Difficulty in changing bulbs nowadays

tomstickland

My 18 year BMW is easy. Decent design would consider ease of bulb replacement as a major factor. No doubt someone now says "our customers regard bulb replacement as a garage operation. The car has to look good to appeal to our target market though".

maple41

Just had to add a tale of good service for a change.
Local Audi dealership quoted me £6 to change an A4 headlight bulb this week. snapped their hand off! Took them over 20mins as you have to undo 4 Torq screws (I didn't have the right tool) and remove some bits to get at 2 of them. Asked the girl on the service desk why they only charge £6 -response was it was a realistic charge as they know it is a difficult job to change headlight bulbs.
Well done Audi.

Inactive

maple41 wrote: »

.
Well done Audi.

Well done Audi Dealer, poor show Audi for bad design.:rolleyes:

lilac_lady

I took my old car to my local garage to get a rear bulb changed. They did it and only charged me for the price of the bulb. Good service!

goldspanners

lilac_lady wrote: »

I took my old car to my local garage to get a rear bulb changed. They did it and only charged me for the price of the bulb. Good service!

maybe because it was easy enough to change, the whole point in this thread is hard to change bulbs,not local garages that do things for free.
that was good to see some common sense from audi,they obviously realise its hitting thier sales dept.

suki1964

I take mine to the car parts shop I use - cost of a bulb and job done in minutes - pays to use the independents

cyclonebri1

suki1964 wrote: »

I take mine to the car parts shop I use - cost of a bulb and job done in minutes - pays to use the independents

But they are not all like that, many as suggested require wheel off or bumper off or battery out etc etc etc. Your part shop will not do that for you so stick with your present car;)

Cars today are not made to aid home maintenance, they make money for the supplier agent being required to carry out work. The one concession is that they are designed to be easy to repair, this is where the low insurance rating comes in. Which is why more often that not removing the headlamp/rearlamp is far easier than replacing the bulb alone

northstar23

Funnily enough I had this situation this week on my 2005 Fiesta. I thought it would be simple but there were two things that annoyed me immensely.

Firstly, the fact that Ford had put torx head screws on the outside casing. Not a screwdriver fitment that many people carry with them... I had to get my specialist screwdriver kit out before I found a bit that fitted. A possible explanation is that they want to get people back to main stealers to have bulbs replaced instead of a DIY job.

Secondly, the general awkwardness and difficulty involved in removing 6 tight clips in freezing cold weather (only managed to snap one though), and refitting the casing but getting the seal in the right position.

Compare this to a 99 Focus where it was just a case of undoing two screws and fitting a new bulb and I find it perplexing why the engineering changes.

hewhoisnotintheknow

ive just been changing a honda jazz bulb, annoying

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

northstar23 wrote: »

Firstly, the fact that Ford had put torx head screws on the outside casing. Not a screwdriver fitment that many people carry with them.

I can understand them using torx bolts as they're much less prone to being overtightened or rounded-off than screws, but frankly its poor design to use any kind of screw - they should stick to metal clips. The headlamps on my Merc are 220,000 miles old and still don't let any moisture in.

If you really want difficult-to-change lightbulbs, try changing them on an early TVR Chimaera. You have to do it lying on the floor, and cannot see the back of the headlamp so change it by feel alone, while your arm is being cut to ribbons by GRP.