Go ahead...mock me!
 

Ok, I'm big enough of a man to admit when I do stupid things. Out of my desire to make some cool upgrades to my 8, I made a stupid mistake. I ordered a couple of the stealth-like 7440 bulbs for my front turn signals and was attempting to install them when I noticed that the bulbs didn't seem to want to fit properly. I pushed on them a bit harder than I did at first and they seemed to have gone in snuggly.

So, I proceeded to re-insert the buld into the headlight when.... yes, you guessed it... the bulb fell out of the socket and into the front of the headlight! :( If I were one for cursing, at that moment a stream of profanity would have come flying from my mouth.

After a few failed attempts to coerce the bulb back to the hole, I had no choice but to remove my bumper so that I could then remove the headlight. If it weren't for the instructions I found in the forum I would have spent my entire evening trying to figure out how to get the bumper off. Luckily it was a fairly straight-forward procedure. I'd like to think I'm mechanically inclined, but the mood I was in didn't lend itself to a long drawn out complicated process.

Anyway, thank you to everyone in the forum that has contributed and enabled the rest of us to benefit from your experiences!

imagine a bulb exploding inside your headlight...that's a night work right there..

yikes

oh well, buy a new car.

I bet a piece of gum on a stick would have dug the bulb out in no time, and without removing the headlight ass'y.

Charles

That I would liked to have seen!

Perhaps I could have sent a specially trained bulb retrieving mouse in after it instead!

First off, if you don't make some mistakes, you just aren't pushing yourself hard enough. We can't always have someone by our side who's alredy done everything we want to do to keep from doing it wrong. You took care of the whole issue on your own. No harm done!

Second, what about a pick-up tool? I realize you already have it out, but could help others if this happens again.

Could you have used a magnetice pick up?
http://www.enjoythedrive.com/images/...magnetpick.jpg

Or how about this flexible tool? It has a three prong claw on the end that your can "squeeze" with the pumger on the end.
http://www.dnbsales.com/usrimage/cat58.jpg

Either way, you are now one of the sites bumper removal specialist!

I thought about the magnetic tool but there is now way I could have negotiated all the twists and turns using one. The bulb rolled all the way down to the front by the parking light. As for the pronged grabbing tool, that may have worked but I was also concerned with scratching the inside of the headlight housing.

The benefit of it all is that I now know how to remove my bumper for future mods and I won't be hesitant to go at it with a bit more confidence.

I am a little concerned that the bulbs did not fit as intended. I hope no one else encounters this issue when a bulb works its way loose!!!

I bet a magnetic pick-up tool could have done it - it's pulled my ass out of a jam MANY times.

Dale

Again, there was no way to negotiate into the headlight through the fender with a magnetic wand. Maybe one of the prong tools with a padded and magnetic end would have worked. That would have been flexible enough to get into the headlight and still not scratch the lens.

If anyone would like to pop a loose bulb into their headlight and attempt to get it out using this method, feel free to prove me wrong! ;)

Look out dwntreader, there are a bunch of people around here who might take you up on that!

Shall we move on to more substantive issues?

dwntreader, did you ever get the bulbs to actually fit?
Do they normally have fitment issues?

I would have parked the car on some ramps and have the bulb roll back into my greasy hand!

I would have stopped when i realized they didnt fit so well and just got better fitting bulbs, or researched before i got bulbs. but thats just me xP

Bunch of Monday morning quarterbacks..