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A snowHead

Every journey has its story.

Two years ago it was the loss of a drivers side wiper in a snow storm in the dark on a French Auto-route.

This year it is the tale of finally putting that box of spare bulbs to use. You know the ones that they insist you carry, but you never seem to need? Well, they do come in handy.

So it's -18C, dark and we come back to the car from a short stop in a German service area. Ignition on and 'ping' the warning light comes on 'bulb blown' - LH side main headlight bulb.

"We'd better change it" is the initial decision. A look then exchanged - and I come out with 'Well, there's only one of us knows how to'. So the epic lightbulb change saga commenced (in the dark at -18C). I rapidly produced a head torch, and a Leatherman, and big jacket and within about 2 mnutes had the headlight cluster out of the car (wonderfully dismountable in a Skoda Octavia), then we couldn't get the cable fitment to disconnect (it should have come off, but I couldn't find the 'click') - cue a certain amount of derision and should we give up - NEVER!! So I had FraserP cradle to light cluster (he got to wear his gloves!), while I unclicked the bulb fitments and sprung the clips with the Leatherman to free the bulb - without losing the silly little 'springy bit' (did I mention it was -18C and I had no gloves on?), I then conducted the lesson on which bulb I needed - swapped the bulbs and managed to spring the clips back into place. Light cluster back fitment back into place. Ignition on and (at -18C !!) we had both 'lights'!! Very Happy

I didn't let on at the time, but I was damn relieved (substantially cold!!) and rather chuffed Laughing

So there you - there is def. a lot be said for carrying that set of spare bulbs (and a Megamum Laughing

) - they do come in handy at times!! Laughing

Has anyone else ever needed to dip into their emergency kits?

A snowHead

Megamum, well done. snowHead

Very satisfying.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I dread any bulbs in the left hand front light cluster failing in my golf. You have to take out the battery to get to it! Very helpful of the Germans.

Well done for your perseverence. I wouldn't have bothered. I would've taken the argument, with a policeman, if you got pulled, that it would be more dangerous, from a hypothermic perspective to fiddle on with the light bulbs at -18oC, than it was to drive with only one light working (and by the way, I am carrying the spare bulbs).

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Well done indeed.

Likewise in the Seat Alhambra, the left light requires battery removal, so carry the bulb but would never attempt myself.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I tried to change the headlight and sidelight bulb on the driver side of my French Scenic II last week.

I say 'tried', here's what actually happened. I opened the bonnet, realised that replacing these bulbs in one of these stupidly designed modern cars (as with the Golf and Alhambra above) would require either a pencil-thin arm with 4 elbows, or removing half the engine, and took it to the garage instead. 60 EUR, bargain.

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A government warning said that anyone travelling in icy conditions should take:

Shovel, Blankets or sleeping bag
Extra clothing including scarf, hat and gloves
24 hours supply of food and drink
De-Icer
5Kgs of Rock Salt
Torch or lantern with spare batteries
Road Flares and Reflective Triangles
Tow rope
5 gallon petrol Jerry can
First Aid Kit
Jump Leads

Must say good advice but I did get a few funny looks on the bus this morning !!!!!

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There's a flap in the wheel arch that gives access to the headlamps in my Astra, so the mechanic at the garage tells me (it went the day before it was booked in for an MOT so I left it to the pro's, normally I'd DIY).

After all it is free

DB,

Managed to get the front sidelight bulb out of a Renault Clio once - but no way could I get the replacement in. Fortunately it was in Halfords car park so paid extra (a £5er I think) for a Halfords techy to do it. Took him a while, shredded his hand and turned the air blue. The Clio fog lamps are a bumper off job!!

My current Volvo has bi-zenon headlamps - dealer only job (high voltages apparently). How would les flics react to one of them out on a cold dark night?

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andy, on the Octavia you unscrew a finger tightened screw which holds it all in place - pull on a special lever (which I think moves the fuse out of the way, then push a plastic tab and the front light cluster pulls out of the housing straight out of the front of the car - 30 seconds to that point. It is the way you flat beam the lights for continental driving (must reverse this now back in the UK - you just reach into the light mechanism and flick a switch). You should then be able to unplug the cables (which is what I couldn't get to budge) and then you can take the entire light housing inside in the warm to do the job - as it was I couldn't get the cables to detach (Note: must look at the mechanism in the daylight) so I had to do the job outside!! Then a plastic cover peels off to access the back of the bulbs. There is a little spring fitting inside which releases the bulb and a rather silly metal retainer - these need springing carefully - a thin blade - off my Leatherman - is ideal otherwise they jump everywhere and you can't easily see without trial and error how they refit, but done with care and bit a confidence in the application of pressure in the right place, they come undone and bulb is free - a reverse process with equal care with the Leatherman refits everything.

I kind of hope the rear lights are similarly simple!!

snow reports

It's a shame that all those clever chaps who put their brains to designing cars to look cool and sexy can't sort out something like how to replace headlamp bulbs.

Cars used to be really simple. My current car doesn't even have a handbrake. It has a button instead, and the handbrake disengages automatically as you try to pull away.

What utter moron decided that a handbrake needed reinventing? From a near perfect and perfectly simple mechanism, to something less useful with 1000x times the chance of going (expensively) wrong.

Surely they haven't deliberately designed it to go wrong as often as possible, in order to rape money from their customers, and hence pay massive dividends to the board of directors. No, it can't be that. Definitely not.

You know it makes sense.

Seems a bit more involved. Don't think mine has the LHD/RHD beam switching thing (might RTFM one day), but have heard other VAG cars do.

Mine is just 2 spring clips holding on the back plate, then pull off plug connector from the bulb, then 1 spring clip holding the bulb in place (plus of course the plastic bit that needs a screwdriver to remove on the front LH). No need to remove the entire cluster.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

Boris, It's a 6 minute job in the Octavia - I timed it. You would spend longer than that fitting the beam deflectors.

A snowHead

Boris, you can get 5 pairs of beam deflectors on ebay for less than £20.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

had to change the dipped headlight bulbs on on my 3 series last week. Undone the mounting easy enough but it tool at least 20mins to get them to reattach properly Evil or Very Mad

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Megamum, Hells Bells, once fitted - never removed!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Boris, we were (informally) warned it was illegal in the UK to have them on.

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Drove around Europe for 9 months without headlamp beam deflectors. Only got flashed occasionally by some angry Johnny Foreigner.

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Hells Bells, it is, I really should take them off, but have been on for 2-years now, kind of gotten used to them Laughing

After all it is free

I hedged my bets with the last but one beam deflectors I fitted. One fell off within an hour (in France, after they'd been stuck on in the Tunnel), the other stayed on, mostly in the UK, for at least 18 months, getting more and more tatty.

The latest lot are still on the car, though we're in the UK now. Embarassed

You wont change a headlight bulb on a Skoda Yeti in six minutes Shocked

three hours is more like it bumper, grille and the relevant headlight have to be removed

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Beam deflectors are for pansies Toofy Grin

Adjusted my headlights to near parallel about 3yrs ago? Been through every MOT since no problem.Tried deflectors once,years ago...they fell off!
There is so much side spread on my lights,I cant honestly say it makes any difference.

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Megamum, the throttle return spring snapped on my old eclass merc on the way home a few years ago, so when you took your foot off, the car didn't really start slowing down much, which had all the passengers screaming when we nearly joined the back seats of a coach.

So we used the stretchy bit of elastic string that lift passes used to come with before they were electronic............

audi a6 has a metal lever behind the lamp you pull to move the headlights to stop dazzle, not that they dazzle, bit like candle power

Help!!

Travel prepared :-)

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