ford ka headlight - ridiculous

andydiysaver

just took a wheel off, ripped out half the underside, and spent hours yesterday just to change a lightbulb in a ford ka

ridiculous! Easier to change a wheel in a ford ka than put a new bulb in.

When you get into the ford thing, my own car is a focus, and it sprayed my engine with power steering fluid in the summer costing £750 because it was plastic tubing, your realise the mindest of he who created them - and that is pure hard mass production line profit - there is a deliberate (malevolent) intelligence there you see at work where things are made to break and tools to fix are only from ford. I find it hard to believe a business model based on shafting the customer creates such profit. We must be stupid.... well, I was she was, we both got fords didn't we! :rotfl:

can anyone recommend a decent well made car for that distant point in the future when I have money again having laid most of it out on fixing these ones, i.e. well thought out, simple, not horrible plastics and rivets creation?

Retrogamer

Peugeot 106 diesel. Easiest and cheapeast car i've ever had to work on and repair.
Not very comfortable though

bsms1147

Toyota Hilux

vikingaero

If I were the EU Traffic Commissioner I'd pass a law whereby all cars have to have accessible bulbs/ports from the engine bay even for those with chump hands and sausage fingers. If not I'd make the Chief Exec of each motor company personally liable for changing bulbs within 60 minutes response for the lifetime of the car. [Just having my Special Brew at Wetherspoons this morning!]

patman99

Never heard of having to remove a wheel to change a bulb in a Ka before. Have had to remove the battery in several cars to replace headlight bulbs.

The way cars are made these days, they are not built to last. Even marques such a BMW & Audi tend to develop problems after 5 years or so.

Axial

andydiysaver wrote: »

just took a wheel off, ripped out half the underside, and spent hours yesterday just to change a lightbulb in a ford ka

ridiculous! Easier to change a wheel in a ford ka than put a new bulb in.

Try changing the main beam in a Corsa C with facelift projector lights then, jack car up, remove front bumper (which requires two nuts in the wheel arch to be removed - nice and rusty), remove headlight from car then change bulb.

Reverse process to refit.

jackieb

patman99 wrote: »

Never heard of having to remove a wheel to change a bulb in a Ka before. Have had to remove the battery in several cars to replace headlight bulbs.

The way cars are made these days, they are not built to last. Even marques such a BMW & Audi tend to develop problems after 5 years or so.

Audi are terrible for changing the bulbs. I was £20 plus the cost of the bulb to get my bulb changed. I think the Audi dealerships took in a flat fee of £7 to change bulbs after people complained about the extortionate amount it cost to get them changed (I took mine to my local garage). Not sure if the new Audi's are the same. My sister has one but a bulb hasn't gone yet. Her car doesn't have a dipstick though, you have to pay £15 if you want one - on a car that cost about £30k. No dipstick on an Audi! Audi's which practically drink oil lol

Strider590

Did one of these a few weeks ago, utter pain in the a55.

BUT you have to remember (and for as sexist as this may sound**) it's a car marketed toward women, it's assumed they'll take it to the dealership for every little job.

The actual bulb change doesn't need anything taking apart, you just need very nimble fingers. The worst part was figuring out how the metal clip comes off the bulb (sideways, not downwards) and you can't actually see this part without poking a small camera down into the gap.

**In justification, the assumption that women cannot do this stuff, is based upon the fact most are raised from birth to believe that certain technical tasks should be done by men and that they cannot do them, thus they don't get the practice and thus cannot actually do them because they lack those practised skills.

mcjordi

yep theres not much space in the KA bay to change the bulb.. took me an hour to change passenger side bulb bloody things..

was told its easier and quicker to take wheel off then arch liner to get in.

gilbert_and_sullivan

bsms1147 wrote: »

Toyota Hilux

Agreed, simple as you can find these days...all bulbs situated in the headlamp units can be changed without any tools in seconds, rears are 2 minutes a side just undo a couple of Philips'.
Thirsty perishers mind.

Toyota far and away the best of the mass producers now.

agrinnall

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

Toyota far and away the best of the mass producers now.

Best in what way though? Surely not for the cars they produce, which are are all very, very dull now. Oh for the days of the Celica GT4 and similar :T