Would really like to know if anyone has had this problem.

One day I noticed my daylight had been pushed right back into the bumper, possibly someone has hit it, but there is no sign of damage to the light or the bumper itself. The light still works completely. The light is still attached to the bracket.

I took my car to Fiat, they looked at it from the outside and stated I needed a new light. So I had it booked in for this. I took it to them and two hours later I get a call to say that as the light is not attached to the bracket it needs a whole new bumper. So it will cost me a bumper, the cost to have the bumper sprayed, the new light and cost of labour. Which they didn't quote me for but i've been told would cost be the best part of £1000.

I had someone else look at it for me, who advised that the lights are glued onto the bumper and simply it had come off and needed to be glued back on. I could even see the old glue on there!

Would appreciate any comments on this!

FlamingoLegs said:

Would really like to know if anyone has had this problem.

One day I noticed my daylight had been pushed right back into the bumper, possibly someone has hit it, but there is no sign of damage to the light or the bumper itself. The light still works completely. The light is still attached to the bracket.

I took my car to Fiat, they looked at it from the outside and stated I needed a new light. So I had it booked in for this. I took it to them and two hours later I get a call to say that as the light is not attached to the bracket it needs a whole new bumper. So it will cost me a bumper, the cost to have the bumper sprayed, the new light and cost of labour. Which they didn't quote me for but i've been told would cost be the best part of £1000.

I had someone else look at it for me, who advised that the lights are glued onto the bumper and simply it had come off and needed to be glued back on. I could even see the old glue on there!

Would appreciate any comments on this!

Click to expand...

I have seen this a few times before on different Fiat 500's, mainly from bumping it on the bumper. I will let the more tech people on the forum to help you with the technical side but 1000 pounds for that would be completely ridiculous.

Since none of the techs on the forum seem to help you, why dont you take it to a local indie and check with him. If there is glue as stock you can just get it glued!

AFAIK they screw in not glue.

It looks like you are going to need to take the bumper off to see whats going on...It will only cost £189.99 for the bumper including painting and delivery from this ebay seller. all you will need is to pay someone to fit it..or do it your self, it should be an easy job.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-500-...arParts_SM&hash=item27c75fee98#ht_9835wt_1180

£1000 does seem a little spendy to me.

Thanks to replies on this.

I have only just finally had this repaired properly today, so I thought I would put the final outcome on here incase anyone else has this problem, I hope I can save the hassle I have been through.

These daylights/sidelights are literally only attached to the bumper by glue. It is very very very common for them to become unattached, either through a bump or in my case no bump!!

I have spoken to a few Fiat dealerships in my quest to get to the bottom of this and none of them admit to this being a common problem, neither do they admit to have ever seen it before. They say they need to see it. I tell them the light is fully functional, I can see the glue etc and they tell me they don't know what it could be and that it might need a part. They know it only needs gluing on and they are obviously trying to get their monies worth. Previously telling me I need a whole new bumper?!?! When the bumper is not damaged?!?!?!

I took my 500 to a body repair shop, they took the bumper off and glued the daylight back on. I also add that the other daylight was coming loose. It is obviously a design fault.

The body shop that I took my 500 to had told me they had repaired a few before mine. And funnily enough, when I went to pick my 500 up, there was another one sat there waiting to be repaired with the same problem.

Hopefully my lights will stay put now.

FlamingoLegs said:

Thanks to replies on this.

I have only just finally had this repaired properly today, so I thought I would put the final outcome on here incase anyone else has this problem, I hope I can save the hassle I have been through.

These daylights/sidelights are literally only attached to the bumper by glue. It is very very very common for them to become unattached, either through a bump or in my case no bump!!

I have spoken to a few Fiat dealerships in my quest to get to the bottom of this and none of them admit to this being a common problem, neither do they admit to have ever seen it before. They say they need to see it. I tell them the light is fully functional, I can see the glue etc and they tell me they don't know what it could be and that it might need a part. They know it only needs gluing on and they are obviously trying to get their monies worth. Previously telling me I need a whole new bumper?!?! When the bumper is not damaged?!?!?!

I took my 500 to a body repair shop, they took the bumper off and glued the daylight back on. I also add that the other daylight was coming loose. It is obviously a design fault.

The body shop that I took my 500 to had told me they had repaired a few before mine. And funnily enough, when I went to pick my 500 up, there was another one sat there waiting to be repaired with the same problem.

Hopefully my lights will stay put now.

Click to expand...

Thankyou for coming back and letting us know what happened Most newbies with an issue never come back and we never find out what happened! Well done for sharing and well done for getting it sorted cheaply!

Never looked at mine, but if they are just glued in are they adjustable? As they are the high beam too I assume they must be...

They don't glue in there are 3 screws.
Here is a photo of the back of a bumper where you can see the fixing screw holes.

and here is a photo of the light with the screw holes in.

Thanks for posting those pictures handy for future reference.

If they screw in I am still stumped then as to how mine came off.

