Replacing an Interior Light

One of the more important safety features that many people overlook is the interior lights of their car. These helpful little devices light up whenever we open our doors, allowing us to see what is inside the car, as well as help us by again letting us see when it is dark and we need to find something on the inside. When they go out, why not try your own hand at replacing an interior light instead of paying an arm and a leg to have someone else do it?

Materials:

• Screwdrivers, straight and Philips
• Rag
• Latex gloves
• Ammonia-free window cleaner
• Replacement bulbs

Steps:

1. Remove. The first step in replacing a car's interior light is to remove the cover and the light bulb. Before you do this though, you should make sure that you are wearing some latex gloves (not for safety reasons, but so that you can lengthen the life of your bulbs. The oily residue that we usually have on our hands has a tendency to shorten the service life of these light bulbs. Next, the plastic cover of the dome light is usually being held in by a few screws, so just use your screwdriver to remove those, and be sure that you are putting all of these in the same location sot that you do not lose them.
2. Replace. Once you have the cover removed, you are ready to go ahead and replace the light bulb. You might need to push in slightly while you are twisting the bulb. When you are doing this be really careful, these bulbs are little and fragile. This means that they can break easily and, you really don't want that to happen while you are holding them. Take out the old bulb, and then replace it with the new one.
3. Clean. Before you start to put everything back together, you should take this time to clean a little bit. Simply use some of the ammonia free cleaner, and a soft rag to wipe off the cover. Be sure that you do not use anything that is too harsh or abrasive, since this could end up damaging the plastic by leaving scratches or a "hazing" film. Also, you should take the time to try and clean out the metallic backing of the light fixture. If this backing is clean and free from tarnish it is going to help produce a significantly brighter light.
4. Reassemble. Finally, you are ready to go ahead and reassemble everything. In order to do this, just do the reverse of the previous steps. You should know pretty quickly whether or not you have actually done the work correctly.