Am I Being Thick?

[pistonbroke2]

Got home this evening and noticed my passenger side headlamp bulb was out. When I got the car it wasn't working, but a firm tap on the lamp brought it back to life and I thought nothing more of it. Tonight though, it seems its well and truly dead. I opened the bonnet and took the screw cap off and to my frustration I can't get at the bulb because the cap it wedged in front of the battery. Thing is, I don't want to remove the battery just to replace the bulb, it took me weeks to get my h/unit setup with the correct settings so it sounded good, if I remove the battery, I have to do it all again.

Is there a trick to it ? does the loom that passes through the screw cap and onto the bulb have a multi-plug nearby for me to remove it that way?

[emoe]

Got home this evening and noticed my passenger side headlamp bulb was out. When I got the car it wasn't working, but a firm tap on the lamp brought it back to life and I thought nothing more of it. Tonight though, it seems its well and truly dead. I opened the bonnet and took the screw cap off and to my frustration I can't get at the bulb because the cap it wedged in front of the battery. Thing is, I don't want to remove the battery just to replace the bulb, it took me weeks to get my h/unit setup with the correct settings so it sounded good, if I remove the battery, I have to do it all again.

Is there a trick to it ? does the loom that passes through the screw cap and onto the bulb have a multi-plug nearby for me to remove it that way?

If you get yourself a length of decent cable fitted with a 5amp fuse, then connect that inline with the battery cable, do the same with a sinlge piece of wire for the negative to an earth point (no need for a fuse on that one) you can then remove the battery terminals, and get the battery up on top of the intake manifold to remove the headlight cover. The fuse will let power get to the headunit keeping the settings you have, but allows you to remove the conection to the battery. If something does short out, the 5a fuse will blow, saving the headunit damage and ECU damage too.

Make sure you use some electrical tape and tape up the battery connection after you take it off.

hope that helps

[HOL]

Alternatively,

I think most stereos need 9v to keep the codes alive.

So, if you have an old cigarette lighter plug, you could connet that to a minimum 9v standalone supply (spare battery or battery charger) and it should keep all your clock and other settings alive in the short term that the batter is diconnected.

I think you can buy gizmos ready made to do it.

[pistonbroke2]

Thanks guys, I'll give it a go later and see how I get on.

Also, what bulbs will I need?

[emoe]

if they are standard bulbs you need H4 hi lo beam

[pistonbroke2]

I've heard that different bugeye variations have different bulbs.

My car has the black bugeye lights if that makes any difference.