Headlight bulb removal & reinstallation

[Pbuck1]

I discovered this problem recently while giving my '04 9-5 a little TLC. This photo is the element in my drivers side headlight. You can see ( I hope ) that the bulb itself is tipped slightly upwards and the tube into which it is supposed to be inserted is pushed downwards (probably due to sloppy installation whenever the bulb was repalced).
Is the procedure to remove the bulb (relatively) easy.? I poked around a bit but did not see how the parts come out. Is there a WIS document for this ? Is there a socket which turns (1/8 turn, like many cars) and slides backwards.? I didn't want to force anything because I believe these xenon (confirmation, pls?) bulbs are really expensive.

[nordwulf]

There is a cover on the back of the headlamp so turn and remove. Unplug the connector to the bulb and unhook the mounting bracket. That's a halogen bulb, not xenon.

[Pbuck1]

Step 1 was remove the access cover where the bulbs are located. I struggled with this part a little, not sure which direction to turn it. The back side of it has 2 arrows pointing in opposite directions, labeled as "O" and "F". "O" and "C" might make more sense for open and close but the "F" stumped me. Pic 1 is looking down on the cover from in front of the car and the cover is rotated (in this picture) to the right. If you think about looking at the back of it from Inside the car - Remember, lefty loosey. Once i took it off and put back on a few times it slid easily.
Also notice the tab on the outside which will line up with a screw hole in the case. Fortunately no screw present as very little work space there.

Pic 2 shows the 'locking' tabs on the inside of the cover. As long as you put the cover back on so the tab and hole are in approx same position as pic 1 and then rotate cover towards your left those 'locking' tabs will line up and grab w-out problem.

Pic 3 shows the back of where the bulbs go in. Remove, carefully, the wired plug. Wiggle back & forth gently while pulling and it'll come off.

Step 2 was to remove the bulb. It's held in by a stiff wire spring. I couldn't get the spring to release, so popped out one end of it where it swings trying to release some of the spring tension. Turns out the wire is held by a notch in the bracket which I couldn't see until I put my phone in there a took a picture. See pic 4. Then it made sense. Unhooked it and viola!

Pic 5 is bulb removed. After removiing I put a torx-end screw driver thru the hole and tilted the metal tube back up to horizontal where it's supposed to be. Not much to see here, except! notice the notch at the top of the socket. This is where the tab on the bulb is supposed to go, Not the large one you see at the bottom. The problem, the result of which you see in the initial photo at the begiining of this thread, was the bulb was installed without lining up properly meaning it didn't seat correctly, and so was pointed up and forced the tube down which its supposed to be inside of.

Pic 6 is the bulb. Notice the tab !

Everything went back together easily. Noticed the difference in lighting as soon as I put car back in the garage and turned on the headlights. Except for pic 1 I took these with my iphone upside down, and then flipped the pictures once I moved them onto computer.

[XLR99]

Wish I saw this last week . I was doing battle with one in the snow and 15deg. at AutoZone.