shocking bill on a modern

[Rusty Pelican]

How much to change a headlight bulb , Well a mate of mine has a Saab ( 93 I think ) , O/S headlight bulb not working , its those gas discharge ones , any way the quote is.Bulb ( or whatever the fuck it is ) £ 108Fitting , 2 hours labour as the bumper has to come off etc etc £ 105 per hour So £108 plus £210 fitting , thats £318 plus VAT to make a fucking headlight work , LONG LIVE SHITE

[bigstraight6]

It seems quite common that you need to strip a modern down to it's knickers just to change a fuggin bulb progress......

[VWPowered]

robbery that

[Mr Lobster]

I know of a few moderns that need front bumper off to replace a headlight bulb. Not all do though. Not sure whether its the result of poor design / packaging or a deliberate attempt to make it harder for people to do themselves and force them to the dealer...

[maxpower]

i went into halfords to buy a headlight and tail light bulbs... geezer asked if i would like him to fit them... i thought "oh what a helpful young assistant" until he said it would be £5.99 to fit each bulb! so i played along and said if i bought both bulbs would it be £5.99 to fit them..he said no £5.99 eachi asked him if he thought i was as stupid as he looked and gave him the bulbs back!!

[Station]

They all mostly have wiring in a plastic casing to keep everything tidy and organised, plus the engine bays are getting smaller and there's nowhere to put em. A bulb though! FFS!

[dollywobbler]

Cripes. Kind of makes a mockery of the need to carry spare bulbs in France...

[FredTransit]

Ah sod that! RP has your mate thought of going to Halfords?

[Rusty Pelican]

Ah sod that! RP has your mate thought of going to Halfords?

Great idea , not sure if Halfords do these gas discharge jobbys , apparently they run on 35,000Volts , if you leave the ignition on and try and change said bulb it could be a bit shocking

[Ratdat]

Last time i was down my local Nissan dealers, the lads in the workshop were busy fitting accesories to a new Note. One of the bits was flat aluminium strip that goes across the bottom of the boot appeture. It's about 2mm thick, about 30mm wide in the middle and tapers at the ends and is flat with a brushed finish and some double sided sticky tape on the back. £175+vat plus fitting! Now that really is taking the piss.

[Guest]

Ah sod that! RP has your mate thought of going to Halfords?

Great idea , not sure if Halfords do these gas discharge jobbys , apparently they run on 35,000Volts , if you leave the ignition on and try and change said bulb it could be a bit shocking

WFI book will say:OMG! SHOCKA! DNA.

[Mash]

How about buying a 300 quid car every six months instead?

[Tayne]

.

[Richard]

Ah sod that! RP has your mate thought of going to Halfords?

I think Halfords only do straightforward bulb replacements for £5.99.

[peter9000uk]

Halfords have a book or something saying which cars they can change bulbs on, I know my C5 is on their no no list. You can change the bulbs on it without removing the bumper but it is a hell of a lot easier with it off! Only takes about 10 mins to get off.Sounds like you mate has Xenons on his Saab and they do indeed require 35000 volts to fire up,they use some sort of capacitor arrangement to fire them but once alight the run on normal 12volts. The bulbs are supposed to last a certain amount of hours use and it certainly ain't 10 years, aound 500 hours springs to mind but I stand to be corrected.You can get the bulbs for around £30-40 if you search around

[Barry Cade]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZWqU9X6PR4

[Minimad5]

haha love the way you can hear the Green Flag dude say "This is stupid" .. or something along them lines.Thanks for the link TiffX19.As for the prices of getting a bulb changed ... WHAT NEXT ?Actually isn't it the Audi A2 that has a sealed bonnet or something along them lines ??Soon you won't even be able to wash your own car ! , let alone drive or service it

[woolleyiain]

We had some techs from the Honda dealership across the street bring us a new shape bug cos they couldn't figure out how to get the lamp units out to change the low beams. Charged em $55.00 a side. Oh how we laughed...

[whiskeyonesix]

Wasn't there some old regulation or something that stated that the Motorist had to be able to change a headlight bulb in ten minutes or less in the dark by the side of a road? Or something like that... could very well be waffle..

[Cavcraft]

I know of a few moderns that need front bumper off to replace a headlight bulb. Not all do though.

 

Not sure whether its the result of poor design / packaging or a deliberate attempt to make it harder for people to do themselves and force them to the dealer...

+1.

 

Astra Mk4 is the same (bumper off) job. It's a bloody joke tbh and the cost of the job on the Saab is just crazy.

[Lukas]

I could tell you what it costs to repair a high-pressure-pump on a modern commonrail-diesel, or how much it is to replace injectors on modern diesel-engines. Or do you know how much it is to replace a Xenon-headlamp? I bet you don´t want to now it...

[whiskeyonesix]

I bet changing Injectors on a modern Diesel is fairly pricey..... It's bloody outrageous what garages can charge these days.

[warren t claim]

I know of a few moderns that need front bumper off to replace a headlight bulb. Not all do though.

 

Not sure whether its the result of poor design / packaging or a deliberate attempt to make it harder for people to do themselves and force them to the dealer...

+1.

 

Astra Mk4 is the same (bumper off) job. It's a bloody joke tbh and the cost of the job on the Saab is just crazy.

When my local plod used Mk4 Ashtrays I don't think I ever saw one with a set of fully functioning legal headlights!

[Rusty Pelican]

Heard a couple of stories from my AA mate today , apparently Mercedes have done away with dipsticts to check the oil , its all electronic , A message pops up on the dash telling you how much is required , A customer did this and added the required amount it said , new message appeared saying it was overfilled with oil and promply went into limp home mode , seems to be a problem there then , another one was a VW diseasel that wouldnt start , My mate told the customer to turn on the ignition and check the brake light , customers really confused but did it anyway , no brake light , Apparently brake light switch fails , this is linked to some computer that thinks the car has no brakes whatsoever so refuses to start . WTF is the world coming to

[Mr_Bo11ox]

All sounds totally horrific! LONG LIVE SHITE as someone said earlier!

[trigger]

I seem to remember when i was still working at a motor factors having a few customers phone up after xenon bulbs for a Omega, It turned out they was main stealer only and was over £100 each just for the bulb!.

[Cavcraft]

It's not all modern stuff though I suppose. Recall during my tyre fitting days we were told not to fit a battery to any Rover 8-series as they were a dealer only job.

[warren t claim]

It's not all modern stuff though I suppose. Recall during my tyre fitting days we were told not to fit a battery to any Rover 8-series as they were a dealer only job.

That may be because you have to reprogram the windows.

[wuvvum]

It's not all modern stuff though I suppose. Recall during my tyre fitting days we were told not to fit a battery to any Rover 8-series as they were a dealer only job.

That may be because you have to reprogram the windows.

That sounds about right. I had an 820i which had a knackered earth clamp when I bought it - you could always tell when it had come off the battery terminal as the windows would start to randomly go up and down. They always worked fine once I'd put the clamp back on though.

[Cavcraft]

Indeed, never owned an 820 that didn't have window problems. Bloody nice to drive though.