I was called upon to change a dipped beam bulb in the in-laws 05 plate V50 2.0d at the weekend.
A first glance showed a typical modern, cramped underbonnet layout, with access to the back of the light unit requiring a triple jointed wrist, and then there being no room to remove the back cover of the headlight due to the proximity of the fusebox and a section of wiring loom with no slack whatsoever.
Then I spotted the metal pin. Jiggle it free and pull it upwards. Slide the complete headlamp unit forwards by 6", pop cover off, change bulb and refit cover with all the room in the world, slide headlamp back, slide pin back. Job done. 2 minutes.
What a fabulous piece of design. What are the other manufacturers' excuses for not doing this?
Cheers
DP
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Their dealers would lose out on easy money.
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...full marks to Volvo....
And Ford, for the Focus CC3, if not the rest of the range.
According to the handbook, one screw on top of the headlight unit enables its removal.
The book also gives instructions on how to change all the other bulbs, both inside and out.
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...full marks to Volvo.... And Ford for the Focus CC3 if not the rest of the range. According to the handbook one screw on top of the headlight unit enables its removal.
And 2 clips at the bottom, pressed down with a screwdriver or stick. Headlamp removal takes seconds.
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Now repeat on your S60 :) Though the original S60 is not as bad as the facelift.
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The S60's a bit of a knuckle grazer, but it's do-able. I heard the facelift is a bit of a swine.
The removable pin just struck me as a beautifully simple solution to the problem.
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It's a great idea.
I've never seen the S40/V50 system in action but I remember seeing a guy replace his dipped headlight bulb on an XC90 in thirty seconds. That had two flat blades holding the headlight in I seem to recall.
Just wish they'd implemented this on the facelifted S60 as they all appeared about the same time.
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Then I spotted the metal pin. Jiggle it free and pull it upwards. Slide the......
That's exactly how it works on my MKIII Mondy - must be a design that runs in the Ford "family" then.....
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Sadly not, Jaguar never bothered doing this to the X-Type where it is damn near impossible to change the headlight bulbs on both sides. I think the near side is the worst as there is a whacking great air filter box in the way to add to frustration and misery.
My vote -- buy the bulb and take Halfords up on their offer of £2 or so to fit.
Edited by Cheeky on 27/05/2009 at 09:55
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Thank you DP! Thank you Honest John! Thank you Volvo! Thank you Google! Thank you Internet! Thank you Headlamp Fairy. (Have I left anybody out.)
Had a vague idea it was supposed to be easy on a V50 and just been trying to change bulb in Halfords car park in solid rainstorm. Gave up as not having triple-jointed wrist and came home. Luckily rain not so bad now and having the vital piece of information about the metal pin I was able to complete the job in a couple of minutes. Excellent.
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havingthe vital piece of information about the metal pin I was able to complete the job in a couple of minutes. Excellent.
I have to ask this.... is said information easily available from owner's manual, and (politely) if so why didn't you read that first?
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Haven't had to replace a bulb yet but the E90 / E91 3 Series has panels in the front of the wheelarches which are removable and allow reasonable access to the bulb holders, I guess you'll get dirty hands but reasonably intelligent design all the same ?
There are also detailed instructions in the handbook.
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I've just changed the bulb on my MkII Focus Estate - took all of 5 mins, and that was 4 mins looking at it as it seemed suspiciously easy!
One single screw undone, headlight unit slides forward. Pop off plastic cover, disconnect power and replace bulb. Put it all back together and you're done! Did it in the semi-light in my works car park and it made a change from the nightmare of the last few cars I've had.
Shame I have to get rid of the focus as the seats are crippling me with backache :-(
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Sounds like a nice design.
Our old Scenic 2 was pretty awful, grazed and scratched arms resulted, Renault charged 50 quid when it was a company car.
Our MK1 Merc A class has a removable flap in the wheelarch enabling direct access to the bulb holder.
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You used to be ( still can ? ) go on to the Volvo UK web-site and under a section about servicing/ owners info or whatever, there were short videos showing you how to do things like change bulbs, wiper-blades and the like. I think it even had a bit about brake pads. Worth checking out.
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Facelift S60 is actually not too bad. I did both headlights on ours in 25 mins.
Important to remember that you have to locate the bulb and THEN plug it in. Plug it in first and it won't fit.
That was the first 10 minutes of the 25. :-(
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