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Really minor annoyances

DaveH said:
The sadists who design the process for changing car headlight bulbs.

Noticed a bulb off last night, half an hour free before work, should be more than enough time. I had to use two different sockets, a torx and a philips, then lift the entire headlamp assembly out before I could access the bulb. Then if you do not have the assembly at exactly the right angle, it does not slot back into the bumper trim properly when putting it back. With a sharp edge or two, I cut my thumb doing it.

It involved removing one bit of metal (with two bolts) that does not make contact with the light, but sits 2cm above it and as far as I can tell, it's only purpose is to make it an absolute fuck on to change a bulb.

Asking Halfords to change a bulb for me seems pretty pathetic, but I doubt my wife could have done this and I would think twice about trying to do it in the dark, when I'm more likely to notice a bulb out.

For safety, these things should be quick and simple, and anyone should be able to do it on the roadside in the dark, in less than a minute. I could in my 1990s Fiesta, why has progress made this a job where you consider going to a garage?


Oh and to continue my grumpy start to the morning, wankers at work who do not put holidays in their diary. I currently have two meetings that I'm shuffling around because every time I move them, someone else says "Oh I have that day off". That is the entire purpose of the diary, and you can even have our holiday booking system send you a diary event so it is one extra mouse click.
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It's potentially dangerous, they should get all car designers to demonstrate how to change a bulb by the side of the M62 on a stinking November night
 

c032745y said:
It's potentially dangerous, they should get all car designers to demonstrate how to change a bulb by the side of the M62 on a stinking November night
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True. I took mine to Halfords, as I thought it was not worth my time and effort to save £18. It took 2 of them 25 minutes and at one stage one of them had their hand stuck and I, reluctantly as I was paying, had to give them a hand to free it. This was a 15 year old car too, bugger trying it on a modern car and potentially dropping a part which would cost 100's of £'s to replace. They had to take the battery out and the battery tray in the end, put it all back together and found the bulb wasn't sitting in the housing correctly when I put the light on to test it and then do it all again.
 
DaveH said:
The sadists who design the process for changing car headlight bulbs.

Noticed a bulb off last night, half an hour free before work, should be more than enough time. I had to use two different sockets, a torx and a philips, then lift the entire headlamp assembly out before I could access the bulb. Then if you do not have the assembly at exactly the right angle, it does not slot back into the bumper trim properly when putting it back. With a sharp edge or two, I cut my thumb doing it.

It involved removing one bit of metal (with two bolts) that does not make contact with the light, but sits 2cm above it and as far as I can tell, it's only purpose is to make it an absolute fuck on to change a bulb.

Asking Halfords to change a bulb for me seems pretty pathetic, but I doubt my wife could have done this and I would think twice about trying to do it in the dark, when I'm more likely to notice a bulb out.

For safety, these things should be quick and simple, and anyone should be able to do it on the roadside in the dark, in less than a minute. I could in my 1990s Fiesta, why has progress made this a job where you consider going to a garage?


Oh and to continue my grumpy start to the morning, wankers at work who do not put holidays in their diary. I currently have two meetings that I'm shuffling around because every time I move them, someone else says "Oh I have that day off". That is the entire purpose of the diary, and you can even have our holiday booking system send you a diary event so it is one extra mouse click.
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£400 for a headlight unit in the Mrs' Toyota. Can't replace the LEDs or the controller unit on its own so the whole thing has to be done. Scandalous.
 
Mousehold Mackem said:
£400 for a headlight unit in the Mrs' Toyota. Can't replace the LEDs or the controller unit on its own so the whole thing has to be done. Scandalous.
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That is mental.

If have noticed similar with security lights. I have three, front back and side. I don't actually like external lights so they are linked to a switch. They are only turned on when I want them and then an infrared sensor will only trigger if someone passes it.

I have had to replace them more often than I used to replace the small tube bulbs in the older ones. That is buy a whole new unit, get the ladders out, isolate the electricity etc etc. And then the old unit goes into the bin. There is no way the manufacture and disposal of the whole light is lower carbon footprint or cheaper for me, than buying and running an incandescent light. LED lights should last longer, but it seems your standard lights from DIY stores (not ebay/AliExpress crap), you get a year or two if you are lucky.
 
DaveH said:
The sadists who design the process for changing car headlight bulbs.

Noticed a bulb off last night, half an hour free before work, should be more than enough time. I had to use two different sockets, a torx and a philips, then lift the entire headlamp assembly out before I could access the bulb. Then if you do not have the assembly at exactly the right angle, it does not slot back into the bumper trim properly when putting it back. With a sharp edge or two, I cut my thumb doing it.

