Talking the car variety here. I just spent the best part of an hour to change a headlight bulb. Had to remove the battery to make room, surely these should be jobs you can easily do at the roadside without tools. I’m tight but next time I might just pay halfords to do it. Oh and then I realised I’d done the wrong one. To add insult to injury I dropped a spanner into the engine area. Grrrr.

Your own fault for giving your butler the weekend off

Head lights always seem to be a pain in the arse. Changed a brake linght in my Smax earlier in less than five minute though!!

the instructions to replace the headlight bulbs on my car start with “First remove both front wheels”.

Luckily on full lock with small hands it’s just about possible to do without.

surely these should be jobs you can easily do at the roadside without tools

That should be vehicle legislation in my opinion.

Might reduce the number of people driving about on one headlight (which I’ve done myself on occasion).

Volkswagon?

My choices are remove the battery… rusted band.

Remove bumper… nooooope.

Slide hand oh so carefully between battery and razor sharp body panel… bingo.

2 hours for a 51focus
That did involve going to halfords to buy the bulb(maybe 30mins)
What ridiculous design having to take the battery out to access things.

I think halfords will refuse changing involves tools/removing stuff

Bumper off job for my Renault Modus which also means jacking it off undoing the arch liners,etc.

Stupid design but not uncommon for modern cars.

Bumper off job for my Renault Modus which also means jacking it off….

😯

Maybe if you jack it off the lights will cum back on?

It’s going to be about 4 days for mrsp’s tt – you need a long T30 driver to undo the bolts that hold the headlight in place, one of the bolts was stuck and the crap audi torx bit sheared off, so replacement on its way from eBay.

Never buy a Renault Megane if you are not a fan of long winded bulb changes.

I think part of the problem actually comes from legislation, in as much as they have to design cars to be so pedestrian friendly these days that it leaves virtually no space for squeezing in the formerly easy bits

joshvegas – Member

Maybe if you jack it off the lights will cum back on?
The post should have ended right here.
Best response ever.

Took about 60 seconds on my Volvo XC90 (pull up two metal rods, slide out the entire headlamp assembly, change bulb, slide the unit back in, then push the two rods back down) I have no idea why ALL manufacturers can’t adopt this frankly brilliant method.

On the other hand …… my Mate wasted two and a half hours of his life trying to change the headlamp bulb on his Passat before finally admitting defeat. He wiped the blood off his hands, and drove over to Halfords to let them sort it out. The guy at Halfords shook his head and showed my Mate the Halfords “bible” which said “DNA” (do not attempt !)

So then it was a trip to the local VW Main Dealer …… to change a poxy headlamp bulb !!!!!!

Bumper off job for my Renault Modus which also means jacking it off

My bad poor choice of words but always good to show your car a bit of love.

45 minutes to change any front bulb on a Ford Puma, which comes under ‘roadside repair’ in the handbook!
Involves getting hold of a large Torx wrench, around a T30, not supplied with the car, taking out the grill, removing drainage pipes, undoing bolts holding headlight unit in place, wriggling the the headlight unit around until it comes out, taking the rear cover off, swapping the bulbs, reverse the process.
Real bastard job to do, but at least you don’t have to take wheels or battery off!
My Octavia takes less than five minutes. It should be a legal requirement that no bulb should take longer than ten minutes to change, or involve any removal of significant car components to execute the repair.
Of course, with LED lighting coming in, it’ll be less of an issue over time, but for now, it’s PITA, the number of cars I see with lights out is staggering.

also means jacking it off

You wouldn’t need to jack off the car so often if you’d fitted Philips Nightwalkers.

Having lost a fair amount of time and skin changing bulbs in my Audi A6 (also on the list of cars that Halfords won’t change the bulbs on), I have also been really impressed by the Volvo system. Mine’s a V60, but it works the same way. Almost makes up for the car not having a spare wheel.

also means jacking it off

manual

It’s all the sharp metal edges that I don’t understand – I’m far more likely to sever the artery in my wrist than I am to hit a pedestrian, frankly.

I think part of the problem actually comes from legislation, in as much as they have to design cars to be so pedestrian friendly these days that it leaves virtually no space for squeezing in the formerly easy bits

I think it is more to do with style over function.

I’m sure they could design headlights where the whole front of it unscrewed so it was as simple as changing the bulb in a torch. But they’d look ugly.

First time round it took me about 20 minutes with my old 2006 for focus. Subsequent changes were much faster as I knew what I was doing. Still needed a torx driver.

Just changed the rear brake light on my Golf estate, 2 min tops. Rear panel pops out, squeeze two tabs and pull out light assembly, switch bulb, push it back in, cover on, job done. YouTube videos showed something very different!

pull up two metal rods, slide out the entire headlamp assembly, change bulb, slide the unit back in, then push the two rods back down

Exactly the same for Mondeos. Am surprised to hear all fords are not the same.

Just had a look at the Focus manual online. It says:

Seems easy enough.

Shame they haven’t mentioned the three other clips that hold the headlight assembly in place, which are carefully hidden out of sight and need to be released with a screwdriver and a blood sacrifice on the adjacent sharp bits.

They also haven’t mentioned that it’s also attached to the front grille by little plastic grommets that mean you either have to remove the grille or break the grommets in frustration.

Am surprised to hear all fords are not the same.

Depends who designed them. You’ve got ford doing it themselves, one of the companies ford owns/owned doing it or a supplier to ford doing it. All three giving different results depending on how they’ve interpreted the requirements. And how loudly the project leader has shouted at them (which is directly related to how recently they had to change a bulb on their own car)

I think it is more to do with style over function.
But they’d look ugly.

Nah, the front end crash rules are pretty strict. Both internal and legislative. You have to pick 2 out of 3, lights that work, front end that meets or exceeds NCAP5 or easy to change the bulbs. IIRC the headlamps are (generally) the hardest bit of the front of the car, as they have to stay exactly where they are and not wobble, bounce or move. Everything else is generally speaking, crushable, moveable or a skin over a lump of padding.

Actually it’s more like pick 8 out of 13 than 2 out of 3. But the principle is sound.

I just take our car to the workshop to get new bulbs, mainly as they are about 100 quid each and need recalibrating if you muck it up. (got fancy pants bendy bi-xenon lights)

I reckon, with a little practice, I could change the headlight on the motorbike (BMW F800GSA) in less than a minute. Probably quicker than the garage in France that *insisted* they did it when the lamp failed. I’m sure they were being exceedingly gallant to the lone woman but, really, I could have done it much quicker myself… 🙄

My 2008 BMW 3 series isn’t much harder, tbh – turn the wheels full lock, remove the little panel in the wheel arch, pop off the light cover and change the lamp, replace covers, drive…

Rachel