C5. Drivers side headlight not working (original)

[boristhespie]

Cop car pulled in, then followed me all over town on hogmanay finally putting lights on. Apparently my front driver side headlight wasn't working. Anyway when I said I had the car motd two weeks previous he said "yeah but you are meant to check your car everytime you get in to it". Yeah like he does. Muppet. Anyway he and his mate decided to check entire car. All lights, tyres, wheel lock (?), and stuff. Ended up giving me an advisory ticket for getting bilb changed.

I had bulb in car and he made me try and change it there and then in the dark at side of road. Cut all my hand. Anyway long atory short couldn't so he made my wife and I walk.

(-expletive removed-). (sorry for language, but my entire street has all their wing mirrors knocked off inc me and a neighbour assaulted by two teens as he tries to stop them and the cops do nothing. Continuously they fail to deal with gangs of 30-40 harrassing my street or damaging cars or throwing beer bottles at houses but they can get joe schmo for having a bulb out)

Anyway tried new bulb later but not working. Hope I never damaged wires when trying to hawl off attachment to bulb when under pressure by cop.

Could it be a fuse and if so where and which one would it be?

Any advice to locate problem appreciated. I need car for work. In dark.

Last thing said after this 30-40 minutes of bullying. "enjoy the rest of your night". Git.

[Gibbo2286]

Firstly the cops were right to stop you driving, if some trucker had mistaken you for a motor bike you might not be here to have a whinge, however the fuses for the RH headlamp are F10 and F12 under the bonnet.

[myglaren]

Firstly the cops were right to stop you driving, if some trucker had mistaken you for a motor bike you might not be here to have a whinge, however the fuses for the RH headlamp are F10 and F12 under the bonnet.

Technically correct but you can always (legally) use sidelights + foglights in an event like this.

Lots of cars are almost impossible to have bulbs replace under roadside conditions.
Took me two and a half hours to replace an offside headlamp bulb in my daughter's Rover 75 a couple of weeks ago.
Nearside is a doodle, offside not so much.

Cop was right that lights, tyres and windows should be checked/cleaned before each use but I'd like to see a non-professional driver that does that!

[boristhespie]

Where about under the bonnet.

Attitude of one cop was arrogant and up erse. Hence my vexation. That and the fact that they never turn up when there is work to be done actually preventing regular crime and anti-social stuff in my road or if they do they do nowt.

"Cop was right that lights, tyres and windows should be checked/cleaned before each use but I'd like to see a non-professional driver that does that!"

People who do that tend to get their cars nicked and run down in the process of stopping those nicking it.

[Harlequin]

was it the headlight but side light was on - or the entire thing was off?

[Gibbo2286]

Where about under the bonnet.

[boristhespie]

The sides were on it's just the headlight.

Thanks for the schematic but where in the engine is this box?

[Gibbo2286]

Between the LH headlamp and the suspension fluid tank there's a plastic cover held on by a couple of turn clips, it's under there.

[myglaren]

Have you the handbook for the car Boris?





All are clickable thumbnails but if you want the images emailing to you just shout


Spent ages looking for the screwdriver used to release the clips and failed miserably. Just found it in my back pocket - 10" long

[Xantidote]

It p***** me off how many vehicles one sees with a headlight not working, but what p***** me off all the more is that car manufacturers are allowed to sell cars where it's not possible to change a bulb at the roadside. How can we comply with the law about having the car's lights working, when car manufacturers are sell products not fit for purpose. Grrrrrrrrrrrh.

BTW, Happy New Year to all!

[dnsey]

Wouldn't it be sensible if headlights were fitted with a reserve lamp which could be brought into use by operating a small lever, as are some projectors? Such sensible refinements would be much more useful than many of the gimmicks which are actually provided, but probably wouldn't appeal to many shallow-minded buyers

[DickieG]

Wouldn't it be sensible if headlights were fitted with a reserve lamp which could be brought into use by operating a small lever, as are some projectors? Such sensible refinements would be much more useful than many of the gimmicks which are actually provided, but probably wouldn't appeal to many shallow-minded buyers

I like that one, a magazine cartridge of spare bulbs for each light

[DickieG]

I guess if you deal with ruffians day in and day out then when you come across the odd really genuine pleasant, polite person you are thrown off-kilter...

One such example of that was stopping a group of quaint Travellers, normally a complete nightmare of confrontation, lies and generally very unpleasant behaviour but on this occasion they were English Travellers (from Yorkshire IIRC) they were polite beyond belief and even invited me into their van for a cuppa, they had receipts for everything, serial numbers on their caravans (they insisted I check them ) and were very nice people indeed, a complete contrast to the normal experience of dealing with (Irish) Travellers, so much so that I almost fell over in disbelief

The only time I've knowingly caused a little disquiet to the Police was back in 1986 when lost in a less then salubrious are of Manchester and walked into a nick quietly humming the theme tune from 'Dixon of Dock Green' and greeted them with 'Evenin' All!'

They were good and gave me the necessary directions

I'm surprised they didn't nick you or send you off on a wild goose chase

[mooseshaver]

I'm enjoying this off topic topic. Please don't stop.

Boris, are your lights fixed? I had a garage repalce a bulb for me and they rammed it in and had it pointing at the wrong angle. A friend and I shredded our skin to get the bulb in correctly, but discovered at the next MOT that the whole lamp had to be repalced as the bulb holder was knackered.
I've changed to a different garage, but it may be worth seeing what a dealer charges to repalce it, would be cheaper than a headlamp.

[Northern_Mike]

I think if we all remember to treat others in the way we wish to be treated ourselves, the problems wouldn't arise That's what I do anyway. Unless the person is an arsehole :p