For those who wish to perform this maintenance themselves, the SF uses a 9003 type Halogen bulb. Use care not to touch the bulb with your bare fingers. The oils on your skin can drastically shorten the life of the bulb and/or cause it to explode. Before performing any work, make sure that the bulbs have cooled (20 minutes should be good), your ignition is in the 'LOCK' position and that the headlight switch is turned to 'OFF'. Good luck and here we go!

Headlamp Replacement:

To replace the bulbs, it is easiest to simply remove the entire light unit. There are three bolts which are easily removed by ratchet wrench. The bolt size is 10 mm.



Here is the bolt itself. Make sure the dish-shaped washer stays on the bolt too. Sometimes it wants to stick behind and keep the headlight company. You don't want to lose it.



Once you have removed all bolts, set them aside in a safe spot. You will now need to pull the headlight assembly forward a bit to disconnect the two plugs that power the lights. These are shape and color coded for easy recognition.



Here is where you disconnect the power cables.



And this is what they look like on the ends. Green is parking/turn, orange is headlight.



To access the headlight bulb, you will need to remove the large circular cover. It is clearly marked which way one needs to turn to open and close it.



Inside, you will find a metal retaining clip which holds the bulb in place.



Loosen the screw on the left side and it will pop free. Place the clip somewhere safe. You will need it.


The clip free of the light housing...


Place pressure on the metal backing of the bulb and disconnect the power plug.


You can now remove the bulb. Even if it is burned out, try not to touch it.


Dispose of the old bulb and insert the new one in the manner of removal, except backwards. Reinstall the retaining clip and tighten down its screw holding it in place. The new bulb is shown here resting in place, prior to the re-fitting of the clip.


You may now resecure the cap. Before putting the light assembly back on the car, if you wish to aim the lights left to right, pop off the white plastic cap to the bottom left or right of the headlight cap (depending on which side of the car the headlight came from).

VERY IMPORTANT!!! Make absolutely sure you have plugged the light back in before reinstalling the bolts. You have no idea how frustrating it is to turn the switch to find nothing doing.

ALSO VERY IMPORTANT!!! Do NOT overtighten the bolts that hold the light assembly in place. The plastic bits that hold them in are not all that strong and will crack if excessive pressure is applied. Tighten only until moderate resistance is met. Stop before it becomes difficult to keep turning the bolts. This is what will happen if you over-tighten them.



Headlamp Aiming Procedure:

Most people who replace their own headlights don't know that aiming is essential to optimal lighting and find themselves disappointed in the new bulbs. You'll note that the Santy owner's manual it states the owner can aim his/her headlights up and down after headlight replacement but left-to-right adjustment must be performed by the dealer. This is just not true.

You will notice an aiming hole on the top of the headlight unit closest the fender side. This is marked with a swooping arrow with U and D marked for up and down. Further inboard on the unit, you'll notice an identical arrow with L and R for left and right.

Here the up and down hole is marked by the red arrow. The left and right is shown by the green arrow.



Now here's the trick, the left-to-right aiming is achieved by the same method as the up and down. It's a cog-like gear that aims the light when a Phillips head screwdriver is turned in it. The left-to-right cog has a plastic cover on it. You'll need to remove the light to get to it. A small flathead screwdriver will allow you to pop the cover off. I broke one but didn't bother to put either one back. Here is the back of the headlight unit with the white cap removed from the left-to-right aiming cog. The up and down cog is circled in red and the left-to-right cog in green.



Left-to-Right Aiming:

The left-to-right cog is shown here on the LHD model's passenger side of the car, circled in red. I removed the white cap before I took this picture.



Now here's the trick: most screwdrivers aren't long enough with a small enough head to both reach through the hole in the frame and fit the cog. So, you'll need to improvise. I just went behind the frame and tweaked it that way as seen in this picture. Also note the left-to-right aiming is very insensitive. You'll need to keep turning it for a while to notice a difference.

Here is how I got it to fit:



Up and down Aiming

Insert a Phillips head screwdriver into the hole shown here and turn it until a reasonable height is achieved. You may want to walk a distance from the car with the lights on to make sure it isn't so high it will blind oncoming traffic.



Turn Signal & Parking Lamp Replacement:

This is a 2-in-1 bulb number 2357A. Despite the similarities it is NOT an 1157A. It's pretty easy and straight-forward to remove but I figured I'd cover all the bases just to be sure. It's okay to touch this bulb with your fingers. No risk of explosion, here folks.



I hope this helps folks and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to let me know.