Got into a bind yesterday! While replacing a blown drivers side low beam bulb, the retaining clip broke. I found the clip in the engine bay and a piece of the moulded plastic with a small self tapping screw in it. This used to be part of the headlight body to hold the clip in place, which then holds the bulb in place.
Well went to Subaru and they wanted $755.00 each for a headlight body assembly ($256.00 USD each from the good ol' US of A, but not sure if they are a drop in replacement). So, stuff that! I was thinking that I would rip the headlight out last night and do a quick 5 minute araldyte job on it to rebuild the clip mounting point, then pre-drill a new hole for the self tapper and bob's your uncle!
Well, that there headlight did not want to budge, so I started to check the forums and yep, the front bar has to come off! Stuff that, I was not going to start pulling the front bar off in my dimly light garage for the first time. I would still have been there this morning.
So now I started to think about temporary solutions, so I could drive to work with both headlights working. I observed there was just enough of the old clip mounting point to get a formed loop around and on the other side, the original clip lock down point also has a good "post" to get a loop around. So, what was the solution? A $0.01 rubber band, with a single twist held in place with a twist tie.
Subaru solution: $755.00. My temporary solution $0.01. And driving home this evening, it worked a dream. Here's a photo:
I will get around to pulling the front bar off one day to rebuild the clip mounting point, but in the meantime, temporary fix rocks!