The girth of my fingers seems to be increasing in inverse proportion to the amount of space available to fit tool, finger, part, flashlight. I’ll need to get a Model T soon.
My old car ('02 Dodge Neon) certainly followed the OP’s maxim, in order to replace the bulb, you had to unbolt the headlight assembly and re-align the headlight after install, typically a 20-30 minute job
my new car ('07 Saturn Ion) also requires headlight removal for bulb changes, however, Saturn engineers figured a quite novel and logical way of doing it, the headlight assembly is held in with two “restraining bolts” (Astromech droid not included…), basically two “L” shaped pins, one on each side of the headlight assembly, to swap bulbs, you simply pull the two restraining bolts, slide out the headlight assembly, replace the bulb, and slide the headlight assembly back in, reinstall the bolts and you’re good, no headlight realignment neccecary, as the bolts hold the light assembly in the headlight frame, total replacement time, five minutes, tops
however, replacing the bulbs in the taillights is less logical, it requires the removal of three screws (at least they’re Phillips) and the taillight assembly
Rick’s ironclad law of auto repair
Mr. Murphy is always standing right behind you just waiting…
Unbolt the headlamp? Go to the dealer? Yeesh! What ever happened to the world standardizing on the type 9004 bulb that mounts with a quarter-turn twist?
Sounds like we need to re-phrase the first axiom of car repair:
**In order to save .02 cents per vehicle, the automakers will do things that are simple for them that will make maintenance by the owner difficult or even impossible.
**
My second axiom relates to heater cores. The first component of the car that starts rolling down the assembly line is the heater core. Everything else is bolted to the heater core in layers, much like an onion.
Third axiom: Every good do-it-yourself project will require the purchase of one moderately expensive specialized tool that has no other worldly use other than acting as a paperweight or blunt weapon. Avid shadetree mechanics collect these oddball tools and display them proudly on their garage wall so the entire neighborhood can know that they possess a #4 manifold alignment jig and a full set of carburetor torque pawls, including metric.
FIVE headlights. FIIIIve. The retaining plastic bits snapped off long ago.
I am reaaal glad it’s gone.
The first axiom of car repair is never let your friends find out you’re mechanically inclined - they’ll show up on your doorstep with sick cars…
I think my daughter has replaced 3 so far (it’s her car, sorta) and luckily, she has better hand strength than I do, because I couldn’t get the doggone strap thingy to release. I expect once she graduates and gets her first adult job, the car will be on the list to go away.
Hi Rick, what do you do for a living?
Mummble, mummble mummble
What?
Pizza delivery.
(actually I don’t mind working on my friend’s cars)
My brother helps me with my car; I help him with his computer. I call it fair. 
I tend to be brutally honest with my cars. When I get them, I tell them that this is the end of the line and they will go no further. Through no fault of their own, their days of service will probably end with me.
I wonder what it would be like to have a car with low mileage. I have always suspected that the anxiety to protect the investment and whatnot would outweigh the supposed benefits.
My friend God of Citroens has a Beetle, and he says that if you apply inward pressure on the headlight lens as you try to undo the latch thingie, it goes better. Note: I have not tried this myself, I am not a mechanic in real life, YMMV, etc.
"all injuries and fatalities are the result of the unintended release of energy. "
-Unintentionally Blank (member 0001 of the Bonehead Mecanics Assoc. Of America*)
- turning finely machined parts into doorstops since 1969
Yeah, the headlights work about the same way on a 94 Geo Prism. I figured this out after about four hours of trying to get the lens off, first from the front, then from the back. :smack:
I just passed the 275,000 mark today. If I had all of the money that this car generated by “paying for itself” I would be a wealthy man indeed.
Yes, but I always bring pizza and beer. Which you can have after you’re done.
And I love you, and I’ll give you a backrub. When you’re done. But no head. At least, not unless it’s a really tough job.
But you did have all of the money that the car made by ‘paying for itself’ and yet you are not a rich man.
All the jobs are really tough. All of them.
And most of them need to be done three or four times a week.
Don’t forget the preventative maintenance.
Especially the spindle flanges. They always forget to check the spindle flanges.