My mates Volvo V90 Allroad near side rear light is not working.
Have to replace the whole LED panel, and remove bodywork to do it.
£684.
Wtf! Should be a 10min swap bulb job. Do it yourself £5.
Is there any car around today where you don't get pumped?
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YupOriginally Posted by xxnick1975
A mate of mines Golf needed a bulb done .
Went through the Halfords website for a £30 ish fee . Turned up to be told it was a big job to remove the inner wing .
Went to an independent garage who still took him for £200 .
It should be a huge thing .
No wonder folk lease for 3 /4 years and get rid what a lot of nonsense.
When these cars are 20 years old, won't be worth changinh basic consumables. Madness
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The Renault Megane from around 2006 (the one with the big butt) was designed in such a way that you had to take a wheel off to change a bulb and I’m not 100% sure on this bit but I was told it had no oil cap. So topping up oil had to be done through the dipstick.
Crap design for maintenance is nothing new.
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I guess the question is are there any manufacturers that aren't designing without the intention to pull you pants down. Early 2000s Renault fully expected!
Dacia? Are they playing straight?
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True unless you have small hands, my wife owned the 3 door sports jobbie (which I loved) and you could get to the bulbs through a screw cap in the engine compartment but could only reach the bulbs if you have small childlike hands, luckily the Mrs does, so the times any of the bulbs went she changed them, only time she's ever had anything to do with cars other than drive them, don't remember oil filling being an issue.
My now sold Volvo V70 had two blades which you pulled out to remove the headlight and then you could easily remove the bulb with a twist and a pull.
Bulb was a couple of quid at the motor factors and it took less than 5 mins.
Nothing like a V90.
I love the fact that the French legally require you to carry a spare bulb kit, but to replace a bulb on one of their own cars requires a roadside assistance team and an hour’s work.
Old legislation that hasn’t been abolished to my knowledge. Just like it is still legal to pee in the street in London if you’re holding a horse, or ask a bobby for his helmet if you’re pregnant (unless those have been updated/debunked too).I love the fact that the French legally require you to carry a spare bulb kit, but to replace a bulb on one of their own cars requires a roadside assistance team and an hour’s work.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
I was a bit surprised when I went to replace the rear wiper motor in my duster to find it was riveted in. Apparently the door speakers are riveted too.
Mk2 Focus had to undo part of the bumper/splash guard to change a bulb in the headlamp.
Clio spare wheel arrangements are something else. Using levers, pulleys, cables and ratchets. Unbelievable example of how to overcomplicate something for the hell of it, just because its French.
https://youtu.be/-VdOm-WE6Sg?feature=shared
Last edited by Man of Kent; 8th September 2023 at 07:54.
Its the joy of owning nice cars.
Had the same problem with my very old French car, took it in for MOT which it passed easily except for a bulb.
They replaced the bulb for a new one free of charge.
Arent the modern LED/Xenon lights a whole unit now so you have to replace the whole fitting not just a lamp?
Some large franchise groups have stopped delivering parts to independent garages, hoping to force owners to visit them and get the work done at high main dealer rates.
Some service jobs not possible without specialised equipment, stopping the diy’er and smaller indie from by passing the franchise, Everyone in the race for cash.
That's interesting. Just checked RAC website and it says this:
Spare bulbs – It is recommended but not mandatory that you carry a spare bulb kit for your vehicle
This must have changed recently because back in 2020 it was still classed as mandatory.
Not sure about pissing with a horse in London, but another supposed law is that Welshman are prohibited from entering Chester before the sun rises and have to leave before the sun goes down. So it's technically ok to shoot a Welshman after midnight on Sunday with a crossbow, as long as it’s in the city walls. Nice.
It was actually much easier (and quicker once you knew the way to do it) to remove the front bumper entirely.
The equivalent ford focus was so easy, 2min job
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Nowhere near as bad as the watch repair situation, where manufacturers have totally screwed owners by restricting supply of parts..........and telling the owners it's for their own good! Car manufacturers had a go at it years ago but it came to nothing, deemed to be restriction of trade.
