Replacing rear light bulbs fast!
Discussion
An interesting thing happened to me recently (no, not that!)...
I needed to change a rear bulb so got ready with the knife to cut away the old silicon plus a new tube of the blackstuff but when I started to unwind the four bolts holding the black plastic cover on they unbolted from inside the plastic lens cover (ie: outside of the car) so after carefully unscrewing them the light came off outside (and the inner cover never moved) - Presto - bulb replacement with no messy re-siliconing!
I realise that eventually the plastic will knurl inside the lens cover where it grips into the moulding but I had no choice as this is the way it came out and I did them upcarefully and anyway, how often do we change bulbs!
Of course, after taking the opportunity to clean the other bulbs I spent another 30 minutes playing around getting them to work properly again but that's just par for the course in hand-built land!
I needed to change a rear bulb so got ready with the knife to cut away the old silicon plus a new tube of the blackstuff but when I started to unwind the four bolts holding the black plastic cover on they unbolted from inside the plastic lens cover (ie: outside of the car) so after carefully unscrewing them the light came off outside (and the inner cover never moved) - Presto - bulb replacement with no messy re-siliconing!
I realise that eventually the plastic will knurl inside the lens cover where it grips into the moulding but I had no choice as this is the way it came out and I did them upcarefully and anyway, how often do we change bulbs!
Of course, after taking the opportunity to clean the other bulbs I spent another 30 minutes playing around getting them to work properly again but that's just par for the course in hand-built land!
Looner said:
Thats the way mine came apart I thought it was normal ! I have just replaced all the standard bulbs with LEDs so they hopefully won't have to come apart again
Have you got a link to these. Did you hard wire LED's in place or are they a special LED to plug into std bulb socket. If the later then often its the connection to the bulb that gets a bit iffy so still may have an issue at some point.
bondy
Dang, wish I knew this on Monday. It took me over an hour to remove one of those rear covers... CAKED with black goop. There was so much corrosion in there, it was rediculous. Couldnt even see the 4 bolts holding the light housing in. 3 of the bulbs were not working. Replaced a couple, and polished all of the contacts with a rotary tool and small steel wire brush bit. works fantastic now.
Get some 'switch cleaner' (NOT WD40) and spray the contacts with that. It will stop them corroding in future...
The Noble isn't the only one to suffer though - the FNS indicator bulb went on the X5 about a month ago, and after I had dismantled half of the front of the car to get the whole headlamp unit out (yes, you have to take the whole unit out to get to the indicator....) it was just down to corrosion of one of the joints.
J
The Noble isn't the only one to suffer though - the FNS indicator bulb went on the X5 about a month ago, and after I had dismantled half of the front of the car to get the whole headlamp unit out (yes, you have to take the whole unit out to get to the indicator....) it was just down to corrosion of one of the joints.
J
mgbond said:
Looner said:
Thats the way mine came apart I thought it was normal ! I have just replaced all the standard bulbs with LEDs so they hopefully won't have to come apart again
Have you got a link to these. Did you hard wire LED's in place or are they a special LED to plug into std bulb socket. If the later then often its the connection to the bulb that gets a bit iffy so still may have an issue at some point.
bondy
Would also be interested to know whether the LEDs fitted a standard socket but, as you say, its the sockets that get all corroded up so the problem may recur.
You can get replacements that are a straight fit.
e.g. www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm
There are plenty of UK suppliers.
J
e.g. www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm
There are plenty of UK suppliers.
J
joust said:
You can get replacements that are a straight fit.
e.g. www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm
There are plenty of UK suppliers.
J
e.g. www.superbrightleds.com/carbulb-notes.htm
There are plenty of UK suppliers.
J
Nice, I was about to ask some comparison questions but I see there's an FAQ - so for a change I'll "read the manual first"!
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