The black bit (I am told is the bracket) surrounding the daylight however definitely had glue on it, I could see it before I took it anywhere to get looked at so there must be glue involved? As I have had the 500 from new......

Likely damaged on delivery and repaired by your dealer on PDI. Rather than do the job properly and replace the bumper, they bodged it.

bgunn said:

Likely damaged on delivery and repaired by your dealer on PDI. Rather than do the job properly and replace the bumper, they bodged it.

Click to expand...

If that is actually what happened, IMO that crosses the line between sloppy practice and fraud. Of course, once the car's been driven off the forecourt, it's impossible to prove it didn't happen after delivery.

If I were a car manufacturer, and one of my franchised dealers delivered a new car in that condition, it'd be the end of their franchise.

If, as a customer, a franchised dealer tried to handover such a car as new, and I was thorough enough to spot it, I'd refuse delivery, take photos, and report it to FIAT, Trading Standards and the Police.

I had had the 500 two years when this happened.

As you say its impossible to know what may have happened previously, there was certainly know way you could know upon purchasing the 500 at new unless you take the bumper off to check.

My 500 is nearly 3 years old now - i'm interested to check they haven't updated the design to include the screws?

I only say this as no matter what happened to mine, it is still happening to many other people out there and seems a common problem!

I just want to help anyone else with this problem with as much information as possible.

So thanks for the continued replies.....

jrkitching said:

If that is actually what happened, IMO that crosses the line between sloppy practice and fraud. Of course, once the car's been driven off the forecourt, it's impossible to prove it didn't happen after delivery.

If I were a car manufacturer, and one of my franchised dealers delivered a new car in that condition, it'd be the end of their franchise.

If, as a customer, a franchised dealer tried to handover such a car as new, and I was thorough enough to spot it, I'd refuse delivery, take photos, and report it to FIAT, Trading Standards and the Police.

Click to expand...

I don't dispute everything you say, but as you also state, it's nigh on impossible to prove.

By now, there's not a lot you can do. Clearly the dealership is pretty shonky when they seem to think a replacement bumper will come to £1000.

Thought I'd try to clarify this glued/bolted debate.
In fact both posters are right

We had exactly the same problem as the original poster, DRL/full beam lights starting to "lean back" inside the bumper. Nearside much more pronounced than offside. Definitely not due to any impact (2013 model Lounge).

If your high/full beam (not main beam) lights are starting to illuminate more treetops than road I would suggest you take a look at this as the cause.
You can actually confirm it by opening the inspection panel inside the front wheel arch and pushing the whole light unit forwards - it's easy to feel the flexing movement.

We needed to remove the bumper to get a proper look and were amazed to find that the mounting for these lights is a plastic bracket fixed to the inside of the bumper by a single bead of glue. This had gradually given in to the weight of the light unit and started to "peel back".

I can understand why a dealer would suggest a new bumper, it comes with the brackets pre-glued and they can make more money that way. But totally unnecessary.

We repaired ourselves by:
- removing bumper,
- unbolting DRL units,
- roughing inside of bumper and the light bracket surfaces to create a key for glue,
- smothered both surfaces with E6000 craft glue,
- clamped surfaces together and left to cure overnight
- refitted DRL units and bumper next day
Hey presto - lights are pointing forwards again!

Hope that helps. I will try to attach a few pictures...

ps by FAR the worst part of the job was removing the bumper. Not the bolts or screws, just the 3 plastic clips on each side. If anyone has any tips there to depress the clips without breaking anything let me know!!

The clips, if you mean where the bumper meets the wing with the one bolt, the trick is to have a bright light under the wing and carefully use a flat blade screwdriver to ease apart the clip one at a time in a controlled manner the one nearest the engine compartment requires even more care, but is pretty easy if this method is used and requires no serious force.
My worst part was the 3 small screws either side, rusted away and the bumper to wing Torx bolt that snapped the captive nut from the wing one side, replaced all the small screws with stainless ones.

When I chuck away an old bumper I always remove these so I have spares should I have broken mountings on a future car.

John202020 said:

The clips, if you mean where the bumper meets the wing with the one bolt, the trick is to have a bright light under the wing and carefully use a flat blade screwdriver to ease apart the clip one at a time in a controlled manner the one nearest the engine compartment requires even more care, but is pretty easy if this method is used and requires no serious force.
My worst part was the 3 small screws either side, rusted away and the bumper to wing Torx bolt that snapped the captive nut from the wing one side, replaced all the small screws with stainless ones.

Click to expand...

Yes, those three clips between the wing and the bumper that each needed pushing down (or pulling down from the inside). We kept toying with the idea of a flat blade screwdriver in the gap between wing and bumper but couldn't risk damaging the paintwork (daughter would not have been pleased!!).

Agreed that the bumper to wing torx bolt was really tight both sides. Luckily we had a torx driver with a hexagonal shaft so could put a small spanner on it for leverage. Nothing gave out.

All items had a good clean with wd40 before reinstalling.