Changing headlight Bulbs

[Mal]

I bought a pair of Osram H7 Nightbreaker Plus for my Golf in January, I immediately found out about the lack of space to get your hands in!!!!

I have arthritis in my hands which also makes this problem worse.


Yesterday after pottering around the garden in the sun I had another look on how to change these bulbs.

I realized that with my hands I needed a holder of some sort to get a better grip on the back of the bulb holder.
Attached are some photo's of the 'Tool' its looks are not professional but it worked.
It is made of 1" ply with 4 x 3/4" 6 screws in to hold the laminates together, the centre laminates chiselled and double sided sticky tape layered to build it up to fit on the bulb bracket.

The only difficult bit was with the bulb and bulb holder incerted in the 'Tool' I had to wiggle it a bit to go into the near side lense.

I hopes this helps others with my hand problems, and if too many people start using it I may have to look for a Patent.........

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Osram-Nightb.../dp/B004J3F7DO

This is where I bought the bulbs, only £13.60 and a pair of side lights thrown in........
Looked at the side lights and decided that was a 'Bridge to far'.......


Mal.

[sofaking]

Yes. these bulbs are a pain to replace especially on the right hand side beside fuse carrier. A nimble-fingered mate of mine finally managed to get in in though.

[HHGTTG]

Yes. these bulbs are a pain to replace especially on the right hand side beside fuse carrier. A nimble-fingered mate of mine finally managed to get in in though.

The problem is, how clean are the fingers when handling these bulbs? Grease, shortens the bulb's life, doesn't it?

[Mal]

You dont' have to touch the glass of the bulb, the metal bit is big enough to hold and fit into the bulb holder, the hard bit is getting the bulb holder back into the lense.

[kamikaze06]

I bought a pair of Osram H7 Nightbreaker Plus for my Golf in January, I immediately found out about the lack of space to get your hands in!!!!

I have arthritis in my hands which also makes this problem worse.


Yesterday after pottering around the garden in the sun I had another look on how to change these bulbs.

I realized that with my hands I needed a holder of some sort to get a better grip on the back of the bulb holder.
Attached are some photo's of the 'Tool' its looks are not professional but it worked.
It is made of 1" ply with 4 x 3/4" 6 screws in to hold the laminates together, the centre laminates chiselled and double sided sticky tape layered to build it up to fit on the bulb bracket.

The only difficult bit was with the bulb and bulb holder incerted in the 'Tool' I had to wiggle it a bit to go into the near side lense.

I hopes this helps others with my hand problems, and if too many people start using it I may have to look for a Patent.........

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Osram-Nightb.../dp/B004J3F7DO

This is where I bought the bulbs, only £13.60 and a pair of side lights thrown in........
Looked at the side lights and decided that was a 'Bridge to far'.......


Mal.

Well done Mal and thanks for taking the time to let the rest of us know. Must have been very difficult with your hand problem, so I take my hat off to you

[percymon]

I swapped mine fromt he default Phillips long life fitted by VW to the top of the range, better than sliced bread, Phillips ones. Still pretty pathetic, the reflector design is hopeless IMO. My wifes Fiat Panda has 7 year old stock H7 55W bulbs and still does a far better job of lighting up the road.

[Seboni121]

If you think the golf light are poor you haven't seen the skoda fabia projector light totally dangerous

[Beddoe]

Mal

Sorry to hear about your arthritis.

I too cursed the lack of space to change the nearside dipped beam headlight bulb when compared with my previous mark V Golf. My solution is slightly different but anything that makes the job easier helps.
After removing the nearside bulb and holder, with difficulty, I drilled a hole through the centre of the finger grip and fitted an extension piece to make the grip 30mm or just over an inch longer. Three photos follow below. Total cost under £1.
For more exhaustive detail please see http://uk-mkvs.net/forums/t/420060.aspx.
Regards. Beddoe

[Beddoe]

IMG_5178 (2).jpgIMG_5176.jpgIMG_5175.jpg

[atropa]

I made this "tool" from a piece of ply as per your post; worked brilliantly. I did manage to dropmthe old bulb and holder into the headlight casing but retrieved it with a magnet on a piece of string. The Osram Nightbreakers are a big improvement so thankyou for your ingenuity.