Dear Panda Forum

Our Panda has been consuming DRL bulbs like they are candy, we had a car electrician check the circuit and he says there are no problems so first try OEM bulbs and if that doesnt work its probably the bulb holder.

So we are now looking for a bulb holder and of course its not that common and if I want to buy it from Fiat I have to buy the whole DRL lens assembly at circa £44+VAT

Any hints or tips where I can get just the bulb holder would be most welcome, I have tried breakers yards and eBay etc etc

Thanks

BB

I would be surprised if changing the bulb holder would make any difference... the thing that fails in a light bulb is the filament and any defect in the holder wouldn't affect that. More likely is bumpy roads as that would shake the bulb, and so the (relatively) fragile white-hot-glowing filament.

Tempting fate but drove 67k miles in previous (2013) Panda and 12k so far in new one and no bulbs have failed at all.

You might seek out the 'longer life; bulbs that have more 'robust' filaments (but are still fully E marked and legal to use). I think this is the one: https://www.halfords.com/motoring/b...-380-p21-5w-car-bulb-3x-longer-life-twin-pack

Just check that buying a bulb does not get you the holder too. It does with the fog light bulbs on my Bravo! I had just broken both the bulb and holder so I was relieved when the bulb came with a new holder with all the waterproof gubbins too.

The Panda Nut said:

Just check that buying a bulb does not get you the holder too. It does with the fog light bulbs on my Bravo! I had just broken both the bulb and holder so I was relieved when the bulb came with a new holder with all the waterproof gubbins too.

Click to expand...

That's because the foglights (same on Panda too), use this sort of bulb: https://www.halfords.com/motoring/b...b-manufacturers-standard-halfords-single-pack

The DRL is a 'normal' 21/5W bulb like the brake/tail lamps, and uses a standard (offset pin) bayonet fitting.

My DRL failed on the left side several times. The holder showed signs of over heating (21W all the time!).
I fitted some 3W dual mode LED's to mimic the 21/5W and not had a failure since (1 year+).

Update:- Since I posted this thread I did find a replacement bulb holder on a breakers website and installed it, around 16 months ago and since that time we have had zero bulbs blow.

I've noticed one of the metal contact tangs inside the DRL bulb holder starting to burn through after a spate of blown DRL bulbs.
It's done it on both our Pandas, the 2012 and the 2014.

The holder isn't available new, just the whole DRL unit.

I managed to clean up what's left on all the tangs with some contact cleaner and a bit of scouring pad and they've been alright for a while since.

I noticed another bulb oddity with this model, in the rear clusters.
There are two P21/5W in each side.
One is side/brake light. (brake = 21W, side = 5W)

The other is just a side light that only runs the 5W element.
The correct bulb is a P21/5W, it's the only bulb that fits the holder, it just only powers the 5W side.
There is no connection or tang to the 21W side. very odd.

It's even in the owners manual.
Rear side light - P21/5W pulling just 5W.

Having two stop and tail light bulbs in the rear light clusters is very handy when a brake light bulb goes you just swap them over.