I’m Pretty Sure Nobody Cares About This Minor Car Repair But Me: Cold Start

Cs Paolamp Top
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So ever since I finally got my Nissan Pao back after I smacked it into a deer, there’s been one little tiny thing I’ve been wanting to fix. There were other bigger things I needed to take care of first, and it’s such a tiny, insignificant detail that I never really justified making the time. At least, until this weekend. And, if I’m honest, the work:reward ratio I think would be pretty awful for most people. But, for whatever reason, not for me. Not because it wasn’t a huge pain in the ass for something that hardly anyone cares about, because it was. But it’s a detail I care about, somehow. All I did was change some tiny light bulbs in some extremely hard-to reach places. But now I have working… sidelights? Parking lights? Town lights? I’m not even really sure what they’re called.

Cs Paolamp Diag

Here’s what they are: inside the Pao’s headlights, under the primary headlamp bulb, is a tiny little extra bulb. This bulb is for what here in America we usually call “parking lights,” which usually are your turn signals burning steadily along with the taillights and side markers and other running lights, but not the headlamps. They’re lights to be seen by instead of seeing by. In some other countries these need to be white/clear lamps. Occasionally they’re worked in to the headlight unit like on my Pao; my old Reliant Scimitar did it like this, too, and the best known example is probably in those Hella double-glass headlights used on pre-’67 VW Beetles and Porsche 356s, among other cars:

Cs Paolamp 356

See that little bulb there on the Porsche? That’s the equivalent. On my Pao, it’s in basically the same place. But the problem is getting that tiny-ass bulb out to replace it is absurdly difficult. So much of car repair is just jamming your hands into tight, awkward areas, and this is a prime example of that. You get to the bulb from behind, but the little lower bulb is behind part of the metal bracket that holds the light in and is an un-removable part of the body, leaving less than an inch to twist the little housing, slide the bulb out, change it, etc. Look:

Cs Paolamp Int

There’s so little room there! That’s why I put off changing these bulbs for so long and why it took me way, way, way longer than changing two light bulbs ever should. In fact, in getting one of them out, I accidentally lost the old bulb through the little hole and now it’s trapped inside the headlight unit, rolling around:

Cs Paolamp Lostlight

Well, crap. You can barely see it, so I’m just going to leave it in there, a little reminder of, um, something. I wonder if I’ll be able to hear it rolling around?

I went through all this because I just really like the effect of these lamps. They illuminate the headlights with this dim, warm, yellow glow that I suppose I could use as DRLs or something, but, in reality, I just like. I’m not really sure they have all that much of a “purpose” but you know what? I could say the same about myself.

I tried to photograph them, but the camera just makes the headlights look on-on, which is not really what’s going on:

Cs Paolamp On

So, you’ll just have to trust me. The effect is strangely satisfying, and despite what an ass-pain it was and the fact that likely nobody will ever notice and scream “Hey buddy! Fantastic town lights!” as I drive past, it makes me happy.

So there.

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Mercedes Streeter

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68 thoughts on “I’m Pretty Sure Nobody Cares About This Minor Car Repair But Me: Cold Start”

  2. Some FIAT 500’s had this as well…I think we called it “parking light” and thankfully is quite easy to replace. I recall seeing it around 1965ish in the 500F. Before 1965, I often saw headlights on the 500’s using double filament bulbs (also an easy way to tell if an old 500 has been restored properly or just a mix of parts from different models).

  3. You really should rip out those electronics and pipe in some gas lanterns. LIttle flickering headlight flames would be rad and completely safe.

  5. “Hey buddy! Fantastic town lights!”

    For whatever reason, in my head I hear Christopher Walken shouting this as your Nissan Pao drives by. And then he turns to someone standing next to him and goes: “Pao, baby!”

    2. “Pao, baby!”

      In Walken’s voice, that would somehow comprise at least 7 syllables.

      I can hear it in my head, and it’s perfect.

  6. I know the feeling, Jason. My dad asked me to upgrade all the lights in his 2014 Sienna to LEDs last year, and I thought I did, but to my shame when I borrowed it a few weeks ago, I realized I hadn’t upgraded the sun visor lights.

    Couldn’t leave the job unfinished, so now everything is cool white LED. Everything.

  9. I’ve always seen these advertised as “city lights” when seeing this feature available on sealed beam conversion headlights.

    A couple of weekends ago I actually pulled the front bumper off my car to replace the broken grille (dumb design) and decided to actually remove the headlights from my car in order to polish the lenses. After I put everything back together I noticed a side marker bulb inside the driver’s headlight is out, and it’s damn near impossible to access with the headlights affixed to the car. Guess it’ll remain out for now!

  11. Called a headlamp pilot lamp. It’s main purpose is for use as a parking lamp, along with the tail lamp, the use of which would be a legal requirement in many countries (certainly is in the UK) when stopping or parking on a public road during the hours of darkness in an area where there was no street lighting.

  12. There is something deeply Hank Hill about fixing something so minor. It’s the feeling of having arrived at a better place in your life. Things are going well at the moment. Nothing is burning down. So why not take that time to do some minor repair. Cheers to you Jason! You have arrived. I don’t know where you are at, but you are there!

  13. I hear you about fixing the small stuff. I do that to avoid huge bills later.

    Right now I have leaky door seal. A few drops get in during rail or the car wash.

    Hopefully it how the T-Tops are setting. Otherwise, looking at new door seals.

  15. I can relate. If I own something, and I know that a minor thing is not working as it should, it will bug me until I fix it, no matter how irrelevant it looks to other.

    It is important to me. In cars, I really like this kind of detail.

