Chocolate Spanner award!

[snowy]

Is there an award for a crap design or activity within the Forum?
My reason for asking is I really need to vent about the changing of a headlight bulb in my Audi A3!   
I love the car, does what I want it to do, economically and efficiently, for the last 135,000 miles.
But last week, alarm came up, passenger side dip beam gone, no probs me thinks, it's just a lamp swap!
4 hours later, over two days, had to borrow SWMBO's car for work, bleeding knuckles and wrists, and next doors cat educated in the way of "engineers cursing" (sure he was watching and laughing!) it's back together!   
Even called local Audi dealer asking them how much to fit a new lamp... ....£20
They must know it's a pain of a job, so back to blood, pain and cursing!   
Basically not enough room to get at lamp mounts between fusebox and back of lamp! Double jointed contortionist would have had issues getting in there! Would have been easier to take off bumper / grill and headlight ........ aaaah ....... hindsight!
Perhaps there is use for Halfords' after all!
So, if there is a chocolate spanner award, or similar, please can I suggest it goes to the designers of the Audi A3 who must be of the assumption that their headlights are so good they will never need changing!

[UncleBigBad]

Seems all car manufacturers have a design department employing nano-robots for these tasks. I used to have a Discovery and you did need to take the grille and headlamp unit out on that. I now drive a much more economical Peugeot and I had to employ the hands of my daughter recently to get the bulb replaced due to a serious lack of space for my fat hands.

[O.C.]

ermmmmmm, I'm thinking locating the  accessory leads on a Kawasaki GTR     

[Mikey]

I think I'd have paid the £20 

[Lonewolf]

In hindsight £20 sounds a bargain, Halfords probably would have done it for a tenner. Some things simply aren't designed for mere mortals to tamper with! 

[moayling]

Try changing an RT headlight bulb

[Richard]

I am not familiar with the Audi, but on many modern cars you have to remove the headlight to change bulbs, on my Mondeo they are only held on with 2 plates you pull out, simples.

[snowy]

The A3 owners handbook clearly show, diagrammatically, the process for swapping the bulbs, but in reality unless you have hands the size of a chimp with matching dexterity changing the lamp is a nightmare!
Oh, and headlamp removal, all bolts are under the grill / bumper covers, and needless to say clips cannot be unbolted due to 1000's of miles road  and corrosion!
Think the Wolf sums it up, just annoys me that we have to rely on dealers for such menial jobs!

[O.C.]

thats progress for you