Magic Blue Tape

How many times have you asked yourself, when contemplating a task, "How hard can that be ?", only to discover later that the correct answer was "Very hard"?

One of the Jetta's brake light bulbs needed replacing. C wanted it replaced ASAP and suggested taking the car to the dealer. After finding instructions online, I decided to do it myself. On the way home from shopping for a gas fireplace for the basement today (it was a hot, sunny day and there weren't many other customers in the showroom), we stopped at the auto parts store to buy a new bulb. The sales person asked me if I needed the bayonet-mount bulb or the one that just pushed in. I didn't know, and asked her if she could determine which one I needed, based on the serial number of the car. She couldn't, so I went out to the car, removed the light assembly, extracted the burned-out bulb, and bought a new one that matched.

Then back to the car, plug in new bulb, and replace light assembly. This is where it got challenging. I had to twist and tilt the *&@# thing a dozen different ways, and use more force than I felt comfortable with, to get it back in place. When I'd finished, the brake light still wasn't working. I removed the assembly again and discovered that the bulb had come out of its socket and was inside the plastic lens housing. It was possible to reach it with the tip of one finger, but impossible to grip and remove it.

I went back into the store to borrow a magnetic pickup tool, then found that the metal part of the bulb was non-magnetic. I decided to try to find a solution at home, and not wanting to drive without a left brake light and turn signal, put things back together for the second time.

After the pause that refreshes at home, I took the light assembly out again, and pushed a short strip of masking (aka painter's) tape into the hole where the bulb was hiding. On my first attempt I was able to slowly withdraw the tape with bulb attached. Then, with the bulb firmly bayoneted into its socket, I reassembled everything for the third time.

The brake light shone, and was welcomed like the first star of the evening, but the tail light was not working. I'm going to replace all the bulbs on the left side when I go through the fourth remove and replace routine.