I've probably done more maintenance, service, and installation work than most car owners. Along with headlights, brake lights, and battery, I replaced the fuel filter and the serpentine belt on my previous car. I also installed flashing lights, running the wires from the battery, though the firewall and up through the dashboard to a switch panel that I installed, then back through the firewall to the flasher, and from the switch panel, through the passenger compartment, into the trunk, and to another flasher. All of the wires were hidden, except where they came out of the dashboard behind the switch panel and ran into the panel's back. So when the headlight blew on my current car, I figured it would be easy to replace.
I was wrong. The driver's side headlight on a 2001 Saturn L-series sedan is beneath the fan control unit, and replacing the headlight requires that unit's removal. This was extra-complicated in my case because the bracket holding the fan control unit was warped. You then have to hire a six-year-old child to reach into the small space you have revealed, grasp the headlight, push it into its socket, and turn it a quarter turn. Then the lamp can be carefully be removed from its socket.
Unplugging the lamp, which can only be done once it's removed from the socket, requires finding and squeezing an unmarked, non-obvious button, and pulling firmly.
Installation is the reverse of removal, with the added difficulty that you can't touch the glass bulb with your fingers (or the bulb will eventually shatter). Also, the bulb looks like it fits in the socket at least two ways, but it only fits in one way.
Ironically, just last Friday my barber was telling me how he only changes the headlight on one side of his car - the other one he sends to the mechanic, because it's so difficult to do. Maybe I'll do that the next time the driver's side headlight blows.
Who designs these things?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment