My Ford Ka has a blown headlight bulb - driver's side, main bulb. Fine when driving on full beam, but not on dipped.
Owing to a) the difficulty of changing headlight bulbs on a Ford Ka - and b) not having the correct bulb handy in these remote parts, I'm not likely to get it changed for a week or two.
What are the legal implications - both in theory and in practice - of driving at night with such a vehicle?
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You'll be unlucky and get pulled over, unlike the 10% of all drivers I see when night driving who have some sort of lighting defect. It might help your case if you have a spare bulb in the car with you. Is your KA the original model or the newer one BTW?
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Ka is the original one. (Yes, I have noticed that driving with a blown headlight bulb is not at all rare!)
And by way of explanation, I plan to make a journey tomorrow which will have me leaving Castle Tyro early, heading down to Old Navy / BobbyG / Skoda land, and coming home late - a total of 12 hours on the road. The Ka has a missing headlight bulb, the Citroen doesn't have winter tyres on, and the forecast indicates that there will be some snow around in the Highlands. I'm trying to decide which car to take.
Last edited by: tyro on Wed 9 Mar 11 at 09:35
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Top idea, recommended by other members! Arrange to drive past a branch of Halfords, buy the bulb and pay them about £3 to fit it. They know how to do it and have small hands with lots flexible joints and it is a flat fee, however long it takes or tricky it is!!!!
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A quick google indicated that it is not unknown for Halfords to refuse to attempt to fit a Ford Ka bulb.
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Couldn't find anything about that but I have less incentive than you to check it, to be fair! Carry a spare bulb and swing past a Halfords if you pass one. You can find their store locations on line and, if there is one near your route, you can phone and specifically ask if they will fit a Mk 1 KA bulb while you wait. I wouldn't care to choose between a trip with a dud bulb and one with unsuitable tyres!
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>> the Citroen doesn't have winter tyres on, and the forecast
>> indicates that there will be some snow around in the Highlands
Cripes. I bet no-one goes out without their winter tyres on!
Seriously, though, given the choice, I'd take that one rather than one with illegal lights.
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I am told that National will change these for a small sum. Give them or a similar outfit a ring.
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>> What are the legal implications
If plod do pull you over, then you'll get a 7 day wonder, and the possibility of having to take the car to a garage that does MOTs to verify the defective light has been fixed.
Safety implications would be higher on my agenda though, especially as it's the drivers side dipped headlight. If another driver doesn't spot the dimly lit side light, he might mistake you for a motorbike. Worse case senario, IMHO, would be a head on crash as another driver might not realise how wide your car is.
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Buy a sensible car that doesn't have a major servicing/safety problem.
Knowingly driving with a driver's headlight out is madness.
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It is, quite simply, illegal to drive a vehicle without its full complement of lighting in working order - even in daylight - and that includes brake lights.
Apart from the safety aspects already outlined above, it's not worth the risk of possible prosecution for something that can/could be fixed quite quickly.
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>> It is, quite simply, illegal to drive a vehicle without its full complement of lighting
>> in working order - even in daylight
No it's not.
www.motuk.co.uk/manual_170.htm
"Headlamps are not required to be fitted to vehicles used only during the hours of daylight, which are fitted with neither front nor rear position lamps, etc. (See 1.1.A). "
Similar applies to motorbikes too
www.motuk.co.uk/mcmanual_120.htm
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Con and Use regs overrule that Dave. If lights are fitted they must work. It's a straight fail to maintain offence regardless of time of day.
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>> "Headlamps are not required to be fitted to vehicles used only during the hours of
>> daylight, which are fitted with neither front nor rear position lamps, etc. (See 1.1.A). "
He's a bit stuffed by the fact that the vehicle is fitted with front & rear position lamps.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Wed 9 Mar 11 at 13:23
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>>No it's not.>>
Sorry, but you are wrong. One of my mates is an ex-traffic cop and that's one of the things we've discussed on occasions.
You never know even during daylight hours if you might need to use your lights (fog, poor visibility etc).
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>> Safety implications would be higher on my agenda though, especially as it's the drivers side
>> dipped headlight. If another driver doesn't spot the dimly lit side light, he might mistake
>> you for a motorbike. Worse case senario, IMHO, would be a head on crash as
>> another driver might not realise how wide your car is.