Making bulbs difficult to change is senseless but it's gone on for 20 years, we owned a 2003 Toyota Corolla which had an appetite for headlamp bulbs and they were v. fiddly to change, absolutely no thought had gone into the design. Manufacturers make 'em easy to assemble in the factory, that's all they care about.
Thought that had been outlawed some time ago?.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
From what I've read it's generally the drivers that fail but you have to replace the whole thing
A few years back one evening I came across a chap desperately trying to replace a headlight bulb on his Passat. I can't remember where he had to get to, it was something like Wales (from Winchester) but I tried to help but I think in the end he just gave up and drove there through the night with one headlight working.
I doubt I've ever mentioned before that I had a 2004 Skoda Fabia, it takes about two minutes to replace the headlight bulbs. Great car.
"A man of little significance"
If you do replace a bulb, no longer have a spare so really need 2 kits.I love the fact that the French legally require you to carry a spare bulb kit, but to replace a bulb on one of their own cars requires a roadside assistance team and an hour’s work.
Our main car is a 20 year old Audi A2, replacing bulbs and general maintenance is a breeze, jollies are taken care of via Enterprise who are locally very obliging, there's more important things in life than driving the latest car.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Porsche wanted £180 to investigate a blown bulb on one of our Porsches. (why not just change it?)
Little tool in the front toolkit releases the headlight, disconnect the wire, carry headlight to workbench, change bulb and refit everything.
Few minutes and the first time I’d tried doing it.
Some manufacturers are still designing things properly.
When you read stuff like this classic cars make more and more sense.
Cheers,
Neil.
My modern car (Nissan Leaf) has had precisely nothing go wrong with it. 63k miles now and racking up about 1k/month. As things go wrong, they'll doubtless be shockingly expensive.
My old Mercedes - which now has moon-mileage on it - is reliable but costs far more in servicing. Nothing's especially expensive, it's just that things wear out and/or need adjustment more frequently on older cars and this one is no exception. Changing lightbulbs is relatively easy but they used to blow relatively regularly and the light output was appalling. I replaced with Philips LED bulbs and have never looked back - one failure in the last 130k miles.
My neighbour had a minor prang in his ID4 - a dented front wing/bumper from a low-speed side-swipe by another vehicle. The headlamp unit needed replacing simply because one of its integral mounting brackets had sheared - I can't remember the exact cost but it was 4 figures. But worse than that, after the bodywork was repaired and the electric cut-out mechanism (some explosive powered switch to instantly - very quickly - isolate the battery, as best as I understand it) had been sourced and replaced, it still refused to start. He was without it for well over 6 months before VW eventually worked out why it wouldn't go.
More than 50% of new cars are company cars (https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/man...arket%20share.)
Not many people will choose a company car worse than their peers without the latest gadgets.
I used to go through a couple a year in mine, lucky they were so easy to get at!
I believe the idea originated from a coach driver walking away to relieve himself and his horse bolting and killing a woman. Top of my head rather than Google so big pinch of salt as memory isn’t what it used to be
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
About 10yrs ago I had to change a headlight bulb on the wife's zafira. Way too tight to get my hands down the front from above, looked in the manual and it said there was a little hatch in the wheel arch to get at it, but with your arm through a little hole up to the elbow, you can't see what you're doing. In the end took it to Halfords and a small handed lady managed it from abive
If you want cheap motoring just buy an old car so you can do all the maintenance very cheaply but in the full knowledge that old cars are unreliable and you will spend a lot of time just putting things right.
Alternatively just buy a modern car that hardly ever goes wrong but in the full knowledge that items such as light bulbs cost more to replace.
It's your choice but as someone who can remember my father forever sorting out minor failures on cars at regular intervals, you have got nothing to moan about.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
There’s also a middle ground of oldish, relatively simple cars which aren’t unreliable but can be maintained quite cheaply.
LED car light clusters are hermetically sealed usually by vibration welding and then pressure tested, making them vertically impossible to economically repair, the requirements for them are driven by legislation, it demands colour and luminescence and intensity performance not possible using “bulbs” as replacement parts the margins are similar to any other replacements.
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