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The bulb on this lamp has reached end of life. Actually the bulbs on the left as well as right side were discovered end of life at the same time. |
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The bulb is somewhere inside. It is of type H7. |
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There were some earlier experiences of a stressful bulb change on a car. However, with this car, everything is on a different scale. |
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Visibility: virtually zero. |
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The battery is obstructing access to the leftmost lamp. The writer of the users manual, however, seems to have been totally unaware about this. The battery had to be moved. A small problem: tool needed. The nut is in a busy place, so a wrench with a long shaft would be needed. None was available. Probably there is none in the case that the bulb has to be replaced when on the route. In this case long pliers were used with success. |
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The battery is now moved a few centimeters, and actually the space made available turns out to be crucial. |
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I was very close to giving up. I looked into alternative ways. Such as removing the lamp compartment in whole through the front; however, it was not obvious how to do it. In the picture the writer is trying by a screwdriver to force the latch to yield. It seemed as if the compartment would need to be fastened with glue back to its place. And it seemed probable that probably the part would be broken when removed. |
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The users manual failed to mention that this part in fact be disengaged and moved away in order to have any decent visibility and space for hand and fingers; this was regarding the leftmost lamp. |
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The bulb is secured to its position by a spring, much like the H4 bulbs used to be. It would be easy if there is space for the hand and if there is visibility, but things are totally different in this car. |
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This is a view as seen by a pocket camera. A human can only see this precious view through a photo, since there is no space for the head to intrude and the eyes to peek. |
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I'd have taken a picture of extracting the bulb, but there was not enough space and no visibility. |
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Bulbs. End of life (in front), new (back). |
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Portrait after the work was carried out to the extent possible. The handicaps: The rightmost bulb remained sitting loose. The bulb space lids were too cumbersome to install. |
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The next day the car was taken to service; the lamp installation had to be completed there. I was in position to briefly interview the seller of car; I put a complaint on the user manual not describing that for bulb change the car needs to be taken to professional service. He said that there is a better way to replace the bulbs; taking out the whole the lamp compartment. I asked if it can be done without special tools; the answer was yes special tools are needed. He said he is not in position to state about this more; complaints should be put on the importer. The writer knows, of course, that many of today's cars are built with the same principle and have the same kind of problems. There is a a contradiction of requirements, and the compromise is hard to be accepted by a car driver. |