Farce erupts during chod headlamp bulb replacement

[406V6]

My daily chariot had blown a dipped headlamp and sidelight bulb. Fortunately it's not a Megane and access to the lamps is fairly easy. The headlamp bulb is easily removed but the sidelight is harder. For a start it shares the access hatch with the main beam lamp and has a spindly plastic mounting handle that has to be twisted to unlock and remove it but I managed to get it out. Easy so far. The sidelight bulb is a tiny thing that just pushes into the plastic holder. Refitting the plastic holder into the headlamp body was very fiddly and I couldn't get it to lock when twisting it. Then – oh bollocks – the bulb fell out of the holder into the front of the headlamp. How the heck do I get this out ?

I thought of removing the whole headlamp but I really didn't want to go to that trouble. Then a brainwave – could I get it out using a wire coat hanger with Blu-tak on the end ? Mrs V6 had an even better idea – put sticky tape on the end of the coat hanger. I tried this and it worked brilliantly. First I took the main beam bulb out to leave a good sized access hole and although it was a bit fiddly manipulating the coat hanger I managed to get it into the right place, stuck it to the bulb and pulled it out.

With a feeling of great triumph I put the bulb in its holder and tried to fit it in again. Then – bollocks again – the bulb fell out into the lamp. No problem this time, put the coat hanger in - and the tape falls off into the lamp. Double bollocks. So I try to fish it out using the coat hanger and as you can imagine the tape is now sticking to the inside of the headlamp. Now I have to stick the coat hanger to the lump of tape so that I can haul it. As I try this manoeuvre by wiggling the coat hanger around and pushing it on to the tape I succeed only in “pinging†the bulb into the far corner of the headlamp. So now I have to get the tape out and retrieve the bulb from the corner. After a lot of fiddling and cursing I succeed. Now I have to put new tape on the coat hanger so that it won't fall off. Using a combination of really sticky parcel tape and masking tape I make a lovely sticky stick.

For the third time I get the bulb out. I'm not going to fall into the same trap as before and practice fitting the bulb holder without the bulb in place. Slip the bulb in and voila, job finally done.

 

A fine example of how to make a 10 minute job take almost an hour. At least it's not a Megane – I'd have been £100+ lighter having paid a mechanic to dismantle the front of the car to get the bulbs out.

[Spiny Norman]

Ingenious solution!

 

I don't envy owners of new-ish motors when it comes to jobs like that. I recently changed bulbs in both my Saab 900 and my old E class and in both cases it would take longer to type out the procedure than it did to change the bulbs. The Saab in particular was 'twist out holder, swap bulb, twist holder back into place - 30 seconds, job's a good 'un' easy.

[retrogeezer]

I've got one of these, has earn't it's keep well over the years:

 

[chaseracer]

Jesus wept. This kind of pointless fecking about just shouldn't be necessary...

[Andrew353w]

I've got one of these, has earn't it's keep well over the years:

 

 

Yep, they're brilliant! Also find a magnetic probe useful for these jobs.

 

Well done, mate!

[Split_Pin]

Duly noted! Brilliant solution!

 

Wire coat hangers are almost unobtainum now - I always hold onto any I find!

[STUNO]

Jesus wept. This kind of pointless fecking about just shouldn't be necessary...

 

It would have been absolutely unnecessary if he had not dropped the bulb 3X and the sticky tape once

[chaseracer]

Not quite what I meant - my ire being directed more toward car manufacturers in general - but I take your point...

[andrew e]

I feel your pain brother, my wife spotted a brake light was out on the Astra (H; 08 plate). So extracted the tail light as usual (two knurled plastic knobs) and tried to get to bulbs. Being nearly dark I couldn't figure out why it (the rear lamp) wouldn't split so I took it indoors.

 

Silly me, I never spotted the 3 self tapping screws you need to remove to split the light in two FFS...

[R9UKE]

I think we've all had these moments. I have a really bad habit of setting bolts, screws or torx bits in perfect positions for them to go falling into the depths of the engine bay or behind the dashboard. My little magnetic telescopic pen thing works wonders in these situations.

 

Not enjoying the Mégane comment though.... I noticed last week that the nearside bulb on my mum's Meg with XENON headlights was flickering a wee bit. It looked noticeably dimmer than the other yesterday and has now gone completely. What a shit day to wake up, it's guna be an absolute bastard of a job, and could of course be the bulb, ballast or just a mysterious Renault wiring fault

[Station]

Love the 'tool being used in situ' photo!

[stuboy]

i used a biro and some bluetac