Urgent help! Abs light bulb!!

[Qwerty123il]

Hi,
My car failed its MOT today due to the abs light not coming on when you turn the ignition on. The abs works I tested it today, I'm hoping it is the bulb. I have dismantled the speedo etc, and I can now see the lights. But I have no way of getting them out or in! I need to swap it over with another bulb for now to check if it works so I can replace it, so it will pass the mot. Anyone know how to get the damn things out!
Thanks

 

[dark_knight]

click-lock

the bulb holders twist anti-clockwise to unlock and clockwise to lock. so in your case, you will want to twist it about 30 degrees anti-clockwise then pull out. coz these are old cars, you may need some amount of force, just don't snap the thing out..
you can then easily tell if the bulb is blown as there will be a break in the filament.

this post only addresses your problem of how to remove the bulb. once that's checked, you will need to move on to the next culprit if it's still not resolved..
hope it's of some help..

 

[Paul_JJ]

Yeah, would hardly recommend to try another MOT garage. Some garages extremely picky for things like BULBS! How did you test your ABS by the way?

 

[Qwerty123il]

Is it a matter of putting something down the hole or is there another way? If its putting something in the front, What's the best tool to use? I was thunking of using long nose pliers.
I tested the abs by finding some leaves/mud and slamming the brakes on, you could hear and feel the brakes pumping so they definitely work!

 

[dark_knight]

there's also an ABS diagnostic test you can run on the ECU. can't find the link atm but it's a lot easier than finding some leaves/mud.. but that definitely works too..

 

[Qwerty123il]

Yep the mud worked! I have removed the bulb, but on trying to remove another to put in the abs hole, it broke so I have now brought some new ones. But although you can get them out with pliers I do t think you can get them in. I went to halfords for the bulbs and they had no idea about a specialist tool of any kind. So any ideas any one!?

 

[dark_knight]

@ Qwerty123il: dude! how much force were you using to break the bulb (holder)..?
from all my experiences, you just need a little wiggle and the bulb holder comes off. i hope you are twisting it ANTI-clockwise to remove and clockwise to lock. this is the best shot i could get of the rear of my dash cluster when i took it apart. if you look towards the right of the picture, one of the back-light bulbs is out. you can see how the hole is notched, then if you take a look at a pic of the bulb holder itself, you will see the locking mechanism. hope this now makes sense..?

 

[Qwerty123il]

The glass on the bulb broke when we tried to over grip it with the pliers, we still got it out and we worked out a way to fix it. We dismantled a pen, which at one end perfectly fit over the bulb and held it in place. We then used the ink part to stop the bulb from being pushed back inside when we put the bulb back in, it also helped as extra pressure! The pics in your dial are different to mine, so I'm not sure what the back of my dials would have looked like, I did it from the front as I couldn't feel anything from the back, and did not want to dismantle the dials unless there was no other way. But I got there in the end.
Thanks for your help!