Changing Sidelight Bulbs: Do you need small crippled hands?!

[aaronon]

OMG. Seriously. Laughing right now having spent half an hour trying to get the sidelight bulb out. What's the best plan of attack? I've managed to grab it, shake it, rattle it. . .but can't get the bulb out. This is on the left EASY side where you have loads of space! Even in there your finger gets ripped off by the screws holding in the main beam.

Anyone got any tips?

Do you need to turn it? Should I pull it by the wire?

[Ben90]

Carefully pull it by the wires and it will just pop out, make a mental note of which angle it was pulled out so it is easier to fit back in. Usually the wires do this for you and rotate it to the right angle if you grip it lightly. I've done it several times (replacing sub-standard led sidelights) with no problems, but yes you do need long fingers, or tiny Asian hands. And the bigger the engine, the harder it is to do!

Hope this helps

[aaronon]

Thanks. Gonna try shortly again! Worryingly even though I haven't got the old one out ...it's now not coming on I hope I haven't broken something.

[Gtimatt]

trying to get it back in is the difficult part lol. in one unit i have an led bulb stuck behind the silver section/backing?. and the other its down in front of it somewhere haha

[kc]

trick is... when the bulb is out of its socket....


turn the sidelights on... so you can look on the outside (at the light itself) and then you can guide it in!


years of mario and sonic will help on this part as you will need some decent hand/eye coordination haha

[aaronon]

I tried again there now!! I used pliers. . .I even used both hands in a strange contortionist style routine and pulled as hard as I could and it wouldn't come out. And now it won't work Why are such mundane things so difficult lol. Halfords wouldn't even be able to fix it :I

[blazeguarder]

trick is... when the bulb is out of its socket....


turn the sidelights on... so you can look on the outside (at the light itself) and then you can guide it in!


years of mario and sonic will help on this part as you will need some decent hand/eye coordination haha

haha, I do this as well!

Hook your finger round the wires, give it a bit of a wiggle to see if you can loosen it slightly and then give it a jerk. It should pop out. The only reason everyone has such problems with doing this is because they aren't pulling hard enough IMO.

[aaronon]

trick is... when the bulb is out of its socket....


turn the sidelights on... so you can look on the outside (at the light itself) and then you can guide it in!


years of mario and sonic will help on this part as you will need some decent hand/eye coordination haha

haha, I do this as well!

Hook your finger round the wires, give it a bit of a wiggle to see if you can loosen it slightly and then give it a jerk. It should pop out. The only reason everyone has such problems with doing this is because they aren't pulling hard enough IMO.

I don't want to yank the wires incase they just pop off and I need an electrician but I was pulling as hard as I could (it cuts the fingers off you!!!) and it was shaking but not coming off. So depressing.

Saying that, I managed to change my gear knob today so I'm baffled how I can do that but can't change a light bulb.

Aren't there jokes about this? How many Irish men does it take to take out a lightbulb?

[beijing polo]

i had new lights in recently and took these if they might help in future.





i didnt tug any wires, there was a grip like back bit to pull. only held on by the little sticky out bit, so no twisting involved.

hope you can put it back in now!

alan

[aaronon]

Thanks for that dude. I gave in and got someone else to do it!

[ninjakev]

lol! yeah i remember changing mine. i resorted into getting some wire an somehow tying it to the base and pulled the walla! also driver side light was a melt trying to fit HIDS!

[RUM4MO]

There must be a proper answer to this, its the same with the earlier 9N Polo, and from some other forums sounds a lot like this with other VW cars! The N/S sidelight went out on my wife's 9N Polo and I took quite a long time to get the first sidelight out - getting them in, I found, was easy - as said just look in from the front and guide the sidelight in, then push it until it locks in.

[ninjakev]

Spoke to one of the VW mechanics, and he said that the manual says you need to remove the bumper but the way they usually change the light bulbs is remove the fuel filter housing (on my car anyway may vary with others) and put it out of the way and work at it that way for driver side and the other brute force an ignorance lol