Hello Ford Truck Enthusiasts,

I am the proud owner of a 2006 Ford Escape XLT and I have been its owner since June 2009--for a glorious 16.5 years. As is the case with many of the Escapes that were manufactured during the time period around calendar year 2006, the lenses of the headlamp housings are fogged so badly that it is now impacting the brightness of the low beam and high beam headlamps. I purchased two brand-new headlamp housings and began to replace them. The procedure I obtained simply states to remove one 10mm nut and one 10mm bolt at the upper edge of the headlamp housing, and then to "gently tug and rock" the housing to pry it free from a clip that holds in place the housing's plastic bracket, buried and hidden somewhere behind the corner of the fender and the front fascia. After "gently tugging and prying" the right headlamp housing for about fifteen minutes I knew that the procedure must be incorrect.

So I watched a YouTube video on the replacement of the Escape's headlamp housings; the video showed the demonstrator [the person in the video who is following the procedure to remove the Escape's headlamp housings] disassembling about one-half of the front of the vehicle to remove the headlamp housings. While I believe that what I saw in the video to be factual I am a bit shocked. Is this actually the procedure for replacing headlamp housings on a 2006 Ford Escape XLT? One must remove the front fascia and the lower splash shields to gain access to the hidden bracket to remove a 10mm bolt that holds the housing's bracket in place, buried deep behind the corner of the fender and the front fascia. Is this 100-percent correct?

 

I replaced both headlight assemblies on a 2004 Escape not too long ago, but long ago enough that I don't remember exactly what all I had to do. I think it did entail removing the front bumper cover, but honestly that's not too bad to do. You really don't even need to jack the vehicle up, although the fasteners in the wheel wells are a bit easier to work with if you jack it up enough that the wheel droop. You'll likely find that removing the cover saves you enough time that it will be worth it versus trying to fight the fasteners back in to the headlight assemblies if you do manage to get the old ones out without removing the cover. Especially once you drop a screw or two and end up needing to take the cover off anyway to retrieve them.

I'll be removing the bumper cover again in the near future to replace the A/C manifold assembly.

-Rod

 

I know this is an older thread, but I've done this job & it took maybe 30 min or so. Not a big deal. But yes, it requires removing the bumper. Hopefully this helps someone in the future.