Changing C5 Headlamp Bulbs...

[CitroXim]

No, I've not gone over to the dark side...

A pal who has a C5 posed me this in an e-mail today. I can't get to the car as it's a long way away.

Advice please (apart from get a different car)

How do I get in to change my dim/dip headlight bulbs - I have purchased some new ones.

One looks as though you might be able to get to it if you were a double jointed gynecologist (drivers side) but the other side has this avenuve blocked of with a battery cover that uses some sort of plug holding it down, and that does not seem to want to release.

I have a feeling I've heard this is a bumper off job

Shall I just tell him to scrap it

[M]

Become a double jointed gynacological midget with 12 foot long arms - or undo the headlamp and pull forwards. For reasons known only to the great PSA god they decided on the C5 to insert the light bulbs then build the rest of the car round the headlamps (usually the heater matrix, but hey they thought with the C5 lets be different!)

[CitroXim]

Thanks Marty!

[M]

I was chatting to my friendly MOT tester mechanic once over when I was moaning about the Xantia O/S bulbs because of all the crap behind the headlamp (air con pipes, wires, strange magical black boxes of pixie dust etc) and he told me on most cars now they just remove the headlamps - in fact they remove them for other stuff as well, such as access to alternator bolts and so on. It seems that manufacturers cram too much crap into engine bays these days.
Ah for the heady days of my A+ series Maestro 1300 - enough room to hold a party under that bonnet. Actually the 1700 N/A BX has a good amount of working space too, perhaps your friend should buy one of those

[CitroXim]

And they call that progress!!!

I dug my old TD Xantia out of its slumbers this evening. It is spending its days in quiet retirement now, stabled with our touring caravan and as a result, hardly gets used. No.1 son has just bought an old Nissan 200SX S13 (for drifting he tells me ) and is in need of a car and driver who can tow it on a trailer. He's not qualified to tow something so large so out comes me and my old towing steed... My TD needs to get out more, all this relaxation and disuse is doing it no favours at all. I shall use it as my winter runner and keep a few miles off the Activa..

I found my TD has blown a lot of bulbs since the summer and in swapping them I was reminded just how easy the headlamp bulbs are to change on these early Xantias with no A/C and no ECU.

Seems to me that it is sheer folly to make something as safety critical as headlamp bulbs a dealer-only job for most folk these days

[CitroXim]

Wrong post in wrong thread

[CitroXim]

A question from the owner of the C5 in question...

How do I remove the headlamps?

Indeed, how do you?

[Way2go]

Ah for the heady days of my A+ series Maestro 1300 - enough room to hold a party under that bonnet. :

Not familiar with the Maestro but I remember there was lots of road to be seen down both sides of a Morris Minor 1000 engine.

[CitroXim]

I changed the C5 headlamp bulbs today...

Not a problem if you have girly little hands like me

Many on this forum will vouch that I'm a bloke but my 15 year old daughter has slightly bigger hands than me Still, little hands are a positive advantage on Citroens

There is just enough room to get in to change the bulbs after removing the LDS tank and battery covers.

It is seriously fiddly but infinitely preferable to removing bumper and headlamps...

[philipte]

In the past I have resorted to bad language and skinned knuckles when changing the C5 bulbs. However, it's not actually *that* difficult to get the bumper off, as I discovered when I had to remove it for a different reason. I reckon there's not much in it whichever method is resorted to.
Still not as easy as it was in my late lamanted Visa turbodiesel or BX though!!