We have a 2001 New Beetle TDI. It’s a cute, reliable car. One of the headlights burned out yesterday. Daughter and I bought a replacement bulb today and I was going to give her a lesson in replacing her headlight.
I had her get out her owner’s manual while I looked at the car. There are no screws on the outside holding the lens in place. I popped the hood and looked under the fender. It’s jam-packed full of stuff. She can’t find anyting in the Owner’s Manual. I take a stab at it.
Secondary rant - Why are owner’s manuals so user-hostile?? It’s so hard to find anything. I had to replace my rear signal light on my Aerostar, and it took forever to find the light spec in my manual. There’s no reason for it. None at all! grrrrrr
Anyway, I found the information in the VW book - saying that replacing the bulb requires disassembling the front half of the vehicle and it should be done by a dealer.
This is a headlamp we’re talking here!!! It’s one thing that should be easily accomplished by the vehicle owner. It shouldn’t require special tools or training to become a certified mechanic. It’s a freakin’ light! It appears that in a VW Beetle, all an average person can do is refill the wisher fluid and fuel the vehicle. Everything else has to be done by the dealer!
I have a new criterion when I shop for a new car. I’m going to see what it takes to replace the headlight. If it’s a pain in the ass, I ain’t buying. That’s the Official FairyChatMom Automotive Guideline[sup]TM[/sup] - feel free to apply it at will.
So a $6 bulb is gonna cost me $50 to replace. :smack: That doth well and truly suck swampwater.
This is why I only own older model AMERICAN cars. As to why they do this? Look to your own words.
“So a $6 bulb is gonna cost me $50 to replace.”
The dealer’s don’t make enough on the poor hapless souls buying new cars and paying the 300-400 per month payments (at the end of which they’ve paid 30,000 for a 15,000 dollar car).
So they engineer all things in the vehicle to be nearly impossible for the owners to do themselves.
The good news is that you probably CAN do it yourself. The bad news is that you’ll probably need to buy a “special” headlight wrench or some such for about 50 bucks.
I’ve never owned a new car. I started driving at about 8 (My dad would put us on his lap and let us steer the car, and then when we were big enough he started teaching us on dirt roads and parking lots).
If you combine all the cars I’ve owned since I was 17 and all the repairs I’ve had to do on them (they were all used) it wouldn’t even TOUCH what a new car costs and I’ve owned quite a few and have been driving for 25+ years (more if you count all the training years with my dad).
It’s an evil conspiracy FCM. Trade it in for a 1993 Buick Riviera.
On a brighter note, there are official type automotive repair guides that you can buy. The ones that come with the car are crap.
The “good ones” (and I don’t mean Chilton’s, though that would be an improvement over the one that comes with the car) will tell you everything you need to know.
Mine are at home, so when I get there I’ll look at who publishes them and give you the name if you want.
The good news? Great auto repair guides. The bad news? About 100bucks per book (each, one for mechanical, one for body, my boyfriend bought mine for me).
sob. I have been desperately wanting a VW Bug convertible, although it’s several years off until I finish grad school and run my baby Kia into the ground (and believe me, this Kia is a cheap little sucker…I will run it into the ground in the next three years…I take good care of it, but…dude, it’s a Kia.). Now I’m not so sure.
So you can’t even change your own headlight? That bites. I wonder if it’s the same on a Jetta (my other choice).
Heh. I just KNEW this thread was about Volkswagens. Reliable cars, indeed. Hell to maintain if they DO break down, especially cause VW doesn’t even allow you to change a light bulb.
Ava, I know for a fact that the Golf needs a dealer visit for a light bulb as well. Since the Jetta (Bora over here) is essentially the same car (albeit with different headlights), I’d say it suffers from the same problem.
Volkswagen have come a long way in selling the ultimate rip-off. Their cars are overpriced compared to the competition, dull, and not nearly as superior in reliability as VW would like you to believe. On the other hand, you gotta hand it to them: they sell cars by riding on the last waves of their 1980’s reliability image. Quite the marketing ploy.
