A moan/rant: People driving with 1 headlight

[idlehanz]

It's always this time of year, more moisture than normal gets in to car headlights and bulb goes. But why ohh why don't people get off their lazy arse and replace them!! It's not like it's not bleeding obvious during the darkest time of the year that you've a headlight gone. In less than 1 min this evening I saw 3 cars with 1 main headlight bulb gone. 2 of them Rovers btw, guess they used cheap ones on the last one's made @ longbridge before the went out of business.

Or is it just me, does anyone else notice this as well??

[[GSV]Trig]

Its the people that know they have one headlight out and then drive round with there fog lights on that annoy me...

[finlay666]

Yeah, and its annoys me too

Also for one of the cyclists I nearly hit driving home seemed rather shocked when I had to skid to a stop because he pulled out of a junction wearing black trousers, black top, no helmet, very dim front light and seemed shocked that I only saw him when he passed infront of an oncoming cars headlights! Try driving a car with no lights on and see how far you get! (unfortunately I doubt many would be pulled over)

[DavidM]

It's the people who seem to think they're driving a light house I find annoying as well...

[BigGlenn]

Its the people that know they have one headlight out and then drive round with there fog lights on that annoy me...

....Or those that drive around with just their side-lights and fog-lights on

And I agree with Finlay too - living near Durham and the student population that is around the town I passed a few students last week at around 7pm riding along in dark clothing but with no lights at all.... how they managed to survive (assuming they did) I will never know

[Zadock]

It's the people who seem to think they're driving a light house I find annoying as well...

And ones who think its ok to have their full beams on when they are a medium distance behind you, straight in the review mirror and into your eyes.

I saw someone with no lights on on the A4 at 6pm the other night, they drove about 5miles without any on with people flashing etc... didn't cotten on.

The other thing that bugs me is people that put their front fog lights on because they think it makes their car look cool... correct me if I'm mistaken but isn't it an on the spot fine for the use of fog lights and head lights in inappropraite conditions?

[DavidM]

correct me if I'm mistaken but isn't it an on the spot fine for the use of fog lights and head lights in inappropraite conditions?

I believe you may be correct.

[SteveL]

Just to post another view on the "blown bulb" rant...

My wife is currently driving around with one dim headlight and one normal one. It's a Renault Megane. Ever changed the headlight bulb on one? If you do know what you're doing, it goes:

• Turn the steering wheel to the appropriate full lock.
• Sit on the floor, lean into the wheel archl, and remove the 6" diameter plastic stopper to reveal a hole in the wheel archi lining.
• Reach into the hole, snake your arm up, down and side to side until you get to the rear of the headlight bulb.
• Remove the buld and replace.

If you don't know what you're doing, add a step at the top of the list:

• Jack the car up and remove the appropriate road wheel so you can see into the wheel arch clearly.

I'm certainly not doing that in the dark and cold after she gets home at 18:30. It's a weekend job! The alternative is to book it into the garage to get a bulb replaced. Not likely!

There seem to be more and more cars where doing simple things like changing a bulb is being made more and more difficult. Here are the steps in the owners manual of the Megane/Scenic for changing a fog light bulb:

• Take the car to a garage.

and that isn't a joke. It entails taking the bumper off! Spare a thought for the person driving around with one headlight. They might not be able to do anything about it in the short term!

Steve

[BigGlenn]

Steve,

I can appreciate your views on that and I agree, I certainly wouldn't want to be doing that kind of job in the cold and dark

What gets me is when you see the same people (and driving the same route to work every day I do see the same people) driving around for weeks on end without doing anything about it

[sprucemoose]

What gets me more is when peoples dipped headlights are as bad as full beam glare-wise - on most cars its a vey simple adjustment

[megah0]

Its the people with HID/Xenon bulbs that get my back up.

Sure, they can see more, at the expense of dazzling everyone else on the road.

And its usually a very white/blue light so plenty of glare/ruins your night vision.

Bah

[handscombmp]

correct me if I'm mistaken but isn't it an on the spot fine for the use of fog lights and head lights in inappropraite conditions?

I'm not sure. My old mans Merc E Class has got some conering function that turns the fog lights on below 20mph ( i think) and if you turn left only the left light stays on. It really bugs him though.

As for SteveL about taking cars into a garage i have to agree as it is getting much harder to due it yourself. Car companies want you to take it into them so they can charge extra and make more money I'd have no idea how to change mine

[Barakka]

I had a 54 reg golf at the start of this year and when a rear bulb went I did the usual thing of popping into Hellfrauds while passing and got a bulb. What I found interesting was an entry in their little compatibiity book that listed the bulb I needed but i'm sure for Golfs 01/08 onwards pretty much every bulb was listed as DEALER PART ONLY - eh?

Strange the Megane is so hard when it's from a country where you have to carry spare bulbs by law don't you ?

[Lee H]

My wife is currently driving around with one dim headlight and one normal one. It's a Renault Megane. Ever changed the headlight bulb on one?

No... but I saw on fith gear the fun they had getting a "trained" AA engineer to try to do it.

Only the french could get such a basic design flaw totally screwed over which means that you need to remove 1/2 the front-end to get to the bulb to replace them.

Talk about a hassle and a half to change a light-bulb

Yeah but people who have high-beams on for the fun of it should be dipped in tanks of piranha's until they can correctly use their lights. Oh and add to that indicators as well. The amount of people not using these is shocking!

[mip1225]

yes pretty annoying but also when people drive around with their lights on full beam that gets me.....
and they just dont care!! grrr

[finlay666]

Only the french could get such a basic design flaw totally screwed over which means that you need to remove 1/2 the front-end to get to the bulb to replace them.

You think that is bad try changing the belts on it!!!

Take off wheel
Remove wheel arch cover
Remove half of the stuff on the engine such as air intake etc if turbo
do normal belt changing stuff
replace all of it

Took me 3 hours to do what would take about 1-2 in my mums old car with the help of a mechanically minded friend.