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When is a blown bulb not a blown bulb?
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blackhatphil   
Mon May 12 2014, 10:35pm
Joined: May 13 2012
Member No: #882
Location: Horsham, West Sussex
 Hi everyone.
I had my 08 Lignage in for service today and informed the garage (well known dealer in Crawley) that the ns bulb was intermittently not coming in ( it would 'fail' about once a week) and the os one would sometimes flicker.
I was thinking that this must be something other than the physical bulb and would hopefully be able to claim on the 3rd part warranty I have taken out. After all, bulbs either work, or they do not, right?!?
Not so.
I have been told that xenon bulbs CAN be intermittent because they don't have filaments, that they are 'wear and tear' items at something like £90 each....and that to have them fitted is about 1.5 hours labour as the front of the car needs to be dismantled! So changing 2 headlamp bulbs in a C6 will set you back the best part of £300....and no, the warranty, underwritten by Car Care Plan Ltd will NOT cover this.

I was also informed that the discs and pads need to be replaced (after 60k miles, discs? really?) so with labour that will be another £510.

I imagine that for some this is acceptable and I should consider it part and parcel of running this sort of car....but I would be curious to know if there are alternatives? And no, doing it myself is NOT an option as I am partially disabled as well as inept!

Would anyone, for example, know of a reputable independent who could do this work for a cost under the dealer's figure, and is within reasonable distance of Horsham, West Sussex?

Many thanks!
gmerry   
Tue May 13 2014, 06:23am
Joined: Dec 11 2009
Member No: #21
Location: Scotland
 Hi Blackhatphil, my 2008 Lignage has also gone through the on off on off headlight issues as well as having several front disk changes, so nothing unique in your experience. And yes, both are obvious wear and tear items.

Regarding the brakes, any competent workshop should be able to change the front disk and pads. Just make sure they remove the LDS tank lid when lifting the car with the wheels hanging. Also make sure that they bleed out the old brake fluid when pushing the caliper pistons back in and do not allow the old fluid to go back inside the ABS block.

Changing the light bulbs needs a lot of car, check out the various posts on this forum. You should really do both fronts even if only one bulb has failed, because the 2nd failure will not be far behind and much of the preparatory labour is the same.

The light bulb job might not necessarily be done by the same service company as the brakes.

Note, Citroen do an excellent fixed price brake / disk replacement offer.

Regards
G
Trainman   
Tue May 13 2014, 06:51am

Joined: Apr 12 2010
Member No: #86
Location: Penwortham
 G is right, to give you an idea of time of the front discs and pads, I can replace both in an hour and half and that's from start to finish. If it was me in your place, definitely the dealer with the fixed price.
Dan595   
Tue May 13 2014, 09:55am
Joined: Nov 26 2010
Member No: #299
Location: Wiltshire
 My local Citroen dealer (Islington Trowbridge) does the fixed price offer - I think it was £225 including parts, labour and VAT for the front discs and pads.

Yes, the headlamp bulbs fail intermittently. The nearside one can be changed without dismantling.
 

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