Smashed bulb glass in Headlight

[gregpot2000]

as above, was changing a bulb and the bloody thing smashed inside the headlight! now got pieces of glass stuck inside. does anyone know how long it would take a garage to take it out labour wise? guessing with being a sealed unit the best thing to do is shake upside down, or vacuum and hope for the best? not gonna attempt myself as trying to even change a bulb in such a tight space let to a lot of difficulty and cursing in itself! car is 2008 A4

[fat controller]

No idea how much it would cost, but I would be inclined to try and do it myself - maybe cut a bit of garden hose and gaffa tape it onto the end of a vacuum cleaner hose, which should then give you something thin and flexible enough to get into the headlamp assembly via the bulb hole?

[OddBallBoy]

Or a wire coat hanger with a blob of blue tack on the end.

[sportq]

Why not follow this guide to removing the headlamp from our very own forum: VW AUDI Forum - VWAF (http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?129584-quot-How-to-quot-replace-A4-B8-Halogen-DRL-bulbs-with-P13w-LED-s)

Obviously you won't need to cut anything since that guide's for replacing the halogen bulb with an LED but once it's off the car it should be straightforward to get the fragments out through the main bulb aperture.

Peter

[gregpot2000]

UPDATE:

Hi All

Just to keep you updated on this, I thought the garden hose thing sounded like a good idea, but I didn't have one to hand, so I thought I would buy one, but saw the prices, over 20quid for something that I was only going to cut up and use once!
So I thought I will take to the garage, and if they can do it for around the same price for a token labour fee, I might as well do that and save myself the hassle.
I have just got back from the garage now, I recommended the hose to him, and he said yeah lets give it a try, it was a fiddly job, but it worked a treat! pretty much all the glass is gone now, apart from two chunks that are wedged tightly in-between two pieces of the headlight, but these are pretty much invisible unless you look for them, and certainly not worth "melting" the headlights open for.

The charge? all done for a fiver! which included changing the headlight bulb which I was trying to do that caused the issue in the first place, so this saved me another PITA job.