Impractical car design
Discussion
I'm sure this has been done before but I've just had the delight of changing my ford focus's passenger headlight bulb! Surely this could not have been made an harder no view of it, limited access and clips that barely fit then suddenly seem too loose. It took 45 minutes to change and I'm still not convinced I've done it right however I can't see anything so it is done purely on feel. The guy that designed it must have been a masochist. Is this the worst/most impractical bit of car design!
On my '95 Merc E320 it was two clips, remove cover, remove old bulb, fit new and reverse procedure - both side done in five minutes
On my '03 Audi A8 it's remove front bumper and maybe wheel arch liner and bugger about for an hour or two, cursing all the time that your hands are twice the size they should be - a real b
d of a job.
On my '03 Audi A8 it's remove front bumper and maybe wheel arch liner and bugger about for an hour or two, cursing all the time that your hands are twice the size they should be - a real b
d of a job.Cambelt/Aux belt on the F4R engine in Clio's (not sure about it in other vehicles). There is just no room with the engine in situ, such a ballache to do.
Mk1 Focus RS. The loom for the boot lid doesn't have a plug where it joins into the car. The high level brake light is hard wired and needs cutting and re wiring to replace the boot and you have to feed all the rest of the loom out of the boot too.
Mk5 Zetec-S. the catalytic converter is attached to the manifold right at the top of the engine bay. to remove it you need to either remove the engine, or you need to loosen all the engine mounts and remove the lower one, get a scissor jack and wedge it between the engine and bulkhead to push the engine forward enough for it to come out.
Mk1 Focus RS. The loom for the boot lid doesn't have a plug where it joins into the car. The high level brake light is hard wired and needs cutting and re wiring to replace the boot and you have to feed all the rest of the loom out of the boot too.
Mk5 Zetec-S. the catalytic converter is attached to the manifold right at the top of the engine bay. to remove it you need to either remove the engine, or you need to loosen all the engine mounts and remove the lower one, get a scissor jack and wedge it between the engine and bulkhead to push the engine forward enough for it to come out.
cologne2792 said:
My Capri is one screw, remove cover, undo bulb clip and replace - 60 seconds top - things were so much easier in 1978 !
My 2001 E39 is practically 10 seconds. Open bonnet, turn bulb holder 45 degrees anti-clockwise, take out bulb from bulb holder, put new bulb in and put back in. It's a 530D also, so not a small engine by any stretch of the imagination, yet access is huge.guns80 said:
I'm sure this has been done before but I've just had the delight of changing my ford focus's passenger headlight bulb! Surely this could not have been made an harder no view of it, limited access and clips that barely fit then suddenly seem too loose. It took 45 minutes to change and I'm still not convinced I've done it right however I can't see anything so it is done purely on feel. The guy that designed it must have been a masochist. Is this the worst/most impractical bit of car design!
first time with the mk1 focus is hard, after that, it's easy once you know how it should gomain tricky part is getting the plastic cover back on correctly
cologne2792 said:
My Capri is one screw, remove cover, undo bulb clip and replace - 60 seconds top - things were so much easier in 1978 !
But thankfully the output & intensity of modern headlights isn't in the 70s still! I remember how bad the headlights in my MK1 Golf were...and the wipers....and heater....and the brakes. Simpler engineering yes, but at the expense of performance!I don't mind cursing the car designer for an hour swapping out a bulb. I've learned something new about the car and I've saved £100+VAT by not taking it to the dealer.
It is annoying. But having tried to build my kit car in such a way that it's easy to work on and get at everything, and having comprehensively failed as more and more stuff needs to be bolted on top of the last thing, I have a bit more sympathy for the designers. Packaging is hard. Though I do think that having to remove the bumper is a step too far. The ones in the wheel arch are not too bad once you get used to them, I can do mine in 5 mins now, took me nearly an hour the first time.
I had difficulty changing the headlights on my 2005 honda civic. Now i've done it a couple of times I have it down quite well but I agree with the comments about having to change a lightbulb at the side of the road - some cars its just not easily possible, and at 10 pm in the middle of winter in a stty motorway services you wont bother when you justy want to get home.
Some car manufactueres are making driving somewhat unsafe - perhaps ease of changing bulbs etc should be taken into consideration on the NCAP safety ratings!
tty motorway services you wont bother when you justy want to get home. Some car manufactueres are making driving somewhat unsafe - perhaps ease of changing bulbs etc should be taken into consideration on the NCAP safety ratings!
Snowboy said:
The thing is, it can't be accidental.
These cars are designed by huge teams of engineers.
If they wanted to make it easy they would find a way.
I would guess that a certain amount of high maintenance is built into cars to keep the dealer service bays busy.
1 - The dealer profit doesn't go to the manufacturer.These cars are designed by huge teams of engineers.
If they wanted to make it easy they would find a way.
I would guess that a certain amount of high maintenance is built into cars to keep the dealer service bays busy.
2 - The dealer profit certainly doesn't go to the design team.
3 - If you want to buy cars which are cheap, light, perform well in a crash and comply with your governemnt's regulations about hurting pedestrians then you have to accept some kind of compromise somewhere.
4 - Automotive engineers love cars, they hate it more than you do when they are forced to do somthing they know will be annoying because it's a lower priority than the twelve other factors that affect that component.
V8forweekends said:
If this turns into another list of cars with difficult to replace bulbs, it'll be pages long in no time.
I am a bit surprised there isn't some EU directive on this - you have to carry spare bulbs in some EU countries, but it's piss pointless if it takes 2 hours to change one.....
Spot on I am a bit surprised there isn't some EU directive on this - you have to carry spare bulbs in some EU countries, but it's piss pointless if it takes 2 hours to change one.....
In the EP3 civic Type R there are a couple of "Honda, you are fools" items.
The headlight bulbs are fiddly enough to change as it is with their weird clip in things, but they put the washer bottle right behind the drivers headlight, so even ET would struggle to get that sorted. Took me absolutely ages, several layers of skin and a pint of sweat.
The headlight bulbs are fiddly enough to change as it is with their weird clip in things, but they put the washer bottle right behind the drivers headlight, so even ET would struggle to get that sorted. Took me absolutely ages, several layers of skin and a pint of sweat.
My brother in law has a volvo v40
what an excellent design, there is a sliding 'pin' for want of a better description that holds the entire headlight unit in place, pull it up and away and the headlight falls out the front, remove bulb holder, replace bulb, refit bulb holder, slide headlight in and refit pin, 30 seconds, done. There is no reason i can think of why every car on the market cannot use this system, it's perfect!!!
what an excellent design, there is a sliding 'pin' for want of a better description that holds the entire headlight unit in place, pull it up and away and the headlight falls out the front, remove bulb holder, replace bulb, refit bulb holder, slide headlight in and refit pin, 30 seconds, done. There is no reason i can think of why every car on the market cannot use this system, it's perfect!!!
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