2014-15 Equinox Changing Headlight Bulbs to Philips CrystalVision Ultra

I purchased some Philips CrystalVision Ultra bulbs to get a little whiter and brighter light than the stock bulbs. As many of you know, the 2015 and I believe some or all 2014 Chevy Equinox models no longer have that convenient removable headlight port hole on the front inner plastic fender liner. As a result, you have to loosen or remove quite a few fasteners in order to get at the headlights, parking lights, and directional bulbs. Even the fog lights would be easier to get at by removing a pair of lower fender liner hex head screws.

So, here are some pics of the process I went through to get at the bulbs and the tools I needed to do it to make it a little easier. While I was at it, I also used the time to trim some felt type sound dampening material that resides just in front of the front door opening and fender liner. This is reported to accumulate water some times from car washes or winter snow melt or driving in heavy rains. Then the felt remains wet for some time and the concern is rust may develop. You will see scissors and the small amount of felt that was removed. It is just excess that is folded over and has little purpose but to possibly hold the felt a bit more firmly in place.

I just decided to remove the entire plastic fender liner since most fasteners were already removed and I wanted to get at the felt and headlights more easily. Also, I cleaned and treated the fender liner with ArmorAll before reinstalling.

NOTE: The GREEN arrows in picture #3 indicate the trimmed pieces of the felt sound dampening material and it's location that was removed. The RED outlines indicated the small pieces that were removed.[/color]

The following pictures are:

Pictures 1 & 2: Tools and fasteners that were removed.

Pictures 3 & 4: Totally removed inner fender liner.

Here are the last pictures of the headlight access itself.
The first picture is of the rear headlight cover still attached and the second picture shows the cover removed. It is easily removed with a 1/4 turn counter clockwise and then installed the same way. Note the "GM" logo must be properly oriented to reinstall it.

- - - -OKAY. .. . it's a nice day, I was in the garage and took off some fasteners to look. The verdict is you can see the back of the headlight and the removable cover. I could also see and removed two upper headlight assembly hex head mounting screws. All to no avail. I see a few more screws deeper down that hold the headlight assembly in. Those might be accessed by removing the grille and maybe some other items. Plus, the battery looks like it would have to be removed. Not all bad, but a lot more to remove than it appears.
I also checked the other side and I can see a bit more, but no way to get hands down in there. Next time I really need to work in there I might try pulling the grille and more covers. Then the headlight mounting screws might be accessed. That's the way it was on the '09 Saturn Aura, but not sure about the Equinox.

So here are a few pictures of what I saw.