Indicator light

A light. My car's turn signal suddenly went nervously plink-plink-plink-plink instead of calmly tick-tock-tick-tock. And indeed: the left front turn signal wasn't working. With most cars, you open the hood, turn a cover a quarter turn, take out the bulb, and put in a new one. Not with mine.

First, a piece of bodywork has to be unscrewed. This piece of bodywork should actually be removed from between the bodywork and the bumper, but that's not possible. I can lower it a bit so it's inside the bumper. Then the headlight unit has to be unscrewed. So far, so good. But then the headlight unit has to be lowered a bit and removed with a special movement. First lower it, then tilt it forward a bit, and then "take it out." That doesn't work without a lot of cursing and a lot of wrestling and twisting. Now, this car is a piece of my heart, so twisting hurts.

First, I'd have to get a light bulb, on my bike because driving isn't allowed right now, right? I could see myself taking the headlight off first and then having no bulb. I could then reinstall the bulb, without a bulb, drive the car to the dealer for a bulb, drive back home, and then remove the "headlight unit" again. The manual said 12V/21W. Yes, they do exist. Odd brands, Chinese, but hey, it's cheap, 2 euros for two. The gas station had them too, from Osram. Okay, I'll take two of those too. And the headlamp too. They come in two versions: "regular" and "long life." I'll just take two spares of each. I

followed the procedure above, removed the bulb. And no, the old bulb doesn't have two filaments, nor two contact points on the bottom. Only one. So, the BAY15 type isn't the right one. Grmbl.

Back to the gas station. No, there aren't any others... And so I was still left with a disassembled headlight unit and no bulb.

But, the Poligono (business park) does have more car dealerships, and they're sure to still have old-fashioned bulbs. It was still a fifteen-minute wait, because it was a quarter to four, and still siesta time. But, the garage knew what to do: two doors down is an auto parts store, and they have them "on the shelf." And indeed. And, neat Philips. For a euro each. I immediately bought a box of four. Happy. At home,

I tested the old bulb with an ohmmeter: 0.08Ω. Hey, not ∞? Hm. The new bulbs are also 0.08Ω (...) (Argh!)

But, a new bulb works fine. Relief.

Reinstalling the headlight unit takes even longer than disassembling it, and involves a lot more cursing. Hopefully, I won't have to do that again for the next 25 years... This job took me a day. That's what happens with 42-year-old cars.