Changing a headlight bulb in a Ka

[Cherie]

Asking for a guy at work.

His girlfriend's got a Ka, and tried to change the headlight bulb for her last night. He got two of the three screws out, but was struggling on the third one. He's been grumbling about something to with having to take the car to bits to get to it!

Any tips/hint/photos I can give to him to help him out?

 

[Dal]

From various places:

changing a bulb on my ka for the first time was the most frustrating job ever, you would need fingers like chopsticks, espesh for the drivers side.

there is an stress free way to do it though, just takes a little longer.

take off the wheel on the appropriate side
you need to losen the arch liner to get access to the headlamp unit.
you don't have to take it all out if you don't want to. just remove three screws to the front side of the shock. there is a hard to spot screw on the bottom of the front bumper. with this done you can easily see the whole headlamp unit and you should be able to see where all the clips need to go.

if its the driver side, i found it more awkward, being right handed. i would suggest you remove the whole arch liner for this side. its only a matter of removing three/four more screws, and the whole thing just lifts out. on the driver side, the arch liner is also secured to one of the pipes coming from the radiator. its a simple screw bracket though.

hope this helps. doing this will only take about 20mins at the most and it won't be stresfull. you could easily spend longer trying in vain to get the bulb in correctly from just at the bonnet.

turn the steering wheel fully to the right (to change the driver side bulb) or to the left (to change passenger side bulb). Then use star screwdriver to remove screw to remove the inner wheel arch. Now you can simply move the clip to reach the bulb and change it. Mine took about 20 min... easy stuff... shame on Halford staff, they said it is too complicated... I say... it is easy...

Difficult Job this one, Manual says to remove the front bumper and inner wheel arches to get access to the Headlight retaining bolts, I managed to change all the Bulbs to the upgraded xeon type last week without all that work, Remove the cover on the back of the headlight, it is held on by a large clip, Move the clip upwards, it is sort of hinged, and the cover will loosen, it is located at the bottom by two lugs which locate in two slots at the bottom of the headlight unit, wriggle it a bit and once the cover is removed entirely you just have enough room to get one hand in to change anyone of the bulbs, the Headlight dipped or main beam bulbs are held in situ by a clip, fiddly to do but possible, the side light bulb holder just pushes in to the light unit, when replacing the cover, which is the hard part, make sure the side light bulb holders haven't been disturbed ie give them a quick push in,, look down the back of the headlight unit to see/find the two slotted holes where the cover lugs locate into, Be patient as it is fiddly and when the cover locates in the holes, the cover will fit snug in its recess then the large retaining clip will push back down to hold it on , Job done, Good Luck

This could take 10 minutes or 10 hours depending on luck and a few other factors. Alternatively, it could be 10 minutes for the passenger side (which is more accessible) and 10 hours for the driver's. There are people on ebay selling these bulbs for £7.50 a pair delivered.

Do the driver's side first. Jack the driver's side up, remove the wheel, and put the car on secure blocks- you're going to be scrabbling about under there and it would be nice if, at this stage at least, you didn't lose too many fingers that you're going to need for the next bit, which is quite fiddly. You need to take off the front bolts\self-tappers of the inner wheel arch thingy. Don't take it all off - just the front and bend the plastic back to allow access. Take the waterproof cover off the back of the headlamp unit (clip accessible from engine compartment and 2 locating lugs on the bottom - pull the clip upwards and lift the cover out). Having done that, you can see what is holding it in and how to put it back together. Pull the 2 prong electrical connector off the back of the bulb and unclip the top of the spring clip holding the bulb in. This is just a single lug on the top of the housing - once you have inclipped that, the spring will flop forward. There are two lugs on the bottom of this clip; if these come out, it's not the end of the world - but best to leave these in situ. Take the bulb out. There is a squarish locating lug on the metal surround of the new bulb - this points upwards and fits into the corresponding gap on the housing. Put the bulb in and, without it falling out, replace the spring clip in the lug on top of the housing. Replace the electrical connector and replace the waterproof cover. Put the plastic inner wheel arch back and then replace the bulb on the passenger side. This is more accessible and can be done from the inside of the engine compartment - no scrabbling about under the car. It is also made easier because you now know what it is that you are fiddling about with. If the worst comes to the worst, I imagine you could have to take the battery and battery housing off.


It's one of those jobs that you get the hang of about 30 seconds before you finish it. Unfortunately, when it happens again in three years, you'll have forgotten how you did it and you'll have to go through this all over again.

Sounds like a right pain.

 

[DradusContact]

It is indeed one of the hardest things ive ever done on a car. Cuts your wrist to bits on the jarred metal of the engine bay lip.

 

[Cherie]

I'll let him know, thanks for having a look for me! k:

 

[P7TNY]

Take it too halfrauds, be done in moments according to recent adverts on dave.

Oh and the guy replacing it will flirt with you too

 

[BOK]

Changed mine with everything in situ, you need patience, plasters and antiseptic...