Left Dipped Headlight Bulb Replacement - 2016 Skoda Fabia Mk III Estate

[0094994]

Got the warning yesterday that my left dipped headlight bulb had blown.

 

As I was literally passing Halfrauds at the time and it was raining heavily, I stopped in to see if they could do the job quickly.  They refused to touch it as they said they would need to remove the battery to gain access to the light.

 

I've since got the car home and ordered the bulbs to do it myself via the access port in the wheel arch, but the space still looks awkward, even for my tiny hands.

 

Has anyone had any success by loosening the battery from the battery tray and moving it away from the light housing to create space (avoiding disconnecting the battery and all the issues that can cause)?

 

2016 Skoda Fabia Mk III Estate

[nta16]

If you are doing the job yourself disconnecting the battery and removing it isn't a big job and more likely to do good than bad.  Read your Owner's Manual and check what will need resetting after disconnecting and reconnecting the battery.

 

On my wife's Fabia Mk3 (Hatch) 1.2 TSI (90 SE 5-speed manual) only one item needed resetting, I forget which but it wasn't the radio as in the Owner's Manual. (ETA: just remembered, it was the time clock.) 

 

Before disconnecting the battery check (electric) windows are fully closed, everything electrical is off (which is good practice every time before you turn the engine off, excluding safety items) and before reconnecting the battery check again, as much as possible, all electrics items are off.

 

There will still be some electric going through anyway from the complex VW computer programs when you disconnect and reconnect and if you left some electric item on it'd probably not be the end of the world but best to have at the minimum you can.

 

When you reconnect the battery clamps to the battery posts make sure the inside of the clamps and the battery posts are clean and then connected tightly (can't be moved not murder tight).

 

Read the Owner's Manual, disconnecting and reconnecting the car battery isn't a big thing, on these cars at least.

 

If you want a belt and braces, after reconnecting the battery start the car turn the lights and air-con and blower on and turn the steering wheel full lock in each direction.  Or don't bother just check the new bulb works and just start the car and and drive it when and as you normally would, during the driving the computers will sort themselves if required.

 

Getting the (incandescent) daylight driving lights replaced is more awkward than disconnecting and reconnecting the car battery.

 

Good time to also think about the state of charge of the car battery and if required using an appropriate battery charger maintainer or appropriate driving, see the Owner's Manual about charging the battery too.

 

Good luck.

   

Edited 11 December, 2023 by nta16
ETA:

[Planetse]

Wheel off, and through the hatch in the arch is best way. 

[nta16]

10 minutes ago, Planetse said:

Wheel off, and through the hatch in the arch is best way. 

I agree if you can do it.  I have small hands but I still had to ask my wife to put the incandescent DRL bulbs back in as it was boiling my blood trying to do it (the DRL bulb blowing again and the amber-light-of-doom warning light being tardy in it's operation had already p*ssed me off enough).

 

Last millennium my wife had a little Fiat (when little cars were very little and not the huge oversized, overweight as they are now) and even though I could get my small hand in the gap to get at the back of the light I just couldn't get my wrist in a position to remove the dud bulb so I had to send my wife down to the usually very unreliable Fiat dealership and pay them to replace a bulb (the shame of it for a man of my age at that time).  My wife said the mechanic had big hands but done the job very quickly and very easily with no tools or other work and the Dealership didn't even charge for the work and done it just straight away where the car was parked up.  😄  

[0094994]

So got it done, steps to complete were:

 

1. Open bonnet
2. Try to release hatch in wheel arch with Skoda tool, Skoda tool wouldn't budge it and even started to stretch out like a keyring being straightened.
3. Tried to release hatch with a jury rigged tool made from a metal bar in my shed, kept slipping.
4. Pushed a rubber handled socket wrench onto the hatch from the bonnet side and gave it a good shove, popped the hatch off no bother.
5. Removed rubber cover from light.
6. Tried to twist light from the wheel arch side and felt like an amateur gynecologist, probing around with two fingers.  Couldn't get the grip on the light I needed.
7. Loosened the retaining bolt on the battery clamp and slid the battery over about 5mm but still didn't have room to get my hand in that side so put it back where it was.
8. Returned to shed with a couple of torches and positioned them in the engine bay and under wheel arch so that I could see the target and very carefully used a pair of long nosed pliers to turn it anticlockwise and pull the bulb housing out.
9. Put on a pair of nitrile glove to put the new bulb in.
10. Spend 20 minutes trying to sit the bulb housing back into it's socket, retire for a cuppa then return to push it in first time with no issues.
11. Use the pliers to carefully turn the housing clockwise until it clicked.
12. Put the rubber cover for the light back on.
13. Started the engine and turned lights on, M-Dot, warning lights and car info no longer reporting the fault. Got out of car and checked lights properly aligned so as not to blind oncoming traffic, all good. Minor panic when returning to car to see warning light on, but heart rate returned to normal when the car info just said it was because I had the bonnet open and had taken the key with me when I checked the lights.
14. Put the hatch cover back into it's hole and spent a few minutes forcing all the edges back into place.
15. Closed bonnet.
16. Hope never to have to do this job again and didn't even contemplate changing the drivers side, sticking the second bulb in the glove compartment for whenever it does decide to give up the ghost.