    If you want to photograph that at night, you will need to manually adjust the camera settings to a higher aperture with not so long exposure, maybe f8.0 / 1/2 sec exposure will do the trick. Or try during the day, under some shadow.

  16. Our old STS has a similar little light in it. I waited until a headlight went out to fix them, because to replace any lights in the headlight assembly, you have to remove most of the inner wheel-wells, the plastic belly pan, and slide off the front bumper. It was about a 2-3 hour job. Of course I replaced all the lamps while I was in there.

  17. So much of car repair is just jamming your hands into tight, awkward areas, and this is a prime example of that.

    And when you do get in there, the thing you’re trying to move is frozen in place by rust or whatever accumulated inertia welds parts together when they should be separable. This may be the No. 1 reason why I never really got into wrenching. And appreciate those who do it for a living.

  18. What’s the likelihood of stopping the use of hyphenated ass-words?

    Love the site, love my membership, but this really jolts my senses about the level of article I’m reading. An otherwise reputable industry-leading car site suddenly it feels like a teenager’s blog post.

    Try taking them out, and realize that they don’t add any meaning at all.
    “getting that tiny-ass bulb out” -> “getting that tiny bulb out”
    “what an ass-pain it was” -< “what a pain it was”

    Bonus level (removing ass all together):
    “it wasn’t a huge pain in the ass for something” -> “it wasn’t a huge pain for something”

    A short post with three uses of the word “ass” just seems excessive for a non-fetish site.
    Well, not that type of fetish anyway. Headlight/taillight fetishes seem to be appropriate.

      2. Oh your writing over the years has made it very clear that you have some type of love/fetish for anything ass, anal or otherwise toilet-related humor (not that there’s anything wrong with that), as highlighted by your excitement below about expressing anal glands (which I hope to never type again), but I’m just suggesting that somewhere in the editing process, perhaps unneeded references to non-automotive personal fetishes, or other junvenile vernacular, should be removed.

        2. Regardless of your assessment, I don’t think you should assume that Jason is assenting to ascertain how to make you happy with his writing. Your assorted assembly of assaults on his assiduous devotion to entertain us, coupled with your assassinations of the characters of his assistants and associates is, frankly, asinine. I would suggest you assimilate with the assurors and asseverate his assays. Do you understand the assignment?

        3. You really won’t like the “Grown-up, respectable, bureaucratic” Jason.

          (-Junkerdave, no matter what brain-dead substitution the software claims)

      5. So I’m obviously in the minority-ass of the vocal-ass ass-posters. Okay.

        What is the ass-date for the ass-name ass-change to “The Asstopian”?

        2. I like my auto journalism to be a bit casual. Even Car & Driver describes themselves as offering a “unique brand of intelligence, independence, and irreverence,” and I like that. It would be boring to just read lists of statistics and dry facts.

          That said, I get a little bit uncomfortable when things get too casual. I am not so uptight that I require a fainting couch at the first sign of coarse language, but at the same time, if it gets to be too much it turns me off. I feel less like I’m reading a news article and more like I’m reading a teenager’s livejournal blog. That’s that distasteful feeling that I felt at “the old site” where articles and even headlines were often peppered heavily with profanity. It made me wonder if there was a bit of a culture shock when writers would graduate to a real media outlet — Did they find it unusual that they couldn’t drop f-bombs in their headlines at Business Insider? But mine was a dissenting opinion over there. Most readers at that site loved the profanity.

          Anyway, I am tolerant of the occasional use of the anal intensifier here just so long as it doesn’t get out of hand.

    4. Let’s see here. We have record setting heat waves daily now. An ex president who is going to trial for being a piece of fecal matter. A political party that supports this ass wipe. A congress woman (?) who shows photos of Hunter Biden’s junk to Congress on live TV. People dying and starving in Ukraine.
      But we are pissing in the wind here over Jason’s choice of words? Works for me.

    5. I was reading along and came across “tiny-ass” bulb and thought: how absolutely relatable. Been there on some small-ass (tiny) part. And thems my .02

  19. The Pao knows. And she knows you care enough to do it, and that’s what really matters. Sure the big things are important too but I’m convinced that it’s the little things like those bulbs, or detailing the air vents, or putting new rubber caps on the brake bleeder valves, etc. that really make the car run better. As my Dad always told me, “A clean car is a happy car.”

  20. I too am a member of the “know one will know but me club”. I kind of enjoy it when people ask me what I’m doing and watching them squirm when I’m five minutes into the answer.

    1. I’m so familiar with that type of conversation.
      And it makes me appreciate my family even more when they know that there will be a boring 5 minute plus explanation, but they ask anyway.

  21. Kind of like the automotive equivalent of expressing your dog’s anal glands only less smell and mess (hopefully). No one, excepting the dog, will notice the difference, but you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing what you’ve accomplished. Plus your Pao won’t scoot its butt on the rug anymore.

  22. I did a little repair on my car, too! The fittings broke off on my windshield washer nozzles. I noticed when the sprayers got steadily weaker, then quit altogether. I opened the hood and a bunch of washer fluid poured out from behind the insulating underhood pad.

    It’s not completely fixed, tho. The nozzles I bought are knockoffs, and spray onto the cowl, not the windshield. Got some genuine GM parts on the way.

  24. One of the H4s in my Figaro (close sibling to the Pao) lost both main beam and dip beam at the same time (so not sure it’s the bulb…) so the small 5 watt ones are the only ones I have on – for symmetry – at the moment, until I find the fault.

    Here (DK) we call them position lights. And I also love the warm glow of them 🙂

    In the 356 i usually also just have those on, to not use too much of the precious 6 volt electricity it has on board. Always nice to be able to start again after a stop and have a little in reserve for wipers and turn signals 😉

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