The 17 year old Honda I am temporarily driving woke up this morning with a serious and expensive fault - the nearside headlight bulb had failed overnight.
Well knowing how difficult it is to change similar bulbs in modern Renaults, I went on my way to various surveys and came by a motor factors. I pulled in, and opened the bonnet in trepidation.......
Five minutes later, involving removing the old bulb, going into the shop and buying a new bulb (£2.95) fitting the new bulb and closing the bonnet, I was driving away perfectly legally.
Why can't all cars be like that.
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I did just the same thing on a 1996 Peugeot 306 and then on a 2001 Nissan Micra within the past 4 weeks or so.
I reckon the common thread is that they're old cars.
It takes a small socket, a long bar and lots of care and half an hour to even change a brake light bulb in my A4 Avant. Heaven knows how you change the LED ones sprouting up everywhere now.
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Bring back the sealed beam! ;-)
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Bring back the sealed beam! ;-)
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You have to bin them when the glow worm dies!
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If you carefully drill a couple of small vent holes in the top I find the glow worm lives much longer
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one good thing about the old sealed beams tho! when the dip glo-worm in the dual-wormed units died, you could save the other as a spare for the main-beam unit, (tip only usefull for twin headlighted cars tho!)
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Newer cars dont have to be poorly designed, on my Focus you remove one screw, release two clips and the complete headlight can be released and moved foward to change the bulbs.
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Once you've disassembled the airbox and filter assembly on the Passat you can change the off-side bulb quite easily. No idea how to do the nearside unit, the ABS controller completely blocks access. I vaguely recall my brother saying he attacked it through the wheel arch but I'm just hoping the bulb doesn't go...
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on my Focus you remove one screw release two clips and the complete headlight can be released and moved foward to change the bulbs.>>
O.N., Can I ask what year/model your Focus is, please?
My wife's Focus is a 52 reg (Mk1 facelift?) and I had a devil of a game replacing the clip after getting the duff bulb out - the problem was the lack of space available. In the end, I had to resort to using my wife's compact make-up mirror. The operation took about 3/4 hour with much swearing.
When a bulb failed again, I took the car to my local garage and one of the lads came out and did the job in 2 minutes. He said that when you've done a load, you can just do it by feel. As the service dept was officially closed on a Saturday morning and the chap did it 'as a favour', I was happy to hand him a fiver.
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O.N. Can I ask what year/model your Focus is please?
05 MK2, (current shape).
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05 MK2 (current shape).>>
Thanks. ISTR that a similar method could be used on the older ones, but I couldn't work out how to do it.
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On mine the screw is at the top, the clips at the bottom of the unit are depressed with a long screwdriver or similar passed down the back of the headlight unit.
Edited by Old Navy on 07/01/2009 at 12:04
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I did this last night on my OH's partner hdi. The Drivers side is a doddle. Unfortunatly it was the passenger side which had failed.
Had to remove the air intake pipes and then had a real pain getting the cover off the back of the light. There is a big wiring loom rins directly behind the light and is fastened to a bit of metal work. Took 30 minutes at least. Not impressed when it was -3.
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Why can't all cars be like that.
The trend is for more and more things to be packed in under the bonnet, so there becomes less spare space in which to work. If motorists accepted larger engine compartments, and hence bloated external dimensions, then there wouldn't be the same problem.
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How about a sidelight bulb on a 51 plate VW Sharan??
What a pig of a job, park with full lock, feel under wheel arch for sliding door in wheel arch liner, slide it open (if it's not jammed with dirt/salt etc), spend at least ten minutes finding the right position to lay down so you can reach in through the door to find the bulb and disconnect it (by touch only). Get new bulb and try to reverse the above, best bit is trying to get the sliding door to reclose, mine took ages, it fell out of the runners and then I spent an hour trying to re-align it.
Never again!!
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Looking at the pictures of the engine bay for the new Mazda6 2.2 diesel - there seems to be no room at all to get to the headlights. Okay there must be some way but it's not obvious.
e.g. look at the fifth picture on this page: tinyurl.com/95qxog
I wonder if it's via the wheel arch?
Edited by rtj70 on 07/01/2009 at 14:02
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Never done on my car as access looks poor, but the cars manaul expalins how do it so it can't be hard. To change rear light even in the pitch black with no light at all I reckon i can do it in about 30 seconds. The same job took me 5-10 minutes on my exs Clio II as the entire light cluster has to come out, what is wrong with Fords simple PCB clip on solution?
On that Mazda I wonder if the bumper has to be removed?
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Both my cars are extremely simple (Nissan Primera and Daewoo Nubira) -- bulbs replaced inside two minutes every time. Sidelights on the Nissan were slightly fiddly but only because the catch was a bit stiff; actual access was dead easy. The Daewoo is even easier -- loads of space, I guess in no small part down to the age of the underlying design.
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what is wrong with Fords simple PCB clip on solution?
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My Mondeo II is a tool-less job and very quick, however changing a headlight bulb requires removing the fan guard, the grill. two big screws and freeing a third screw to allow the whole headlight unit to be removed.
I can do it fairly quickly but what a poor design.
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I asked Halfords once if they could do the job, they said no as some panal had to removed, yet my mechanic did it in less than 5 minutes. What is the point of Halford's bulb replacement service if they can only seemingly replace bulbs on a Morris Minor?
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Replaced both headlamp bulbs on yaris diesel with hi output bulbs.
Driver's side easy so did that first.
Passenger side, very cramped: dropped bulb into undertray: retrieved with magnet on stick. Stuffed the hole underlight with cloth (which I should have done first!) and succeeded second time round.
Total elapsed tine: 1 hour: of which time to find magnet: 45 minutes!
