Lights Out
Changing a light bulb should not make one’s fingertips sore.
Changing a light bulb should not take two hours.
One of my car’s low-beam headlights failed last Thursday while I was on vacation. We were still in Tennessee at the time, and since we were only going to be driving during the day—and since I didn’t know how to change the bulb—I decided to let it be until I got home. The other low-beam lamp failed Saturday night at seven, just as I was nearing home, just as night was falling.
I had fun telling people at Easter that I had to be home before dark.
After work this afternoon I bought a pair of new bulbs. The passenger side took about fifteen minutes to change, and that long only because I had to figure out how it’s done.
To change a headlight on a New Beetle, one must:
- Open the hood,
- On the appropriate side of the engine compartment, locate the small plastic locking lever on the headlight assembly, free its catch and lift it upward,
- Wiggle and slide the headlight assembly out the front of the fender,
- Release two catches to remove the back cover of the assembly,
- Unplug a wire from the back of the old bulb,
- Release a clip that holds the bulb in place,
- Slide the old bulb out, and
- Reverse the process to install the new lamp.
On the driver’s side, the process is complicated because the lever is mostly hidden behind part of the battery cover which, although I lack documentation to back up this assertion, apparently cannot be removed without taking out the battery itself. Making matters worse, the lever on the driver’s side of my car was sticky and after an hour of trying to get it to re-lock, I had to walk to Home Depot down the street and buy silicone lubricant spray to loosen the mechanism.
I’m not convinced the lubricant helped, but after another hour of trying different ways to get more leverage from my thumbs, I got it back in place. I pity the fool who will have to change that lamp next time—especially since he will almost certainly be me.