It involved removing one bit of metal (with two bolts) that does not make contact with the light, but sits 2cm above it and as far as I can tell, it's only purpose is to make it an absolute fuck on to change a bulb.

Asking Halfords to change a bulb for me seems pretty pathetic, but I doubt my wife could have done this and I would think twice about trying to do it in the dark, when I'm more likely to notice a bulb out.

For safety, these things should be quick and simple, and anyone should be able to do it on the roadside in the dark, in less than a minute. I could in my 1990s Fiesta, why has progress made this a job where you consider going to a garage?


Oh and to continue my grumpy start to the morning, wankers at work who do not put holidays in their diary. I currently have two meetings that I'm shuffling around because every time I move them, someone else says "Oh I have that day off". That is the entire purpose of the diary, and you can even have our holiday booking system send you a diary event so it is one extra mouse click.
Click to expand...

tried to change some brake pads on a 2012 tiguan last year. with the electronic hand brake its literally impossible without having the computer to manually over ride it

same with replacing a battery, i'm only 39 but i seem to remember around 2005ish i could change a battery on a car in 2 minutes. i recently had a 2018 cr-v and it was an absolute fuck on
 
on the a69 westbound at the s-bend before brampton and after the shell garage, the gadgy painting the near side line must've been half cut. all they had to do was follow the old line.
 
Mousehold Mackem said:
If I knew what that was I'd agree.

Looking on Toyota message boards it's a well-known problem.
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Type Approval is (was?) the rules all car manufacturers have to abide by in things like height of lights, safety etc etc. I t was something that caused havoc with small scale manufacturers back in the day. It seems to have been binned due to brightness of headlights, "bar lights" across the front & rear of cars & loads of other none conventional add ons.

I'm sure it's illegal to not have a spare headlamp build on parts of the continent. How you're supposed to change it is beyond me...
 
Cleaning the crap from the dishwasher filter, it's taken me about ten minutes. God knows how fabric, plastic and bits of hair get in there.
 
tunstallhill said:
tried to change some brake pads on a 2012 tiguan last year. with the electronic hand brake its literally impossible without having the computer to manually over ride it

same with replacing a battery, i'm only 39 but i seem to remember around 2005ish i could change a battery on a car in 2 minutes. i recently had a 2018 cr-v and it was an absolute fuck on
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My Mrs, love her I do, has had a succession of bastard cars over the last 32 years that she "likes" because of their looks & I have cursed to the high heaven. Ford Ka, Smart Forfour (stupid name) Audi A2, Fiat 500, Mini Cooper & some others I've put to the lower echelons of memory. Each & every one of them has had the most unfathomable way to change "consumables" bulbs, wiper blades even spare tyres.

Was watching some programme many years ago when the designer of the Smart car was being lauded for innovative design, brave "future proof" technology & fantastic aesthetics. I would've shoved the f*cking trophy up his rear end...
 
c032745y said:
Type Approval is (was?) the rules all car manufacturers have to abide by in things like height of lights, safety etc etc. I t was something that caused havoc with small scale manufacturers back in the day. It seems to have been binned due to brightness of headlights, "bar lights" across the front & rear of cars & loads of other none conventional add ons.

I'm sure it's illegal to not have a spare headlamp build on parts of the continent. How you're supposed to change it is beyond me...
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I think you are right. When I last went to France I had to have a kit of spares. For my last car I bought a multi-headed screw driver to deal with all the different torx I might encounter. It looks like I need to add a few sockets to that. When I set out this morning to do a quick job, I didn't think I'd be going up to the shed to get the useful set of small sockets out of my drill bit box.
 
tunstallhill said:
tried to change some brake pads on a 2012 tiguan last year. with the electronic hand brake its literally impossible without having the computer to manually over ride it

same with replacing a battery, i'm only 39 but i seem to remember around 2005ish i could change a battery on a car in 2 minutes. i recently had a 2018 cr-v and it was an absolute fuck on
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Is it that engines are larger and there are more electronics in them so under the bonnet is more full?

Fair enough it was a 950 engine I first had and I'm now dealing with a 2L engine (in a much bigger car), but this was the model of Fiesta I had, and look at the amount of space behind the headlights. I seem to recall that I swapped a bulb one night at a petrol station, quicker than it took my missus to go in and pay. Now I have to arrange some free time:
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