlight assembly I might have a few nasty words for Nissan again......

help? Thanks in advance. There has to be a straightforward way to get at the bulb.

Paul
 
#3 ·
Wow, I just had to change the same bulb (on the passenger side) on my 04 SE. This is only the third bulb (exterior AND interior) that I've had to change in 80K miles and almost 6 years of ownership. The other two were both of the license plate bulbs.

I was dreading changing this side marker bulb because I knew the fender protector (or at least part of it) had to be removed, but it turned out to be a very easy job. I pulled the wheel for better access but once you know how much of the protector has to be loosened up to get at the bulbs, it's probably possible to do with the wheel on.

First, only the front fender protector has to be removed, and it doesn't have to be completely removed - only loosened up on the top portion which then pulls away from the car for access to the bulbs. I started by taking out the 3 phillips screws that hold the front mud flap on, but I ended up leaving the flap in place (so don't bother taking these 3 screws out). To pull away the top part of the front frender protector, you only have to remove 5 of the plastic clips (type C205, shown on pages EI-11 and EI-22 in my 04 FSM) and NO screws. Once the protector is pulled away from all of its edge supports, the burned out bulb will be right in front of you. Unscrew the bulb holder, pop in a new bulb (I think it was a 194), replace the protector and the 5 clips (one of mine broke so I replaced it with a spare type C206 that I had left over from the trunk of my Maxima), and you're done.

Even with jacking the car up, removing the wheel, driving to Auto Zone for the bulb, and messing around way too long with those chintzy plastic clips, the whole job too less than 1/2 hour. Once you have access to the bulb and a new one in your hand, it takes about a minute to actually change the bulb out. The hardest part is loosening and pulling away the top part of the front fender protector.

Good luck.
 
#4 ·
One other thing. In case it's not intuitively obvious to you how those type C205 plastic clips work (it wasn't to me so the instructions on page EI-11 of the FSM helped), use a flat bladed screwdriver to pry up the center section of the clip for removal. Once you get one of them out, you'll see how they work. These clips are only plastic and are rather old and brittle so they might (as one of mine did) break and be unable to be reused.
 
#5 · (Edited)
thanks very much, guys. My 2003, which I bought new, is just about to hit 100,000 miles with minimal problems, and the front marker light bulbs are original to the vehicle, never been changed.

I was afraid I was going to be up inside the wheel well again to get at bulbs, like I had to do for the fog lights.

I will be changing both front lower control arms with ball joints and bushings as well as the tie rod ends next weekend, the steering wheel is doing the hula, oscillating an inch either way at highway speeds, and has ruined the front tires. Will be tire shopping then as well.

l"ll wait to do the burnt out marker light bulb until I have both front wheels off to pull the inner fender wells again, then might as well do both bulbs and be good for another 100,000 miles. Very odd design just to get at the bulbs....

Paul
 
#6 ·
nitely

all thanks, I just followed your link, I had no idea that the Factory Service Manuals are available on line. Very very useful

Paul
 
#8 ·
Yes, you'll need to remove the top portion of the fender liner. There should only be 2 or 3 of the plastic pop rivets that you will have to remove. Just be careful not to break them because Nissan charges $2 a piece for them! The tire does not need to be removed. You can turn the wheel to the side though to give you more working room if you need it.

Whole process should take you a whopping 2-3 minutes to complete! Good luck!
 
#13 ·
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