Fog Light Bulb Wrong

[cammag]

One of the first things I do when I buy a new car is upgrade the headlight bulbs. It seemed a little tricky to replace the bulbs in the Mondeo, so I had a couple of other things to sort out on the car so I took it to the selling dealer to do a couple of other jobs and to replace all the bulbs. So I looked in the manual for what bulbs I needed and bought accordingly.

Now in my manual the specs for the fog lights are 55 watt HB4 so I spent $80 on some good HB4 bulbs.

When they were doing the other jobs the dealer fitted the bulbs. They came out and said to me that the fog light bulbs are the wrong ones and the do not fit. They assured me that the bulbs fitted in the car are HB4’s but the ones I supplied have the wrong harness connection.

I thought that was strange but did not argue with them, after all they know what they are doing.

When I got home I asked the manufacturer of the bulbs if there were different harness connectors for the HB4’s and was told no. I check with another manufacturer and with the retailer and I got the same answer.

I contacted Ford Aust. To find out what the story was, not an easy task. They did not listen to the problem and kept talking over the top of me.

So I thought I will have a look myself. I removed the plastic panel under the bumper to get access to lights and had a look.

WTF? H11 bulbs?

I checked manual again, definitely HB4 spec. Just not in the car. I check the UK manual (there was link on a thread here somewhere) and the spec there is H11.

What else is wrong in the manual? And what am I supposed to do with the opened H11 bulbs?

Just thought I would let you all know that the wrong bulbs are listed in the manual.

Cheers.

[warren77]

Thanks for the heads up - I was considering changing over my fog lights as well just hadn't gotten around to it.

Will check what the globes are before buying them!

[cammag]

Originally Posted by warren77

Thanks for the heads up - I was considering changing over my fog lights as well just hadn't gotten around to it.

Will check what the globes are before buying them!

Hey Warren,

I had a go at removing them last week. They were too fidly to get to so I gave up. Today I removed the plastic panel underneath the bumper and it makes it a lot easier.

Cheers.

[warren77]

The XR5 uses a different fog light than the Zetec. Will have to have a look at how you get the globes out.

Changing over the low and high beam globes was a challenge in its self! Wasn't expecting to have to remove the entire headlight to achieve this.

[cammag]

Thought I would do the right thing and let someone know that the manual was wrong. I rang the dealership and they told me that "they don't print them. Talk to Ford". Oh - kay then.

So I called Ford. It took just over an hour and I am still not sure that they understood. The third person I spoke to could not get past the fact that I wanted to replace a bulb with a higher quality bulb.

Talk about frustrating. I really don't want to have to call them again.