The Offending Bulb
Got under the Trans Am today and changed the burnt-out parking lamp on the passenger side. It certainly is an experience, though. You have to take off a couple of hex-head screws which are securing an “access panel” under the front end, then you bend the access panel back. The panel isn’t on hinges or anything; it’s just a piece of plastic that’s cut in the shape of a door on three sides, and you just bend it back against the side that’s not cut. Feels like if you bend it back far enough, it’ll tear off! And if I were you, uh…I’d jack the car up first. It can be done without jacking it, but one side of your face will be having a long conversation with the garage floor. Ask me. I know.
So then I fumbled around behind the front fascia until I’d loosened the parking lamp housing, pulled it down into view and got ready to take the old bulb off—except the old bulb fell on my head. When the sucker died, it sure went out with a bang—the head of the bulb exploded off and has a shattered hole punched clean through the other side. Due to all the jagged orange glass in the receptacle, I had to pull it out with a pair of pliers.
Finally got everything put back together, though, and it all works good. Yeah…I just posted a picture of a broken light bulb. “Do you need to have your head examined?” you asketh. Perhaps so, after the day I’ve been having so far. Did you know that Dell technical support is so far away, there’s a satellite-esque pause between each exchange of words over the telephone? Ah, but that’s another story for quite another update. (Which may be posted rather soon, even…)
Categorized as Cars