[nta16]

Well done.  👍

And thanks for reporting back.  These jobs aren't difficult but often PITA (or back) more awkward than you'd expect.

 

 

53 minutes ago, 0094994 said:

Try to release hatch in wheel arch with Skoda tool, Skoda tool wouldn't budge it and even started to stretch out like a keyring being straightened.

Yeap that happened to me when I put a bar through the tool.

 

 

55 minutes ago, 0094994 said:

Spend 20 minutes trying to sit the bulb housing back into it's socket, retire for a cuppa then return to push it in first time with no issues.

😄  Another good idea to walk away and have a mug of tea and return later.  Or a mate (or wife) turns up and puts it back in easily and instantly.

 

 

57 minutes ago, 0094994 said:

Put the hatch cover back into it's hole and spent a few minutes forcing all the edges back into place.

I cleaned and the covers and wheel arch liner area before removal and for refitting cleaned and spray lubricated the edges of the wheel arch liner opening and the cover and just lined the cover up and thumped into place with my fist, despite the spray lubricant the covers were just as difficult to remove the next time they needed to come off.

 

 

1 hour ago, 0094994 said:

sticking the second bulb in the glove compartment for whenever it does decide to give up the ghost.

Forgot to put do test the bulbs before fitting, I've had new bulbs straight out of the packet not work and one that was in the spare kit for 7 years and then when needed didn't work (might have been vibrations from being in boot or just stored shed stock, I forget.  None were headlight bulbs but 21w and 21w/5w, I always go for "heavy-duty" or "X2 Life" (or "X3 Life" if I have time to order them. 

 

 

Having found the DRL such a PITA to do I'd dread the headlights if my wife isn't around (and she normally disappears at such times as she doesn't like to here swearing).

 

Do think about your car battery, as a preventative measure I used the charger/maintainer only the other week on my wife's Fabia as the car does lots of very short journeys, Sod's Law it didn't really need it, only took a hour or so to 'FUL' but it's the type of car work I don't mind, fit the charger and go back in and do more interesting and rewarding stuff in the warm and dry.

 

[0094994]

Cheers.

 

I'm taking it as a good sign that the wheel arch hatch was a PITA to open and close, because that means it won't open by accident and the panel be lost forever on the road somewhere.

 

Didn't even occur to me that the bulb might not work before fitting, that really would have annoyed me. But they are Bosch branded (which from experience with power tools I know is not a cast iron guarantee, but better than trusting an unbranded item).

 

Not too worried about the car battery as the car was in for a service at the end of November and the service report says they checked it and gave it a 'Green' traffic light rating then, but the car does get heavy and prolonged use a lot of the time and I don't leave it sitting around with the start button activated as I noticed that more often than not, this means it sits with the lights on so should be quite healthy in terms of charge.  Especially as I asked them to give me a brand new battery when I bought it in December 2021.

 

 

[nta16]

20 minutes ago, 0094994 said:

Didn't even occur to me that the bulb might not work before fitting

Decades of experience doesn't stop me sometimes forgetting, until I've fixed the lenses cover(s) back on the car, of course that's when I discover the new unused spare didn't work.

 

Decades back I fitted a cheap brake light bulb my neighbour had bought (to his Mk4 Cortina) and on testing it (with lenses cover fitted of course) it worked and then it didn't, swapped it over with the bulb from the other side to discover the faulty bulb worked with a quick dab of the brake pedal but not hold the push.  Discovered the filament would break away one end when it got heated but as it cooled the end would go back and touch until the next time it heated.  Years later I had another bulb do the same but knew what it was then, hence I don't buy standard bulbs, which used to be fine but no longer were, cheap for a reason.

 

I've also had an intermittent blade fuse (or fuse to holder) Sod's Law on the fuel pump supply, worst still on the way to a remote(-ish) pub and not at the pub or after.  I stopped some walkers and was given a plastic pen top that got us to the pub and back home where I replaced the blade fuse with another and even without the use of the pen top never had any problems with it after.  Of course no one believes it was the fuse but the car stopped twice with that fuse and never with its replacement, I initially thought I or someone else might have knocked the fuse or fuseholder as it was under the dash and the car required the driver to slide fit his legs under the dash.

 

When someone says it won't or can't be that I've learnt to check just in case particularly if I thought so and didn't check.  Sod's Law of course if you can check something from two ends and not the middle it'll always be at or nearer the other end that you start from.  😄

 

 

46 minutes ago, 0094994 said:

I asked them to give me a brand new battery when I bought it in December 2021.

Very wise.  👍