Hi, I am brand new to the Forum, but have a question regarding the headlight retaining clip on my daughter's Mazda 3. Someone who thought they were going to help my daughter fix the passenger side headlight, did not properly mount the retaining clip and it is now missing. Does anyone know where I can acquire just the clip and how hard it may be to replace the clip....or would it be easier to replace the entire headlight assembly??Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

unless you have extremely thin, long, rubber fingers your not gonna get that clip back on properly. As far as i know, just short of asking the dealer for one, you cant get it separate. The whole headlight assey needs to come out which involves taking front bumper off and a few bolts. It may seem like alot of work and then afterwards you have get a light alignment check.

 

How did they manage to un-mount the clip while changing the headlight? The thing is attached with a freaking screw! Beyond that where did it drop to? Inside the headlight? In the engine bay? Did it not land on the plastic undertray under the engine? It's not like there's a black hole to catch random dropped parts.

As to replacing it I'm not sure if a dealer would sell that part by itself. You might try e-mailing jason at onlinemazaparts (mazdapart@gmail.com) and see if he could pull a number for you. Beyond that you might want to go visit a scrap yard for either the clip or another headlight to pull one off of.

 

The first time I did my bulbs I drop the retaining clip, thats the easy part, its putting it back thats the PITA.

The screws are somewhat easily removed with a right angles ratcheting screwdriver.

 

Thanks for all of your input. The Bulb retaining clip was lost while I was out of town and my wife and daughter went to an auto parts store that all of us probably frequent for the easy stuff. My girls are not mechanically inclined and had one of attendants decided to help....well we now know better .https://www.mazdaforum.com/forum/images/icons/icon6.gif
I think I am probably going to the Junk Yard. and will use a magnetic ratcheting screw driver to put the clip in rather than taking the bumper off of the car to replace the headlight assembly.