walk-in (well, drive-in) auto mechanic in Catonsville MD?

March 12, 2008 5:16 PM

My front headlight on my 99 Jeep Cherokee has just blown and I'm driving to WV tomorrow after dark. What are my chances of finding a walk-in auto repair place in Catonsville Maryland (suburban Baltimore)?

Do places like Midas or AC Delco do that kind of thing on the spot? Or do they have to "order in" a special bulb or something?

I only have between 9 and 12 tomorrow morning to get this done. Also, I'm not great at navigating around this area so the closer to Catonsville the better...

posted by media_itoku to Travel & Transportation (9 answers total)

if you can't find a mechanic, replacing a headlight on your car shouldn't be that incredibly difficult. you should be able to walk into an auto supply store and buy a replacement. you might also need to buy a special 'torx' or specialized screwdriver (from the auto supply store) to get the screws out.
posted by gnutron at 5:27 PM on March 12, 2008

Ya, go to wal-mart. Tonight. Cherokee headlights are crazy easy. Just make sure you don't mess with the alignment screws---but it should be really easy to figure out.
posted by TomMelee at 5:31 PM on March 12, 2008

Assuming you just need the bulb replaced, any drive-in oil-change place will do it for you. There's a Jiffy Lube right in Catonsville.
posted by gazole at 5:31 PM on March 12, 2008

Its a generic bulb (9004 according to here) and ANY car parts store will stock 5000 of them. If you care about such things -- you might want to buy a pair so they appear similar (an older bulb might be slightly dimmer than the new bulb..).

Expect to pay ~$25/ea I think.
posted by SirStan at 7:25 PM on March 12, 2008

<> One of the reasons you see so many cars these days with one headlight out is because the brightness of just one halogen bulb is sufficient for night driving. <>

Like gazole says, Jiffylube will do it, but in my experience they never have the right bulb on hand for my car so it's a good idea to go buy beforehand, or call first and make sure they stock it.
posted by M Edward at 7:32 PM on March 12, 2008

WV resident here. You can do as you please in the old MD---but driving a padiddle here, especially with out of state tags, will get you pulled over w/ a quickness.
posted by TomMelee at 8:35 PM on March 12, 2008

There are instructions here for replacing a 2002 headlight, I doubt the 1999 are that much different.
posted by Marky at 8:45 PM on March 12, 2008

Thanks y'all.. I'm off to Jiffy Lube first thing, (w/a quickness).
And thanks to TomMelee for adding "padiddle" to my vocabulary!
posted by media_itoku at 10:03 PM on March 12, 2008

;) You're welcome. Also, "with a quickness" got added to my vocabulary after the onion story about the guy in receiving...circa...2000 or so. Anyone remember that one?
posted by TomMelee at 7:18 AM on March 13, 2008