>>
Exactly my thought too - scares the heck out of me when I see that on the rural A roads around Cheshire. Of course the other issue is, what if the other bulb goes too? If they've been in the car some time they do tend to go within a short space of time of each other.
I did drive a considerable distance in a Peugeot 405 with one headlamp when the other got destroyed by a large stone. What was surprising was one lit up the road just as well as two had done - the difference wasn't at all as obvious as I would have expected.
It's one thing to get caught out while already on a trip, but quite another to embark on a journey knowing that you have an issue like this.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Wed 9 Mar 11 at 10:08
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It's unthinkable to set out on a long journey with this bulb out for all the reasons mentioned above.
Also consider the long shot that your remaining bulb blows!
Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 9 Mar 11 at 10:19
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When I want to kill myself I will do it at home with a bottle of whiskey and a cold bath and leave a nice tidy body for my nearest and dearest to bury. I shall not spend twelve hours in a car without a working headlight. Worse still, I have no inclination to spend some years in jail having killed somebody after knowingly set out on such a journey, having left such statement writ large upon the internet.
If you have no suitable vehicle, stay at home and don't risk the lives of law-abiding (or otherwise) members of the population.
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Mappy, for someone who doesn't see the problem with some examples of drink driving, that comes as a surprise to me.
I must say I agree.
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My nearside dipped beam bulb was out for a while recently. Made a surprising amount of difference.
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Thanks for your replies, gentlemen.
The situation seems pretty straight-forward. Citroen it is, unless forecast gets a lot worse.
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Alanovic>> Mappy, for someone who doesn't see the problem with some examples of drink driving... I agree
I don't see why your approval of drink driving means you should agree with me?
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You know I meant you, you daft wotsit.
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Under what circumstances are you in favour of drunk driving, Alanovic?
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Are you on drugs? You know perfectly well we had an exchange sometime back in which YOU were defending some examples of drink driving, and I was disagreeing with you vociferously. Anyone who reads this forum will know my stance on the subject, and will not be fooled by your attempt to twist my words, which were clearly directed at you, someone who, unlike me, sees no wrong in people drinking and driving in some circumstances.
Now stop being puerile.
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>> Now stop being puerile.
Yes, stop it. You almost made Alanovic sound rational there for a moment.
:o}
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Back to the OP's concern about driving at night with a headlight bulb not working, why not just drive with sidelights and front fogs on? Cool, innit?
Going back to construction and use regs, got pulled by plod a few years back for having a tail light bulb out on a Ford Thunderbird, despite the fact the car had tail lights running the entire width of the car. Must have been a public relations exercise.
It didn't work.
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>>Back to the OP's concern about driving at night with a headlight bulb not working, why not just drive with sidelights and front fogs on? Cool, innit?>>
No. It's illegal (unless it is actually foggy).
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>> >>Back to the OP's concern about driving at night with a headlight bulb not working,
>> why not just drive with sidelights and front fogs on? Cool, innit?>>
>>
>> No. It's illegal (unless it is actually foggy).
I had a bulb blow a few years back, and used one dipped headlight and the foglights. I got stopped by the old bill, who asked a few questions, told me to get it fixed asap and told me to go on my way.
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One of my Skodas had an aftermarket front grille with two foglights set into the middle. The headlights failed one very early morning when I was on the way to Heathrow to meet my sister - a relay or something, I forget - but the foglights worked and the sidelights did too, so I just turned the foglights on.
I overtook a plod car on the M4 which then came past and stopped me. I explained so they sent me on my way with the usual advice. The police driver chuckled that the foglights were so close together that he had initially mistaken me for a motorbike.
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>>I had a bulb blow a few years back, and used one dipped headlight and the foglights. I got stopped by the old bill, who asked a few questions, told me to get it fixed asap and told me to go on my way.>>
Clearly an officer with some common sense and appreciation of the circumstances. I suspect too that you kept calm and didn't attempt to argue the toss, which is what does get a police officer's back up with the almost inevitable outcome.
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I have never advocated breaking the law on drunk driving.
I have absolutely no idea of your stance on it, but I presume - contrary to what your above post implied - that you aren't very keen on it.
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Update.
