The car in front is probably from Japan

The electrical systems of British motor cars are ridiculed the world over and I recall it even being the brunt of a punch line in an episode of Frasier.

Of course I’m not going to say here what car I have for my work but this particular model seems to do well to perpetuate the “myth”. While this car is very nice to live with when every thing is working okay it consumes headlight bulbs like; like; like a headlight bulb eating dragon. It is never the main beam units always the dip bulbs that fail. It is a pig of a thing to get at too. First the grill needs taken off and then a couple of awkward lugs need lifted so that openings in bars below line up with retaining caps so that the headlight can be pulled forward out of its housing. If you lift the lugs too far the headlamp remains captive as the holes have come up past the caps they must pass over. You can see this on one side of the lamp but not on the other. The hole is hidden so you have to fiddle about to bring it to the right height. Once the headlamp is free there is a fiddly multi pin electrical connector to separate. You can then get the whole unit face down on a towel on a table top to get access for the actual bulb change. They fail so regularly that I am always checking them but I was horrified to notice that both had fused when I did my walk round the car at the digs in Gairloch last night.
I usually have a supply of H7 bulbs in the car but they were all finished.
I have tried all makes of bulb too. The Land Rover (Dam! I wasn’t going to say that) supplied ones don’t last well at all and I have found the most durable to be some that were on special offer at our Lidl supermarket. There you are; a shop that is good for bulbs and broccoli.
I can do the whole job really quickly now as I have done it so often; quicker than a Lewis Hamilton tyre change. In fact if F1 cars had headlights I could get a job.

You will be wondering why I haven’t told the garage about this. I have, and I am irritated at the suggestion of some pilot error on my part, that I am perhaps touching the glass envelope of the bulb; I’m not; or that something isn’t clipped in right each time. In my last conversation with them I think the service person was somewhat bemused at my well researched and sound advice that Lidl headlight bulbs are vastly superior to the Land Rover factory fitted type. (Dam, said it again)
Real mechanical or electrical expertise has vanished from these work shops and unless a diagnostic computer tells the “technician” which black box to replace (and there are dozens on modern cars) they are well and truly stumped. I had a ludicrous argument with the garage (with a previous similar car) where there was a glaring and obvious suspension fault and the mechanic said “but the computer says its okay” and I had to suggest “Aye, but what is common sense telling you?”

Any way, I purchased another small supply of H7 bulbs on the way home tonight and have done my F1 pit stop routine.

A photo of the dismantled front of my car is a dreadful waste of a valuable blip. I may yet go with something pretty at Badachro River.

I can now confirm I went with a very fast flowing Badachro River. I won't need to wait long for another bulb change anyway.