Regarding this sort of customer, an uncle of mine used to tell people that morgues/funeral homes no doubt contained the bodies of people who were alive yesterday but were dead today.
Some great advice overnight, thanks people. I tested the lights when I got home, and the brights are working on both sides but the normal brightness is burnt out on the right. I think I’m going to take it to a place once I get paid just to get an estimate. If it’s more than about 50 bucks for labor, I will see if I can DIY it (and not touch the bulb with my hands, just in case). It seems like a bulb swap should be easy enough, in theory.
In the meantime, while I’m researching and waiting on my paycheck, can you get in trouble for driving around with brights on? I don’t want to get stopped or get a ticket for having only one headlight.
Gary T is absolutely right in that my hub has also chosen to not continue to do business with customers that accuse first and ask questions later. Any professional technician is rightly offended when the customer’s first reaction is that (1) he’s technically incompetant and (2) he’s prepared to not make corrections if he actually did something wrong.
Short anecdote. Hub worked on customers car. Customer picked up car and on the way home it died. Customer could not get the car restarted and called my husband in the most nasty, vile tone demanding he dispatch a tow truck immediately fix whatever he screwed up at no cost to the customer. Hub got the car towed back in the shop only to find it was simply out. of. gas. While hub had a great deal of pleasure calling the customer with the actual diagnosis, customer didn’t have the good taste to apologize or even offer to pay for the tow.
I believe you need to have a trust relationship with the shop/technician that works on your car. It’s the second largest investment most people will ever make and it still surprises me when people believe a car should never cost anything to maintain. By taking your car to a good technician that you trust, he will do his best to keep you from having a disabled vehicle in the middle of a busy intersection at 5pm on Friday night. It’s his job to not only fix what breaks but also tell you when you have something that’s getting ready to give you problems.
OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now. This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart.
I would expect the labor to be noticeably less than that. However, my repair info indicates it’s an easy procedure on your car, so you may want to DIY anyway.
Note that the bulb is installed from the back side of the lamp assembly, under the hood. You can locate it by its being directly behind the light as seen from the front. There will be an electrical connector; remove it by pressing its release tab and pulling it away from the bulb. Then twist the bulb 1/8 turn counterclockwise and pull it out. (If necessary for reasons of access, you can first withdraw the bulb then unplug the connector). Install the new bulb: place it in, twist 1/8 turn clockwise to seat/lock it, push the wiring connector on – done!
Clarification: it’s only the actual glass of the bulb that should not be touched. It’s fine to handle any plastic or metal portion.
I’m pretty sure it’s a violation, though seldom enforced. However, if you decide to replace the bulb yourself, you may find you can afford it now.
Ex-customer now, I imagine. 
Amen to that! I teach a local Communiversity course that advises people how to find a good shop (competent and honorable) that suits their needs. It’s not unlike finding and developing a relationship with a physician.
On most cars, this should take you 15 minutes tops. It’s a very easy thing to do, not something I would consider taking to a shop. It’s slightly more involved than changing your wiper blades.
You can get cited for either of those. As someone who will be sharing the road with you, driving around with one light out is much safer for the rest of the driving public than driving around with your high beams on. Those blind other drivers and are a real safety hazard.
Hey cool, I just downloaded the owner’s manual to see what they recommended. This sounds super easy. I know how to open the hood and where the windshield fluid goes but that’s about it. Thanks for breaking it down into something even an idiot could understand!
Should I take out the bulb first and take it in with me to an auto parts store to make sure I get the right one? Or if I tell them what I drive, will they give me the right one?
The manual should have a listing of the type of each bulb the car takes. The store will also have a book you can look up your car in.
yeah, that’s one thing I don’t miss about wrenching. I think it’s a combination of a few things:
-
people who watch too much local news programs that love to do those “consumer action” stories trying to bust crooked shops,
-
people who expect their car to be an appliance that needs nothing more than fuel for 500,000 miles
-
people who don’t understand that correlation != causation.
I had one guy pick up his Honda Civic after having a power steering pump replaced (I didn’t work on the car.) He goes to leave, then comes storming back in about how we “screwed up his car.” I go out to see what the problem is, he starts the car and it sounds fine. I ask what the problem is and he says “can’t you see? it barely starts!” I guess in his mind it was cranking a little longer or something, but it sounded fine to me. there was no sputtering or anything. basically a second of cranking and it fired right up and idled smoothly. I found out later he was some spoiled Grosse Pointe brat, so I guess we didn’t meet his exacting standards.
In our shop this sort of thing has a standard name. The customer came back with a “Cincyu”. I leave it to the student to determine what that means.
They will probably give you the right one based only on year/make/model.
But taking the old one with you pretty well guarantees you’ll make just one trip to the store. I always do this when possible.
Another point is that when you show up with a part that you removed yourself, it says you’re someone who knows what she’s doing and is not to be trifled with.
Late to the party as usual.
One suggestion. Replace both headlight bulbs. They have a terrible habit of burning out a couple of weeks apart. Same with tail lights or any other bulb in the car.
Replacing them both allows you to only get your hands dirty/go to the shop once.
This advice does not necessarily apply if you’re showing up at the hospital for an organ transplant.
I think the “not to be trifled with” part would still apply.
I had my oil changed but when I got back home my jacuzzi would not operate. I knew there could be no logical connection.
However my horoscope had warned me prior that I should be extra cautious when out and about that day, and be careful whom I trusted. So I had to conclude that if I had not gotten my oil changed at that place, I would not have experienced any hot tub problems. I have to thank my lucky stars, the planets were trying to tell me something.
Although the jacuzzi was not physically connected to the oil change place in any way whatsoever, it was still obvious that the local Skippy-Lube was operated by a bunch of crooks - even though I did not get ripped off as far as I knew. At least that time.
I never went back to the local Skippy-Lube ever again.
ooh skippy lube. You should try the chunky pb oil next time you go in. I want a jacuzzi in my car.
Seconded. Last year, my shop took a $1000+ loss on a mistake they made. I called them when things didn’t seem right and they sent a tow truck to fetch the car from our driveway. Called me at work and said essentially: “Our bad, we’ll cover the tow charge and the cost of another transmission”.
Good ones cost a little more, but they’re worth it.
Welp I changed the headlight myself. It was an adventure peppered with novice errors, but I got through it and now it’s working. yay! Thanks again for all the advice.
Excellent job!
Props to you! “I am woman! Hear me roar!”