My left headlight went out this week. I could tell, but I didn’t want to believe it. Luckily, my wife and I work together. I pulled into the parking lot and drove past her. “The left headlight is out,” she confirmed. I sighed. It had been a busy week so far, and it was one more thing to add to our plate. I immediately thought about writing down the task in Todoist (as aspiring GTD user). I don’t think I ever wrote it down, but it lingered in the back of my head all week.
At first I thought about taking it to Firestone. Then, I remembered my first car, a 2005 Nissan Altima (oh, how I miss that beat-up boat), and how I had replaced headlight bulbs before. Easy. Probably way cheaper, too. I searched my “2013 Hyundai Accent headlight bulb replacement” and watched a five-minute video.
I bought LED bulbs for $31 on Amazon. Much cheaper than LED bulbs from AutoZone. Cheaper than halogen bulbs from AutoZone, too. After some back and forth with Claude, I knew I made the right choice. Claude let me know that the LED bulbs would probably outlast the car, and that I probably saved $100-$200.
The bulbs were supposed to get here Wednesday morning. I thought I might be able to do it during my lunch break. They didn’t arrive until Thursday. Too much to do to attempt a replacement then. On Friday it was 30 degrees. Saturday was going to be five degrees. I saw my opportunity.
Fortunately, I found my socket wrench set easily. Our tools/miscellaneous shelf in our basement is not organized whatsoever. I grabbed the 10 mm bit (head?), the extender, and the bulbs. I put some nitrile gloves on too, just to feel official.
I popped open the trunk and started on the side without the fuse box. I unscrewed the cap, popped the bulb out, unplugged it, replaced it, and struggled with the metal clasp for a minute or two. Once I finally got it, I screwed on the cap.
I didn’t think the other side would give me much trouble. For the most part, it didn’t. Unscrewing the fuse box was easy. The cap was a bit tighter than the first, but it wasn’t an issue. The bulb was a bit harder to get out, but not impossible. I plugged in the new bulb and struggled with the wires and the clasp. I kept trying to force the clasp back in place and my fingertips started to hurt. I then realized the clasp was pinching the red wire. I was wearing my go-to thin barefoot shoes and my feet were freezing in the snow. It didn’t help that my back and hamstrings were sore from the deadlifts I did that morning. After guiding the clasp through the wires, I tried again. The top part of the clasp was somehow inside the socket, behind the bulb. It took at least five minutes of craning my neck, using my iPhone flashlight, and feeling around in there to get a decent idea of how the clasp was supposed to hug the bulb. I got the clasp in the right position, pushed pushed pushed and heard a satisfying click. Relief. I replaced the cap and fuse box screws, grabbed the old bulbs and socket wrench, and dropped the trunk with a satisfying chunk.
I felt proud of myself. I accomplished a necessary maintenance task for cheap. Maintenance feels good. The whole process made me think of book The Maintenance of Everything by Stewart Brand. I haven’t read it yet, but I saw the Stripe Press release hubbub on X.
What’s worth doing
In a world where you can outsource anything, what’s worth doing? I’m imagining an equation with a few variables: how quickly you need it done, cost of outsourcing, difficulty of the task, how long the task will take if you do it yourself. Maybe you can boil it down to cost if you ballpark how much your labor costs per hour. I’ll ballpark mine around $100/hour.
| Cost | Time | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY | $31 | 30 minutes = $50 | $81 |
| Firestone | $150-$250 | 150 minutes* = $300 | $450-$550 |
* 10 minutes spent scheduling an appointment/communicating with Firestone and my wife + 30-minute round trip for me and my wife x2 (counting her time as $100/hour as well) + 10 minutes spent loading and unloading two kids x2
After doing the math like that? DIY was clearly the better option. More importantly, it felt like the better option. Maybe the value is clouding my judgment, but it was hands-on and real - a small, but meaningful and satisfying task.