10" of Snow? 20 Degrees F? Time for The LH Headlight Bulb To Go Out!
01-08-2022, 05:28 PM
#1
Member
Thread Starter
10" of Snow? 20 Degrees F? Time for The LH Headlight Bulb To Go Out!
The title says it all. It was 65 degrees during a good part of my Christmas break from work. This is, OF COURSE and NATURALLY SO, the "bad" side to remove. I saw a guy on YouTube remove a hose and connector to wriggle his hand in there, but I decided not to try it - I did it the "hard" way, removing (enough) of the wheel well liner. My garage is full of R107 SL's, one INOP and one that will simply never be driven in any snow, period.
Comments:
0. I used the Sun to my advantage, moving the car from my work area, scraping the snow down, and I let it do its work for a few hours. I sat on a winter car mat and stayed reasonably dry.
1. Although I have a very good (and I thought complete) set of body trim fastener removal tools, naturally, none of them work perfectly with the super-duper and infinitely superior/more expensive Special Mercedes Fasteners.
2. Wheel well plastic liners flex a lot less at 20 degrees F than they do at 70 F. Great.
3. Actually removing the bulb takes a good amount of twisting force, if it hasn't been removed before.
4. Buying these bulbs at local retail is basically retail theft - on you! Parts store "AA" didn't even have ONE ordinary bulb, but they did have super-blue short lived bulbs for $55 USD a pair. Parts store "AZ" had one "normal, cheap" bulb for 16.99. You can get two Hella's from Amazon for $7.50 delivered to your home free with Prime. Moral of the story: Plan ahead. Buy spares. Stores like AA and AZ are basically the 7-11's of auto parts, specializing in air fresheners. LED light ups, and genuinely garbage, overpriced "accessories". Wal-Mart, however, is amazingly competitive on consumable parts like these - oil, bulbs, cleaning/waxing supplies. And, you don't have to wait.
I had a set of SilverStars on hand but I decided not to use them after reading the package closely - 85 hour life expectancy is laughable. As it is, the "normal" H7's have a 150 hour life expectancy. I'm putting the Silverstars in the high beams (where they probably will last a "lifetime") when I install my low beam HID's in the nice, warm spring. HID's can last 1000-2500 hours! If I wasn't planning on going HID, I would probably replace these bulbs preventatively every fall!
Comments:
0. I used the Sun to my advantage, moving the car from my work area, scraping the snow down, and I let it do its work for a few hours. I sat on a winter car mat and stayed reasonably dry.
1. Although I have a very good (and I thought complete) set of body trim fastener removal tools, naturally, none of them work perfectly with the super-duper and infinitely superior/more expensive Special Mercedes Fasteners.
2. Wheel well plastic liners flex a lot less at 20 degrees F than they do at 70 F. Great.
3. Actually removing the bulb takes a good amount of twisting force, if it hasn't been removed before.
4. Buying these bulbs at local retail is basically retail theft - on you! Parts store "AA" didn't even have ONE ordinary bulb, but they did have super-blue short lived bulbs for $55 USD a pair. Parts store "AZ" had one "normal, cheap" bulb for 16.99. You can get two Hella's from Amazon for $7.50 delivered to your home free with Prime. Moral of the story: Plan ahead. Buy spares. Stores like AA and AZ are basically the 7-11's of auto parts, specializing in air fresheners. LED light ups, and genuinely garbage, overpriced "accessories". Wal-Mart, however, is amazingly competitive on consumable parts like these - oil, bulbs, cleaning/waxing supplies. And, you don't have to wait.
I had a set of SilverStars on hand but I decided not to use them after reading the package closely - 85 hour life expectancy is laughable. As it is, the "normal" H7's have a 150 hour life expectancy. I'm putting the Silverstars in the high beams (where they probably will last a "lifetime") when I install my low beam HID's in the nice, warm spring. HID's can last 1000-2500 hours! If I wasn't planning on going HID, I would probably replace these bulbs preventatively every fall!
The following users liked this post:
pierrejoliat (01-09-2022)
01-08-2022, 10:57 PM
#2
MBWorld Fanatic!
01-09-2022, 01:32 AM
#3
MBWorld Fanatic!
That's interesting, glad to know you fixed it
