Headlights. What's so frikkin hard???
Discussion
Journeying in the dark last night in a queue I was a bit bored and observed that 1 in ~8 cars were displaying front foglights rising to about 1 in ~7 cars with faulty lights or foglights or sidelights in the dark. I counted 2 cars out of a couple of hundred with no light showing on the off side whatsoever looking like motorbikes. I nearly hit one of these particular imbeciles once on a backroad thinking I had a little more space than I did.
Am I the only one amazed at how many people don't check their headlights or subscribe to this bizarre foglights in good visibility thing?
Question for BIB: would you routinely stop any of these people?
SM
Am I the only one amazed at how many people don't check their headlights or subscribe to this bizarre foglights in good visibility thing?
Question for BIB: would you routinely stop any of these people?
SM
What's especially annoying with the no-off-side-lights brigade is that once you've stoved into their off side, there's no evidence and it'd go 50:50. <fume>
Someone was stopped next to me once at traffic lights with no off side headlight. I got him to open his window so I could tell him. He pulled a sarky face and showed me the replacement lamp, in its box, on the passenger seat. He honestly seemed to think that it was mitigating!
SM
Someone was stopped next to me once at traffic lights with no off side headlight. I got him to open his window so I could tell him. He pulled a sarky face and showed me the replacement lamp, in its box, on the passenger seat. He honestly seemed to think that it was mitigating!
SM
I've always thought it odd that car manufacturers don't extend things like oil, water and temperature warning lights in the binnacle to faulty light warnings. It is obviously a widespread failure in human behaviour to regularly check one's vehicle - how many people actually walk round and check their tyres before a journey? Very few.
Just need a sensor for each light linked to a small diagram by the other warning lights to tell the driver if any lights are faulty. Cost would be minimal methinks to actually implement.
Just need a sensor for each light linked to a small diagram by the other warning lights to tell the driver if any lights are faulty. Cost would be minimal methinks to actually implement.
ditto what supermono has said. It is unbelievable the number of people driving about with defective lights etc. I had the misfortune for one of my dipped beam bulbs to go as i begun my journey home from work. As soon as i got home i changed it - nothing difficult, just 15mins (yep it's an audi) and a scraped knuckle!!
[quote] Question for BIB: would you routinely stop any of these people? [/quote]
I suspect the answer is no.
Should they? Yes.
I posted last week about having foglight cameras on the roads - its a nightmare this time of year, especially with wet roads, driving a low slung sports car, and you have blackpool illuminations coming at you on an unlt country lane....
I suspect the answer is no.
Should they? Yes.
I posted last week about having foglight cameras on the roads - its a nightmare this time of year, especially with wet roads, driving a low slung sports car, and you have blackpool illuminations coming at you on an unlt country lane....
supermono said:
What's especially annoying with the no-off-side-lights brigade is that once you've stoved into their off side, there's no evidence and it'd go 50:50. <fume>
Someone was stopped next to me once at traffic lights with no off side headlight. I got him to open his window so I could tell him. He pulled a sarky face and showed me the replacement lamp, in its box, on the passenger seat. He honestly seemed to think that it was mitigating!
SM
Someone was stopped next to me once at traffic lights with no off side headlight. I got him to open his window so I could tell him. He pulled a sarky face and showed me the replacement lamp, in its box, on the passenger seat. He honestly seemed to think that it was mitigating!
SM
That's one of the ways investigators prove whether you had lights on or not (including indicators). If the bulb was lit (or very recently lit) then it will be quite hot - if bulb is broken in the crash and it is hot, the element will burn in the oxygen rich air and possibly have debris stuck to it by the heat. If it is cold it will not although there is a chance of the element snapping, which will look different.
www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1989/Uksi_19891796_en_9.htm#end
www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1989/Uksi_19891796_en_10.htm#nsch5
...but an offence to dazzle someone.
dvd
Edited by Dwight VanDriver on Tuesday 12th December 16:38
jwo said:
...i changed it - nothing difficult, just 15mins (yep it's an audi) and a scraped knuckle!!
If it took you 15 mins (and you scraped your knuckle) then it's going to be beyond many people.
On quite a few cars now changing some of the bulbs (especially the front ones) is a dealer job - even on something as mundane as a Ford Ka, changing the headlight bulb is not a roadside job.
Getting the bulbs can be a challenge in itself...my Omega warns me when a bulb is out. Yesterday the n/s brake light went intermittent. The only places that sell bulbs of this type now (dual 5w/21w) are dealers or halfords. My journey doesnt involve going near either but I stopped in no less than 4 petrol stations today who all sell 5W tail lamps but nothing else grrr.
So tomorrow its a 10 mile round trip from my office to the nearest halfords.
So tomorrow its a 10 mile round trip from my office to the nearest halfords.
DennisTheMenace said:
Also VWGolf mk4's with no brake lights only the high level .
I don’t know if it is problem with the mk4 golf, but, my sister has one and the drivers brake light is always on the blink. It will stop working but when the bulb is taken out there is nothing wrong with it i.e. filaments work when bench tested.
