Is it me or does there appear to be an ever-increasing number of cars on the road with only one working headlight? There also appear to be a number who have their front foglights on (to supplement the one working?)
Is this down to the difficulty of replacing bulbs on current cars or just sheer laziness?
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If 10% of drivers will drive without insurance/rfl/licence then 20% driving in an unroadworthy car is alright!
Just another example of falling standards in UK!
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Think it just indicates the number of useless drivers there are on the roads who are oblivious to whats going on around them. They cannot "feel" when their tyre pressures are getting lower, or see when a headlight is not working or is out of alignment. They brake whenever a car is coming in the opposite direction.They drive along with their indicators continuously going, and they slow and or stop at roundabouts when clearly there are no other vehicles on the roundabout.
There. Rant over.
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It's down to the arrival of early sunsets, so the faulty headlights are more noticeable. And I suppose the increased use causes more failures. Having been told (only once) that one of my lamps was out, I was surprised how easy it is not to notice, at least when driving in lit streets.
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...at least when driving in lit streets....
Some drivers rarely stray outside lit areas - I was like that when I lived in London.
As Andrew-T says, it's easy not to notice a blown bulb in those circumstances.
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My ex wife gave me a lift to the office xmas party last year (we are on very civil terms!!). It was only on unlit country lanes she realised a haedlight was out, as things were so much better on main beam.
Personally. I check all bulbs whenever I have a chance eg: reflection in shop window, etc.
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I was surprised how easy it is not tonotice at least when driving in lit streets.
(Not meant unkindly) It's very easy to notice if you check your lights regularly.
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Is this down to the difficulty of replacing bulbs on current cars or just sheer laziness?
Both. The subject's been done to death on here; my personal view is that if chief constables were as diligent about faulty lights as they are about speeding it'd be less of a problem, but of course we all know which makes more profit for less paperwork.
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Much more common since changing headlamp bulbs became a major surgical / front end strip down operation instead of 2 minutes on a petrol station forecourt or spares shop car park.
I partly blame the manufacturers.
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I partly blame the manufacturers.
>>
There are indeed some cars where style has overrriden practicality.; however there are also a lot of owners who are reluctant to get their hands dirty, witness the number of times you see a recovery driver changing a wheel these days.
There is also the fact that many drivers these days wouldn't have the first clue of how to change the bulb even if it was a physically easy task.
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An observation which perhaps points to laziness / ignorance - I often see cars with more than one light out e.g. a headlight and a tailight (perhaps on opposite sides) - or maybe both brake lights so only the high level / LED one shows - a bit unnerving.
Sometimes you see cars with no headlight or sidelight on one side - here I assume a more significant failure has occurred, makes matters even worse.
Most of my cars since the mid 1990s have had bulb failure warning lights, however when my company Vectra CDX of 1996 vintage first exclaimed 'tailight failure' I didn't believe it because it had been so unreliable, however - it wasn't lying.......
Off topic, I believe that the LED bulbs favoured by youthful customisers cause bulb warnings to be given due to their different voltage characteristics. The price of 'bling'....
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Lots of cars with only one headlight in this town, not all of them old sheds.
Quite a lot of them make up for the absence of one light by pointing the other in a random direction and turning on its main beam.
Must be a feeble attempt to keep up with the many cars with correct headlights but driven on main beam all the time. They really like that little blue illuminated headlight on the facia. It reassures them that their lights are working.
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Must be a feeble attempt to keep up with the many cars with correct headlights but driven on main beam all the time. They really like that little blue illuminated headlight on the facia. It reassures them that their lights are working.
They must be compensating for the ones who head out on to unlit rural roads unaware of the concept of using main beam to see where they are going.Maybe they tried it once and wondered why all the oncoming vehicles kept flashing them.
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I often see cars with more than one light out e.g. a headlight and a tailight (perhaps on opposite sides)- or maybe both brake lights so only the high level / LED one shows - a bit unnerving.
Takes me less than 5 mins to change the passenger headlight bulb on my Vectra, but over half hour for the drivers side - bumper off and headlight removal, or airfilter box removal to gain acess. Two tail lights each side, so have a backup should one fail. Also, should a brakelight fail (it's the same bulb as the upper of the two tail lights) then the lower of the two tail lights takes over the role of tail/brake light.
Off topic I believe that the LED bulbs favoured by youthful customisers cause bulb warnings to be given due to their different voltage characteristics.
Same voltage, but the current drawn by the LEDs is significantly less than a bulb.
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Or none at all !....I almost had a 'head on' this am. Driving up the A65 to Kendal at 07.40 I could just make out a large slow moving vehicle coming towards me. The car coming up fast behind it did not see it until it was too late to brake safely, and swung onto my side of the road in an effort to avoid a major rear end shunt. Fortunately, I had seen the fast approaching car headlights and I braked hard, slowing to 15 mph at most...for some reason I had assumed the worst.
It was a tractor pulling a slurry trailer...no lights at all, no rear lights or even reflectors visible...probably covered by cow muck. Typically, no police around to inform of the stupidity of the tractor driver. Gave me a very big shock just thinking about the consequences.