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Only tenuously linked to the topic but I was reminded of something by this. I suppose most cars I've had have needed an odd bulb change but the one which seemed to eat them was a then new Xantia. It had at least 3 dipped beam bulbs each side in the year or so I had it. Must've been something wrong with it I guess but I never did find out. I became quite quick at changing those.
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Just replaced the headlight bulbs in my Vectra-C. The official way to change the offside ones is to remove the bumper and then the headlight. I managed to do it by removing the air filter box instead. Took me the best part of an hour to change all 4 bulbs though.
With the Mk5 Astra, you have to access the bulbs from the wheel arch. Either remove or put the wheel on full lock, put your hands up in the dirty old wheel arch and remove a panel, then try and change the bulbs without getting any dirt on them. Not a job you'd want to be doing at the side of a road.
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old model BMW 3 series gets my vote for the easiest to change. Just twist a large circular thing and it lifts out complete with bulb. Fit new one to the holder then just clip it back in!
I suppose the BMW has the advantage of a relatively long bonnet and an engine that's set quite far back into the bay!
The MK3 mondeo is also quite easy - just remove a couple of pins and the grill and the headlight unit flops out.
My worst experience was the renault magane. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
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"I suppose the BMW has the advantage of a relatively long bonnet and an engine that's set quite far back into the bay!"
They also mount engines longitudinally (rear wheel drive) so more space either side?
Edited by rtj70 on 07/01/2009 at 20:40
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further to my recent posts about installing LED bulbs in the side lights i wont be going ahead. I had half my skin ripped off my hand while changing a duff bulb for the main beam at the weekend on the A6!
Edited by audiA6tdi on 07/01/2009 at 21:11
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A friend of mine damaged his tail light lens on his new golf so had to replace the whole unit. Asked me to help. I was unhappy to see you had to take the whole unit out just to replace the bulb. It is a fiddly job and a time-consuming job. What happened to opening a rear cover of the unit and unclip the bulb holders like on older cars. Are all cars like this nowadays where you may have to go to a garage to replace a simple bulb?
Have heard of difficulty of replacing a headlight bulb in focus's and that with renault megane you have to take the wheel off to get to the headlight bulb.
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............ what a poor design.
If everything under the bonnet was easy to get at you'd be complaining about the amount of free space and the unnecessarily large size of the engine compartment. I've only had a headlamp fail about twice in 40 years, and at that sort of frequency I'm quite happy to let a dealer sort it.
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I thought the easy way (for Audi drivers) was to call Audi assist and they do all the hard work!
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05 2.0 VVT Scenic - 5 mins for the nearside the next time I do it & although I haven't done it - looks easier for the offside by unclipping the washer bottle neck.
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05 2.0 VVT Scenic - 5 mins for the nearside the next time I do it & although I haven't done it - looks easier for the offside by unclipping the washer bottle neck.
Yes, correct. I've done both sides now, and the nearside is by far the harder.
I dread the main beam bulbs going though. That's "take the front of the car to bits" territory.
Cheers
DP
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there seems to be a connection between frequency and difficulty - my Focus seemed to eat bulbs and knuckles.
MPZ
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The easy way? Drop it into the dealer. Thats why I've opted for a company car, fed up with scraped knuckles...
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My 2006 MINI about the easiest. Headlights came up with the bonnet open. Absolute piece of cake.
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all cars should have a rating for headlight bulb changes similar to difficulty ratings in a haynes manual with the spanners ( the more spanners the harder the repair) but have bulbs instead of spanners
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When my Golf was stolen I got an Audi A4 from the fleet as a "hire/temp car". On pickup it had a blown bulb. Spotted on the way back home - in the day so no need to get one there and then I hasten to add.
Went to an Audi dealer for a bulb (would claim on expenses)... but no they offered/insisted it needed Audi to do the work in the workshop. An hour later I got the car back. Who paid I don't know (probably the lease company) but the job was not as easy as I would have hoped.
Passat (sharing DNA with the A4) I found out also needed air intakes removing on drivers side for a bulb replacement. And the poor bloke in parts who offered to replace a rear bulb on the passenger side without me even asking.... hidden/inaccessible due to the 6CD auto changer.
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Just been looking at handbook of SWMBO new Mazda 2 - -remove nearside wheel - remove all rusted in screws that hold plastic arch liner in place - turned page then and read how to fiddle with cruise control.
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I mentioned the current 2008- Mazda6 above. Cannot see how you'd get to the headlights without going via the wheel arch either.
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This is slightly off-thread but as many of the vehicles quoted as being difficult in the bulb changing area seem to be Audi/VAG I have been reminded (I think) of a report that I read (or did I?) about 10 years ago that stated that a new Audi model (possibly a TT) had an engine compartment that was not accessible by the owner. The bonnet could only be opened by an Audi dealer and all that the driver could access was an opening through which windscreen washer liquid could be inserted.
I'm sure that I must be having a 'senior moment' here because nobody else seems to have mentioned it in any remotely connected thread.
Have my marbles really started to go or was it, maybe, something that was mooted by Audi but never saw the light of day?
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I think that was the Audi A2, the "Radiator grill" dropped down to check / top up oil, screenwash, etc.
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Old Navy is correct. Audi A2.
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Called out by an old customer to change a dip bulb on top of range Rover 75. Couldn't figure out access, even under arch, so he said he'd take it to supplying main dealer. They did it and gave him a bill for £650......said the electronics had to be fiddled about with..Called later at local Saab agent for some part and recounted this tale to the service manager. He said that's what they would charge on some of their models.....is this true ? My customer got it done on warranty, thank goodness.
Ted
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