One Headlight

custardy

Steve059 wrote: »

Yes. When it's first switched on, a cold filament will briefly draw much more current than the continuous rating. If it's colder due to the weather, then the chances of the filament failing is higher. As I've said above, I always see more cars with one headlight when the clocks go back and/or the weather gets colder.

Well thats good. I was thinking the car had it in for me

almillar

Lots of cheaper, lower spec small cars didn't used to have coolant temperature guages, just a 'too hot' light that came on. Higher spec ones did, I can remember this from 1990s Clios.
There's a little car called the 'Mini' (yes the current one) that doesn't have an engine temp guage, and I haven't seen anyone complain!

custardy

almillar wrote: »

Lots of cheaper, lower spec small cars didn't used to have coolant temperature guages, just a 'too hot' light that came on. Higher spec ones did, I can remember this from 1990s Clios.
There's a little car called the 'Mini' (yes the current one) that doesn't have an engine temp guage, and I haven't seen anyone complain!

I mourn the loss of oil pressure gauges
last car I had with one (OE)was a Mk2 Cavalier

mttylad

I must have counted about a dozen+ today with defective front/back bulbs.

And that's 2x 6 mile journeys.

Lum

Well I just joined the one headlight crew today. It went pop as I was coming over the Severn bridge, according to my partner who was driving in front of me (we were dropping her car off back at the place that screwd up her engine rebuild), and I didn't immediately notice as the visibility was that poor anyway it was hard to tell.

She told me when we got to our destination, and upon starting the car it too decided to tell me. I then proceeded immediately to a Halfords who refused to fit it as the weather was too bad, but they did at least lend me a screwdriver since on the Mk4 Mondeo you have to take the whole headlight unit out to replace the bulb.

It's in but is now pointing towards the floor, and needs a different tool to adjust the alignment (couldn't really see what in the available light, possibly a torx), so now I have to hope the Ford dealer is open on xmas eve.

System

Are you sure that you have fitted it correctly?

Lum

!!!!!! wrote: »

Are you sure that you have fitted it correctly?

Probably not, you try it in the current weather (heavy rain coming down sideways) with a streetlight and a torch as your only source of light. It turns out after watching youtube videos of how to do it, that the car's manual misses one critical step in the process, and fails to correctly describe the most important step!

Might have another crack at it tomorrow just to learn how to do it, but since it's a company car and the lease is up in about 3 weeks it probably isn't worth it as the next car will likely be different anyway.

Point I was making though, of all the cars I've owned, this is the first one that's given me any hassle, and I'm not exactly incompetent when it comes to tinkering with cars, having previously done jobs like retrofitting central locking to a car that didn't come with it, yet for what is supposed to be a roadside repair, changing out a bloody headlight bulb, I was defeated. Even if I can sort it out properly in my driveway in the morning, is it really surprising that people are ending up stuck with just one headlight?

Iceweasel

Lum:

There is a very big chance that the bulb is fitted upside-down or at least in the wrong position. It is possible that in the dark and wet you got it 120 degrees out.

Take it out and try again in daylight.

Be very wary of adjusting the alignment as simply changing the bulb should NOT affect the aim of the light unit.

These things are sent to test us. I am a retired Engineer who at one time was teaching basic DIY motor maintenance at night school - and I still haven't worked out how to get access to the dip-beam lamp on the car I bought 4 months ago. LOL

It doesn't need replacing - I just looked at the location and thought "I'm going to have trouble with that".

The trouble being that I don't have a double jointed dwarf in my tool-box.

Lum

The bulb is a H7, it has a little tab on the top, it only goes in one way.

I agree that changing the bulb shouldn't mess up the alignment, however taking the entire bulb unit out and putting it back in may well have done so, especially since getting it to sit back in the correct position required a certain, ahh, persuasive application of force. (I'm just grateful I was wearing wedges and not heels)

I will indeed take another look in the daylight (or just take it to the dealer since as a company car it costs me nothing) but my point remains that a headlight replacement should not require two different tools (one of which is a torx) and complicated operations beyond remove cover, disconnect bulb, remove bulb, refit in reverse. They should be designed so that the job stands a reasonable chance of being done by a trained gorilla using nothing but its big hairy gorilla hands.

Lum

Well it turns out the base of the bulb was slightly bent. Might have been like that from the factory, might have been my hamfistedness. Fortunately those Halfords bulbs were buy one get one free, and now it appears to be aligned roughly correctly, as far as I can tell by shining my headlights at my neighbour's curtains.

Once it's properly dark I'll go check again, and likely annoy my neighbours some more. At least I have a known good headlight to compare it to, so it's simply a case of standing in front of one headlight at a time and comparing.

I did try to take it to Ford to get it checked, but they're shut today, and since it's a company car I'm not allowed to take it anywhere else.