This little light of mine

Is there something about technology that requires things to be engineered to death? I really appreciate the fact that an indicator on my dashboard notes that a rear light is out. I would appreciate it more if it said which rear light but there are few enough that the process of inspection is sufficient to indicate the left brake light. I decided that I should be able to change the light bulb – after all, how many grandpa’s does it take to change a light bulb? (Answer: only one but then it takes him the rest of the day to blog it.)

Well, it is certainly easier said than done. For one thing, Mercury has made the light bulbs impossible to access. This must be some national security feature because I can’t imagine any other reason from preventing a car owner from getting to the bulbs. Once I finally got access, removing it required knowing the secret combination – left one-quarter turn, depress lever, right half-turn, pull out part way, left half turn to free socket. Of course those directions weren’t printed anywhere and took some knuckle busting to discover.

The bulb looked perfectly healthy, at least to my untrained eyes, so I tested it with my voltmeter which showed both the brake light filament and the tail light filament registering the proper amount of conductance. Hmmm, I put the bulb back in the socket and the socket back in the car body. Light works, dashboard indicator doesn’t light. Problem solved? – probably not but who knows?

Oh, and it doesn’t seem to matter which way I put the bulb in the socket. I would think one way would be correct and 180 degrees different would switch the tail light and brake light connections. Doesn’t seem to work that way. The onboard computer must be smart enough to compensate for dumb technicians such as the car owner who replaces his own light bulbs.