For a car, the quality of optics plays a fundamentally important role. At night, it is what ensures the safety of driving. And if the headlights will shine too weakly due to the fact that the car owner did not replace the bulb in time, there is a risk of getting into a big accident. Therefore, the malfunctioning optics need to be fixed in time. Since the headlights are quite complex, it is best to entrust this to professionals. Although the car owner himself should know how to change the dipped beam bulb himself, if it is not possible to ask for help.
Signs of trouble
The low beam bulb has a certain life. In modern cars are used lighting equipment with three types of lamps:
- Halogen. It is almost impossible to determine the signs that the life of the lamp is close to exhaustion. Usually, motorists just have to wait until the lamp finally fails.
- Xenon bulbs. These bulbs have a decrease in brightness, but it is usually not visually noticeable until the bulb fails. And in general, in xenon headlights, the electronic ignition device is more likely to break.
- LEDs. Have the longest life, but over time, and they noticeably dim. Decreasing the brightness of the light occurs unevenly in the right and left headlights. Pointing the light at a white wall, the driver will be able to notice the difference himself. If it is visible to the naked eye, the dimmer bulb will need to be replaced.
- But first you need to make sure that the problem is in the lamps. For example, if both lamps fail at the same time, the problem could be a broken control relay or blown fuses. First you need to make repairs, eliminate the cause, and then change the bulbs, otherwise the replacement by itself will not give any result.
Safety precautions for lamp replacement
Any repair work should follow the same safety rules that apply to other electrical equipment. That is, the bulbs can only be changed when the battery is disconnected. It must only be reconnected after work is completed with the ignition off.
When carrying out works, it is necessary to use only those fuses, which are provided by a design of the car. And there should not be any homemade devices like wire.
Halogen bulbs can only be touched with gloved hands, because the skin grease causes darkening of the windows. LED lamps are not just changed with gloves on, but then wipe the surface with a cloth soaked in an alcohol solution.
How to change the lamp
The sequence of steps in the replacement should be as follows. First you need to read the instruction manual of the car, so that there are no unpleasant surprises. It is recommended to read thematic forums – in different versions of the car model can be its own nuances.
Then, you need to act as follows:
- Carefully remove the old bulb.
- If you have a headlight corrector, all disassembly works are done with special care.
- Before installing the new bulb, the surface of the emitter is cleaned of dirt.
- If the lamp is equipped with a position indicator, it must be strictly followed. This is especially true for the installation of twin units for low and high beam.
- Before connecting the electrical connector, check the contact areas. Eliminate burnt contacts so that there is no sparking.
- After completing the installation work, check the tightness of the construction, so that the lamp does not get moisture.