Last time I checked the entire light cluster with a multimeter whilst the brake pedal was pressed and there was no fault there.
It seems to be a strange electrical issue, but thankfully shes upgrading soon so I wont need to be bothered by it for much longer.
Edited by winston_no1 on Tuesday 12th December 17:41
bigdods said:
Getting the bulbs can be a challenge in itself...my Omega warns me when a bulb is out. Yesterday the n/s brake light went intermittent. The only places that sell bulbs of this type now (dual 5w/21w) are dealers or halfords. My journey doesnt involve going near either but I stopped in no less than 4 petrol stations today who all sell 5W tail lamps but nothing else grrr.
So tomorrow its a 10 mile round trip from my office to the nearest halfords.
So tomorrow its a 10 mile round trip from my office to the nearest halfords.
Buy two while you're there
I'm sure some of the folk don't know, some don't care and some think they're saving the planet by saving energy.
I can forgive a single light here or there as it can take a while to notice (and sometimes you can't get them fixed immediately), but I've seen a few cars that were running on a single sidelight at the front late at night. There's no way that they are oblivious to that fact.
bigdods said:
Getting the bulbs can be a challenge in itself...my Omega warns me when a bulb is out. Yesterday the n/s brake light went intermittent. The only places that sell bulbs of this type now (dual 5w/21w) are dealers or halfords. My journey doesnt involve going near either but I stopped in no less than 4 petrol stations today who all sell 5W tail lamps but nothing else grrr.
So tomorrow its a 10 mile round trip from my office to the nearest halfords.
So tomorrow its a 10 mile round trip from my office to the nearest halfords.
sounds like a standard motorcycle tailight bulb to me .
Rear Fog lights infuriate me. Front Fog lights, I don't care so long as they are set correctly, they only light up the road at a lower level anyway and should not blind.
But what about f
n cars parked at the side of the road facing towards you with headlights on? Do people not realise that headlights are directed to the left hand side??
But what about f
n cars parked at the side of the road facing towards you with headlights on? Do people not realise that headlights are directed to the left hand side?? Edited by mr magoo on Tuesday 12th December 17:56
V8S said:
I've always thought it odd that car manufacturers don't extend things like oil, water and temperature warning lights in the binnacle to faulty light warnings. It is obviously a widespread failure in human behaviour to regularly check one's vehicle - how many people actually walk round and check their tyres before a journey? Very few.
Just need a sensor for each light linked to a small diagram by the other warning lights to tell the driver if any lights are faulty. Cost would be minimal methinks to actually implement.
Just need a sensor for each light linked to a small diagram by the other warning lights to tell the driver if any lights are faulty. Cost would be minimal methinks to actually implement.
They do!
Standard kit on my 01 BMW 5 Series.
sparkythecat said:
V8S said:
I've always thought it odd that car manufacturers don't extend things like oil, water and temperature warning lights in the binnacle to faulty light warnings. It is obviously a widespread failure in human behaviour to regularly check one's vehicle - how many people actually walk round and check their tyres before a journey? Very few.
Just need a sensor for each light linked to a small diagram by the other warning lights to tell the driver if any lights are faulty. Cost would be minimal methinks to actually implement.
Just need a sensor for each light linked to a small diagram by the other warning lights to tell the driver if any lights are faulty. Cost would be minimal methinks to actually implement.
They do!
Standard kit on my 01 BMW 5 Series.
Omega has check control, as did my 156. The 156 only monitored low current bulbs though, so it was still a case of checking your headlights without the aid of technology. Not that it's exactly hard to check the reflection on the car in front when you're in traffic.
But I've seen quite a few cars that come as standard with check control, but are still lacking on the illumination front. So there's a special dedicated core that will even ignore the message 'HEAD LAMP' flashing away on the dashboard.
Whoever called them "idiot lights", well - we've just found a new lowest common denominator...
bimsb6 said:
bigdods said:
Getting the bulbs can be a challenge in itself...my Omega warns me when a bulb is out. Yesterday the n/s brake light went intermittent. The only places that sell bulbs of this type now (dual 5w/21w) are dealers or halfords. My journey doesnt involve going near either but I stopped in no less than 4 petrol stations today who all sell 5W tail lamps but nothing else grrr.
So tomorrow its a 10 mile round trip from my office to the nearest halfords.
So tomorrow its a 10 mile round trip from my office to the nearest halfords.
sounds like a standard motorcycle tailight bulb to me .
Yep its a standard bulb, nothing special. Just saying that you used to be able to buy standard bulbs in petrol stations which makes a whole lot of sense. But I tried BP, Shell and Tesco and they either dont stock bulbs any more or only stock the single filament varieties. And another twist on this theme, the Vauxhall bulbs have offset pins, my other cars have non offset pins on the same bulb type so I couldnt even swap in a bulb from one of the cars Im not using at the moment. Infuriating !
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