Changing my car’s head light

You quite often get to see cars with a either of the two front lights not working properly. Everything seems to be in place, except that one of the lights is dimmer or perhaps not working at all. At night, out driving, one side of the car becomes the ‘dark side’ and if you were to look at it yourself, the car seems to be tipping over or something. This not only kills the look of your car entirely, it is outright dangerous (you don’t want an unsuspecting driver to think that your car is a motorbike and then ram into your car’s darker side!)

If you are the lazy type (is there any other type as well? :/ ), you probably have your car’s headlight in the dark for way too long. Changing the light yourself will not only save you money (some mechanics actually charge like Physicians), but will give you a chance to bond with your vehicle.

Here’s how it is done!

Step 1

Open the hood / bonnet of your car. Pretty simple, right.

Step 2

For the uninitiated (like I was), the car’s head light has two plugs at the back; one for head beam and the other for the ‘normal’ light.

Find the back of head light – it will have something like a round rubber covering/cap. Something like this:

Step 3

Now that you have identified the back of your head light, just reach out to the plug that goes into the light that you want to inspect/replace – and firmly pull out the plug:

Step 4

Now, remove the rubber cap, again using your hands to pull it off.

Congratulations, you have now reached the innards of your car’s light. In almost all cars (as verified by the car mechanic from whom I ‘learned’ this rocket science ), there is a small hook that fixes the actual bulb into place.

Step 5

Just give the hook a firm push and then rotate slightly upwards (or downwards, depending on the hook position in your car) – this should free the hook as you would feel it lighten up and give way.

You should be able to now easily pull out the actual bulb and holder out of the head light. Pull it out gently from the head light. The bulb is still in the holder.

Step 6

Now pull out the bulb – hold the bulb not by the glass, but by the metal casing underneath the bulb, and firmly pull the bulb and holder apart.

Now you can replace the bulb (that is why you took the damn thing out in the first place – no?! Because I took the bulb out and put it back again just to see if I can perform this surgical operation of the highest complexity)

Note, I own a Honda, and the mechanic fitted in a ‘genuine 2 number’ bulb, costing me Rupees Fifty. The ‘genuine’ bulb supposedly costs around Rupees 150. So I am told.

So, hopefully, next time you have a ‘dark side’ at the front of your car, you can replace it easily, safely and cheaply. Not to mention the affection towards your car that you feel after fixing her.