Halfords bulbs - ****.

[danclyon]

Just had the misfortune to blow a bulb today and not being that close to a dealers, bought a pack of Halfords own bulbs for the rear lights.

Not only do they only have only one foot on the base of the bulb compared to the ones in the car - the lugs have sheared off them......

Grrrr....waste of money and they are going back - one with the lugs sheared off.....don't waste your money on them.

Cheers,
Dan.

EDIT: I take it all back! Went back in today and saw the same chap - who again double checked their systems and they insist it's a single foot bulb in the 2004 onwards (even the bulb co sponsoring the forum says the same!). When I showed him the bulb he was able to pull the pack of the shelf (380's vs 382's from memory). Twin foot, twin element.
He also got a marker and marked the bulb guide card as "ask parts desk" for the 2004+ model so they can ask if it's a single lamp for rear light and brake and stop it happening to others. Also has said he will e-mail head office to get the next run of the cards sorted out so could be a result.

Interestingly there was a chap there with an Avant looking for the same bulb, so we stopped him making the mistake too

I withdraw my initial comment - and was instructed to return the original pack to him as well and he will replace them with working bulbs of the same type so I have some spares.

Huzzah!

[Andy J]

Although I have no love for *********, I used to work for a company that packed a lot of Halfords brand products, they come from well known and reputable suppliers, probably the same source as the ones you buy at your Audi dealer, over the years I have never paid over the odds to buy items such as bulbs from main dealers and I can honestly say I've never had any problems.

Single foot is either for brake light, fog light or rear light depending on wattage.

Twin feet are for units that have combined brake and rear light.

IIRC the lugs are positioned differently so it is feasible that if you tried to fit the wrong bulb you might damage the lugs.

Sounds like you've either picked up the wrong bulbs or they were packed wrongly, if the latter then I'm sure if you had taken them back they would have replaced them.

[danclyon]

Although I have no love for *********, I used to work for a company that packed a lot of Halfords brand products, they come from well known and reputable suppliers, probably the same source as the ones you buy at your Audi dealer, over the years I have never paid over the odds to buy items such as bulbs from main dealers and I can honestly say I've never had any problems.

Single foot is either for brake light, fog light or rear light depending on wattage.

Twin feet are for units that have combined brake and rear light.

IIRC the lugs are positioned differently so it is feasible that if you tried to fit the wrong bulb you might damage the lugs.

Sounds like you've either picked up the wrong bulbs or they were packed wrongly, if the latter then I'm sure if you had taken them back they would have replaced them.

The Halfords chart and the chap on the parts desk who cross-checked it was adamant these were the right type for anything post 2004 (which 19th December 2004 deffo qualifies as!) and their charts suggest that for this model (the B6) every buld in the rear cluster is the same thereby eliminating any confusion.

However, said bulb caused SWMBO to have a nice chat with Cambridgeshires Finest this evening when they pulled her over for having one light brighter than the other. T'was then that it dawned on me that the two feet/one filament probably means an increase of voltage to the bulb when the brake is applied and as such the reason it's brighter is that it is operating in increased voltage mode as it doesn't have two feet.

So one shall take the bulbs back on Saturday after I've found replacements which if the local auto-factors doesn't have will have to come from the dealers parts desk. I'll show them the difference and make sure that they are aware of this.

FYI there wasn't really any force involved with the lugs failing, just the bulb seems flawed in it's production. It would have passed it's mfr tests as they will have been spot connection not in a socket - but the second there was any pressure on the lug it has "sheared" off. The lug in reality looks like it is attached by a minisclue blobl of solder so would have virtually no strength anyway.....

Cheers,
Dan.

[Andy J]

Sounds like the chart is wrong, there does seem to be confusion with Audi when it comes to model change years, I have similar problems as I have a 2001 B6 , a lot of parts books list the B6 as 2002-2005 as does this forum, some spotty oik working at ********* would not have a clue as in my experience Halfords employees have little or no knowledge of cars.

[mad-for-tar]

From memory having recently changed bulbs in my sisters B6, and assuming its the saloon model....

Indicator is orange "single foot" 21w bulb
Reversing light is clear "single foot" 21w bulb
Outer tail/brake light bulb is "double foot" 21/5w bulb
Inner tail light bulb is smaller "single foot" 5w bulb
Fog light is "single foot" 21w bulb

Hope this is of some use

[euroslap]

some spotty oik working at ********* would not have a clue as in my experience Halfords employees have little or no knowledge of cars.

Yes, they're hardly the most qualified even though they think they talk a good game. There's one guy at my local Halfords that I'm pretty sure is the asst Manager and never fails to talk out of his @rse, many a time I've listened to him advising customers and thought what the Hell are you on about??? Morons.

[danclyon]

From memory having recently changed bulbs in my sisters B6, and assuming its the saloon model....

Indicator is orange "single foot" 21w bulb
Reversing light is clear "single foot" 21w bulb
Outer tail/brake light bulb is "double foot" 21/5w bulb
Inner tail light bulb is smaller "single foot" 5w bulb
Fog light is "single foot" 21w bulb

Hope this is of some use

Thanks for that, sounds like the single-foot Halfords pack couldn't be further from the truth then......oh well, I'll get it sorted and if provided some entertainment for SWMBO ;-)

ps it's an Avant but the bulbs seem to be the same

[danclyon]

Yes, they're hardly the most qualified even though they think they talk a good game. There's one guy at my local Halfords that I'm pretty sure is the asst Manager and never fails to talk out of his @rse, many a time I've listened to him advising customers and tought what the Hell are you on about??? Morons.

Yup, but they are the only place open at 3.30pm on Christmas Eve when you don't want to get stopped later that night or on xmas day etc with a blown bulb only to be given a full workover by Mr Plod (not that I would have been drinking anyway so it wouldn't have been a problem, but rather they catch criminals than me ;-)

Sods law eh....i'll head to the auto factors tomorrow morning and see if they have the double foot ones then run these back to Halfords and let them try to tell me they are the right ones ;-)

Cheers,
dan.

[mad-for-tar]

Thanks for that, sounds like the single-foot Halfords pack couldn't be further from the truth then......oh well, I'll get it sorted and if provided some entertainment for SWMBO ;-)

ps it's an Avant but the bulbs seem to be the same

Heres the Avant lamp and from top to bottom its:

Rear Fog Light...21w single foot clear
Indicator...Orange 21w single foot
Reverse Light...21w single foot clear
Tail/Brake.... 21/5w double foot clear (with offset lugs)