Broken Front Fog Light!

[Dangler]

Washing the Liz yesterday and noticed the "front fog light" was smashed. Please dont laugh but i was wondering can i replace it myself or shall i get it repaired? is this a common thing is it worth getting those toughened one's instead?

Cheer s chaps!

[Mark H]

Argh.. its not a fog light!

 

Anyway you need a new unit, worthwhile getting covers for them next time so they dont smash in the future

[maddog]

Argh.. its not a fog light!

 

Anyway you need a new unit, worthwhile getting covers for them next time so they dont smash in the future

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

they are a complete pain in the arse to change, you have to remove the front clam to replace the lights what were they thinking?

[Mark H]

Its not always a clam off job, see here:

 

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:yXZgMbG...lient=firefox-a

 

 

Sorry for that link but the site is down so I had to use the Google cache version of it.

 

 

Lights

 

Driving Lamps

 

    Being so low to the ground the driving lamps are extremely prone to stonechip damage, if you have unbroken lamps or plan to replace on make sure you fit driving lamp protectors, decent ones are invisible once fitted and save you the cost and hassle of having to replace a driving lamp ever again, well worth the £20 that a pair will cost you. One suppler of these lamp covers is Lotus Ecosse.

 

    Mike Knowles

 

        Driving lights are made by ZKW, and are available at several 3rd party stockists for a fraction of dealer pricing. This is good, since it is one of the highest replacement items for an Elise.

 

        A lotus dealer will (more often than not) quote that it is a clam-off job to replace these, which in the majority of cases is not true so long as you are okay with (worst case) possibly losing 1mm's worth of paint from your front clam edge near the lamp. This is due to the relative awkwardness of replacing these lights with the clam in situ (it's an easy enough job, just requires a bit of patience and slimmish fingers).

 

        To replace a driving lamp, first you will need to remove the front grille, then the lamp is held in with 3 spring-loaded nylon screws, each have roughly 11 turns of the screw in order to get them held in place (this is important, as you will need to count the turns of the screw when refitting the screws).

 

        Make sure you don't lose the screws or the springs in the clam by blocking up the holes with an old shirt or other rag.

 

        You will find that one of these screws (the lower outermost one) is usually the hardest to do, both in undoing it and also tightening it afterwards. Make sure you undo this screw last, and do it up first, as this will make life much easier. The trick is to use a fairly slim-shafted but widebladed flat-blade screwdriver, and turn the nylon screw in half-turns (don't worry when it creaks like a bugger, as that's normal). Once you have the screw loose, you will be able to withdraw it from the lamp (but make sure you have fingers available to retrieve the spring which will then become freed up.

 

        When you have all screws removed, remove the bayonet fitting from the rear of the lamp, and pull out the two lamp wires from the bulb (this saves messing about with the wiring fitment behind the bulkhead grommet as usually the bayonet part hasn't failed) before turning the lamp itself through a nice contortion of angles etc (just like a safecracker) to get the nylon mounting lugs past the lip and into the open so that you can retrieve the old lamp.

 

        Refitment is the reverse of removal of course :-) but obviously remember to tighten the hardest screw first. This may require a bit of cursing, pain, and swearing, and possibly attacking the screw at a slight angle (which helped me at times) {another tip is to hacksaw off the last 5-10mm of the difficult screw, the full length is not required and this can significantly aid refitting, file the screw threads to a chamfer after sawing to help the threads engage - Fd}

 

        The loss of paint from the clam that I alluded to earlier will come from your screwdriver blade as you attempt to tighten (and/or undo) this bastard screw. You may want to try and alleviate the damage with a bit of foam or cloth protection, but you're just going to pick up a stonechip there anyhow, so it's no big deal - nobody but the biggest GJOB would notice anyway.

[maddog]

i tried and failed

 

will be taking the clam off soon so will do it then

 

But good Luck

[Dangler]

the light is working can i not just get the lens?

[maddog]

the light is working can i not just get the lens?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

nope, but you can put a lens cover on (they are quite cheap) they wont be waterproof though

[christurbo]

I bet you wished you spent £20 on some covers now!!!!