Signed,
A satisfied Peugeot owner (come on with those jokes already)
On which the light bulbs can be replaced by a-technical people like myself, in 5 minutes. In 4.5 years, I’ve changed one. ONE.
Come to think of it, the Beetle is of course pretty much a Golf with different body work as well. So yeah, that Jetta’s definitely of the same ilk when it comes to headlights.
No, no, no. You can do this yourself, it’s just kind of a pain in the ***. It just involves undoing a couple clasps inside the engine compartment, which releases the whole “eyeball” unit that houses all the bulbs. The side without the battery is a bit easier because of the slight bit more room on that side. Try this link and failing that, check out the forums over at NewBeetle.org
There’s a whole bunch of newsgroups and lists focusing on VWs in general, and Beetles in specific. I’ve found them all to be quite helpful over the years.
–Benanuel, who replaced not only a headlight in her former Beetle, but also in Mr. Ben’s Passat as well.
But an auto mechanic could do this, too. And while it’s surely going to cost the lovely, the elegent, the wonderful FCM much more than the $6, VW wouldn’t get that cash.
** Benanuel**, THANK YOU!! It’s dark here now, but tomorrow when I get home from work, I’m going to attack her car again. I think the left headlight is out - is that where the battery sits?
No matter. I’ll read over the links and see if I can take care of it tomorrow. I may have to impose on a friend for help as my husband has taken most of the tools with him on the boat. But my daughter has a set of screwdrivers, pliers, and sockets, so we may have what we need.
I’ll post tomorrow with another bitch session or a woohoo.
My last VW was a 1978 Scirocco which I had from '86 - '91. It was a great car, until the water pump went out. I know a fair amount about car repair, so I ordered the water pump from Imparts, had my Scirocco book (The one with a picture of half the car showing only the wiring, can’t remember the book’s name right now), and went to work.
Only to discover that one of the bolts required to remove the old water pump was located behind an engine mount. An engine mount machined to the engine well. Yes, that’s right - in order to replace the water pump on a late 70’s model Scirocco, you had to remove the entire engine from the vehicle.
I’ll ditto what Coldfire said about VW these days - sure, the Passat Wagon was cool when I test drove it, but it wasn’t no Thirty Thousand Dollar car. And I can’t tell you how many new Beetles w/burned out headlights I see…
I have changed my driver’s side bulb three times in the beetle. My passengers needs to be changed. Warning: Plastic is fragile. However, it doesn’t stop working if it breaks off.
So. On the round bit the bulb is in is a latch. Flip it open. Under that is a lifty thing that slides round. Press down the preventing from move latch, and slide the lifty thing. Doesn’t move, huh? Get a screwdriver push in the preventing from move latch. Oh, it broke off? Eh, no big deal. Slide the lifty thing. Add oil. Slide more. C’mon… GO! Good, done. Make sure it’s all the way, and slide the headlight out. Watch out, one nut is in the way of the track, you have to lift and seperate the main body to get the bulb over it. Unplug wire in back of headlight. WARNING! Do not put headlight front on anything even remotely harsh. Seperate headlight body. Lift latch. Remove bulb. Replace bulb. Reverse. Watch out for that bolt again.
Latch down hard, and you’re done. Until the battery dies or your car gets serviced.
You’re welcome! I think the battery is on the right (driver’s) side, but I’m not 100% sure. I had a 1.8T, but I don’t think that should make a difference. Let us know how it goes.
If you want the manual for the Beetle, check your local library. Mine has all sorts of car manuals.
My pa has a 90s Volvo station wagon. One of the bulbs in the dashboard went out; it took the dealer something like two hours to pull the dashboard apart, replace the bulb, and put the dash back together again. Apparently the same procedure is involved to trip the little switch that turns off the “scheduled maintentance required” light.
That little dashboard indicator has been on for years now.
I don’t know what strange mysteries take place under the hood of a horseless carriage. But, for what it’s worth, my millright father, who fixes mechanical contraptions, claims that the latest generation of American cars are among the easiest ever to service. Easy to access assemblies, engine compartments designed with maintenance in mind, etc.
Then again, he drives a old BMW ('86. You don’t see many '86 American cars on the road), so I dunno…
