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Comment by bigiain | Hacker News Reader

I _would_ have been surprised, but I saw this on their homepage:

"2012-09-09 in Redwood City CA

Whitney worked on 2000 Ford Mustang to do Tail Lamp Bulb - Driver Side"

Whereupon I remembered that just like most people don't whip up a quick Perl script to "fix" things on their computer, there people who ring up companies and pay them to replace light bulbs.

When you're the sort of person who's happily scheduled a Saturday afternoon to pull the engine out so you can replace the clutch, it's easy to forget that even the most trivial of car maintenance tasks are things that many "regular people" choose to pay someone else to do rather than learn how to do it themselves.

(But I'm still thinking to myself "You paid someone to come out and replace a lightbulb? _Really?_)

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Its a 12 volt electrical system running about 10 amps on that specific line. Any mishap could potential cause more trouble. I've seen (and fixed) cars whose owners fried the whole brakelights harness when replacing "just a lightbulb."

Also, cars these days use the type of fasteners that most people don't have tools to deal with. Look under the hood of a new Chrysler, for example, and you will be amazed.

Seriously? You are advocating booking a mechanic to replace a bulb?

Agreed. I get the point that new cars are intricate, crammed and complicated but a light bulb is a user serviceable part that is really not much harder than changing a lamp at home. Would you hire an electrician for that because you didn't want to blow your home's electrical system? ;)

Its not the same thing. You are comparing a live closed system (brake lights have live 12 volt wiring) to a open circuit that you can switch off at at least two points.

Where by "live 12 volt wiring", you mean "live 12 volt wiring, , but only 'live' when both the ignition and the brakes are on (or sometimes the tail-lights where they use dual-filament bulbs), which is suitably fused so it wont catch fire if you short it, and which is completely safe to touch unless you manage to pierce through your ribcage with two conductive spikes and connect opposite ends of the low-voltage supply directly onto your heart muscle", right?

Seriously, I'm trying to imagine any scenario where ham-fisted attempts to change a brake light bulb could result in anything more dangerous than a mild surprise and a blown fuse if you manage to short the contacts. You are, in my experience, _much_ more likely to injure yourself kicking the cat 'cause you end up so frustrated having to remove 47 easily breakable plastic clips holding the shitty carpet/trim in the trunk to get to the bulb - than being in any danger from a 12V electrical system, live or not.

And, as someone who lives where out wall outlets provide 220V AC, and who's taken more than his fair share of belts from not only 220V but also 415V three phase power, I find it vaguely amusing when people are deadly afraid of puny 110V electrical systems ;-)

I've had past clients partially burn their cars after chaging a light bulb. Keys off the ignitio and all. I talk out of experience. I've owned 3 repair shops. Seen worse things happen.

Someone capable of burning their cars changing a light bulb probably shouldn't be driving :)

One of them was an electrical engineer believe it or not. He partially burned the wiring on his 911 Porsche when replacing a lightbulb. Its just crazy.

Was this _just_ a bulb replacement? Or was bulb replacement the last action is a chain of errors? I'm pretty sure I've never worked on a car that didn't have suitable fuses for light bulb circuits/wiring.

(Having said that, I have been personally responsible for screwing that up - "130W headlight globes, Sure! I'll just swap out the 15A headlight fuse for a 30A one! This wiring looks _fine…_" (So far as I know) I always got away with that, perhaps more out of luck and good engineering by the manufacturer, rather than having sufficient expertise to be able to make a correctly informed decision about whether the OEM loom was good for double the original current…)

Perhaps modern cars are build with significantly less margin-for-error than my experience dictates? My car-tweaking experience was mostly on late '60s / early '70s Volkswagon Beetles, and mid '70s Ford Escorts. I haven't owned a car since '95 (and the last one was a '72 SuperBug). I've been pretty much motorcycle-only since then.

No. I'm advocating to booking a mechanic to make sure that the car is repaired properly. The fact that it is a light bulb does not matter. Then you wonder why people dont want to hire you to build them "just a website."

That's quite offensive.

I don't build websites for other people, but if I did, I would ideally provide the customer with a way to maintain their website, whether that's managing comments or posting articles. These are simple jobs the owner can do without paying a professional developer.

Similarly, replacing a light bulb on a car is a job the owner can do without the cost of a professional.

I did not mean the post to be offensive. I apologize.

Ok here is where experience has taught me that your conclusions are wrong.

Similarly, replacing a light bulb on a car is a job the owner can do without the cost of a professional.

A lot of people cant do that. And I mean a lot. Same with wipers, and even windshield fluid. I even had people coming in to check their tire pressure.

Just because you can do something for yourself, does not mean others can do it. I cant, for the life of me, correctly sew on a button. Just cant. I pay people $15 bucks to sew on a 10 cent button. Am I dumb? Probably. But I can sew and they can. So I pay them whatever. Same with cars. I fyou can do it yourself, then more power to you.

I have a 2000 Mustang and those bulbs in the back are a little more tricky than one might think. :)

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