In the event, the weather forecast deteriorated, so I telephoned my friendly indy* in Inverness and asked him if he could change the bulb if I dropped in before 9 a.m. He said he could, so that's what happened. He went in through the wheel arch, by the way. Not a particularly quick job, and while I didn't time him, it must have taken 10 or 15 minutes. He charged me a fiver. So I proceeded on my way with fully working headlights and winter tyres. I felt smug as I watched cars driving past that evening with the main beam of a headlight not working (including a Porsche).
I was also quite glad I had the winter tyres as a lot of the roads had snow on them. Winter tyres may not have made much difference - there was probably less than a centimetre of snow in the worst places, but I felt a bit more confident. The Ka was probably a better vehicle than the Berlingo because there were high winds in the morning, and because of the twisty nature of parts of the A82. I drove almost the whole length of the A82 and was amazed that a trunk road should have so many potholes and so many sections with very poor road surface. I kept on wondering how my tyres and suspension were getting on.
(*I didn't bother with Halfords - partly because they don't open before 9, and I wanted to be down the road early, but mostly because I doubted whether they would have been willing / able to do the job.)
Last edited by: tyro on Fri 11 Mar 11 at 14:29
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I had a nearside bulb blow on the last Focus.
As with Bill Payer above, I was surprised how little difference it made to overall forward illumination.
I could have been driving around with one bulb for a week or two.
It made me a little less inclined to criticise others who have a bulb out.
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>> I had a nearside bulb blow on the last Focus.
>> I could have been driving around with one bulb for a week or two.
>>
Doesn't it show a message/symbol on the instrument display when a bulb goes?
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Iffy's probably right, even an aware driver can miss the lost illumination. The danger however is the mistaken perception of 'nelson' as a motorbike or as something more distant/on a different course.
No defence however for failing to carry out the regular walkround or watching your lights reflection in windows or off the back of other cars.
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>> Iffy's probably right, even an aware driver can miss the lost illumination. The danger however is the mistaken perception of 'nelson' as a motorbike
Yes, the last thing you want is people pulling out in front of you.......
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i would never ever drive a car knowingly with a headlight bulb out
and i certainly wouldnt look to an internet chat room for advice on doing so
it takes 5 minutes as proved to change a bulb on these by a professional fitter
thats what they are there for
just like doctors bus drivers and policemen,they do a job they know about
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>> I would never ever drive a car knowingly with a headlight bulb out
>>
That would be me in a normal situation BUT
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>> it takes 5 minutes as proved to change a bulb on these by a professional fitter thats what they are there for
>>
Well I keep a full set of bulbs for for my Mondeo. As the online lists are not correct I have checked that every bulb on my car has at least one spare in my self assembled kit.
I am well practiced at changing my MK II Mondeo headlamp bulbs and it requires:-
removing the a fan shield and the grill loosening one screw and removing two others per headlamp etc etc and I would not entertain doing that on a wet windy night.
I have a detailed "bulbs out" display on the dash that stays on til a bulb is changed so I will always change a bulb immediately if at all possible.
As many of us know it can be a real pig to change bulbs on many "modern" vehicles.
How about the EU doing something usefull like making it mandatory that "normal bulbs" on cars should be accessible without any tools ?
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>> As many of us know it can be a real pig to change bulbs on
>> many "modern" vehicles.
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>> How about the EU doing something usefull like making it mandatory that "normal bulbs" on
>> cars should be accessible without any tools ?
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Good idea. After all, the EU are keen on car lighting, aren't they? They made driving lights mandatory in the interests of safety.
I would have thought that making it easy to get your car back into full working order on a wet and windy night, when you discover that a bulb has blown, is a no-brainer.
And while they are at it, they can make spare wheels compulsory as well, for similar reasons.
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>> No defence however for failing to carry out the regular walkround or watching your lights
>> reflection in windows or off the back of other cars.
>>
Totally agree. As a lorry driver, light/oil/tyres/coolant checks are a daily routine for me; in any properly run haulage outfit you maintain a daily defect report as a matter of course.
To fail to do so in a car is sheer laziness; there's much less to check and it's much easier. The excuse about bulbs being too difficult to change just doesn't hold water; you wouldn't drive a car with defective tyres, so why do so with defective lights?
I wish VOSA and the plod were as pro-active with cars as they are with HGV's for this kind of thing. I do a lot of night-time work, and I'd estimate that 5-10% of cars on the road at any given time have at least one light bulb not working.
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I have to agree with that HM.
Pat
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Driving at night with a headlight bulb not working - Perky Penguin