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Farmers here are much the same OR lit up like a ruddy Christmas tree blinding you to death. Usually a youth either phoning or texting or on the CB. Bunch of idiots.
MD
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...Usually a youth either phoning or texting or on the CB...
Most of the rigs I see on the roads around the caravan in leafy North Yorkshire are in good order - fairly new. lights working, etc.
But I agree with the mobile/texting comment.
For some reason, farm tractor drivers seem to think the law doesn't apply to them.
Maybe because they are used to doing what they like when hacking around the fields.
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When one headlight bulb goes, I always replace both - while I am in there. Anyone else do that?
Edited by oilrag on 21/11/2009 at 08:23
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When one headlight bulb goes I always replace both - while I am in there. Anyone else do that?>>
Certainly not! In discarding the one that works you could be throwing out the one that, by a process of natural selection, is a long-living specimen. Anyway, it's such a pain to get to the Focus bulbs that one-at-a-time is plenty to deal with!
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When one headlight bulb goes I always replace both - while I am in there. Anyone else do that?>>
Nope, but have been known to swap the high beam bulb for the low beam bulb (where they're the same type of course) as high beans are hardly used by comparison.
In fact, off topic but had to concede in a conversation only last night that whilst I like having front foglamps I probably use them about one every 2 years (legally of course, I'm not a yoof), I appreciate that if you live in N Yorkshire or the like you'll have more opportunity to use both the fogs and high beams but in the SE, they're ornaments.
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>> When one headlight bulb goes I always replace both - while I am in >> there. Anyone else do that?>>
Yes, I change both sides, the removed "good" one is used as an emergency spare.
>>Nope, but have been known to swap the high beam bulb for the low beam bulb (where >>they're the same type of course) as high beans are hardly used by comparison.
Depends where you live. Beams work better than "beans". :-)
Edited by Old Navy on 21/11/2009 at 12:25
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Navy and Oily must be on a wind up.
There's some here who would like to slip bulbs in and out of their cars like shelling peas, unfortunately some have cars that have to be partly dismantled to do so..stop picking on them;-)
Trying to think of the last time i had a headlamp blow on one my cars, i can't remember.
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Me, Wind up? One screw and two clips and headlamp unit in hand. :-)
Next car will probably require engine removal. :-(
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Me Wind up? One screw and two clips
Luckily both ours are the similarly simple...unclip rear cover remove bulb replace...you need a 12" step to stand on for the pick up though unless you are 7ft tall or your arms 4ft long:-)
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The manual in the Qashqai doesn't even give instructions on headlamp bulb replacement. It simply tells you to take it to a Nissan dealer if it has xenons. That'll not be cheap then....
:-(
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That'll not be cheap then.... :-(
Is that the company one, Humph?
Edited by Old Navy on 21/11/2009 at 13:54
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Aye....so it's not all that worrying !
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this is all a non problem. I run around with my fog lights on in case a headlight fails.
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Poor try, you can do better than that AE. :-)
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You almost needed fog lights this morning `just south of Leeds`.
I was too scared - i - cat - to chance the M1 down to Meadowhall. There were cars flashing down at high speed, some with no lights. (As seen from a bridge passing over the M1)
Then, on an unlit back road, out of the fog and gloom, a tractor and trailer, no lights - driver on a mobile phone...
Edited by oilrag on 21/11/2009 at 15:16
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When one headlight bulb goes I always replace both - while I am in there. Anyone else do that
statistically wouldnt it be better to stagger headlight replacements thus reducing the chance of a double blow?
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Is this down to the difficulty of replacing bulbs on current cars or just sheer laziness?
Presumably the popular aftermarket 50% brighter bulbs burn 50% shorter too?
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That was my experience (actually worse) many years ago. I`ve only used `regular` bulbs since.
I can also remember about twenty years ago fitting special, blue tinted headlight bulbs that "cut through fog" - or something like that. They were so dim that I could hardly see where I was going on unlit roads.
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Got the ultimate "no lights" yesterday... coming back on the M5 yesterday afternoon and got overtaken by a grey (all right, silver) Audi, no lights, pouring rain, poor visibility, it was the ultimate "grey day"! I couldn't even see him in my mirrors until he was right behind me... mental...
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I bought a new bulb for the Accord when I had it.
OPened the bonnet and realised I had no chance of success (cf. the Volvo 340, where it was all so simple that even I could do it).
The manufacturers have hit on a way to make their dealerships money, I suppose, even if it also helps independents.
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More or less the only time I've used my front fogs ( perhaps inappropriately ) was an occasion when I arrived back into the UK at Heathrow around midnight. I reached the car park with a prospect of a 3.5 hour drive through the night to get home. When I switched my headlights on the O/S dipped beam was out. By now it was getting on for 1.00 am. I decided to use the front fogs to more clearly identify the width of the car to other drivers. Got home and the next morning changed the bulb.
Now, this was probably illegal but in the circumstances struck me as the sensible very temporary solution. No one flashed any disapproval and I did pass a couple of police cars whose occupants either didn't notice or chose not to.
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