General DRL Unit replacement

[TTR]

Eh up all,

im usually on the Panda forum but my littleun has a 500

replaced the DRL unit for her today - what a PIA

for anyone who needs any tips:-

the inner wheel arch doesn’t need to fully come out - just hook it back around the calliper using a bungee, gives enough room.

the bottom right torx bolt was on mine no matter what I tried, to remove it:-

if the head is shot with rust

you cannot hammer it
you cannot heat it up
you cannot easily get access as its recessed

cut or dremel the plastic lug off the DRL - you can only do this if you are replacing the whole light unit

once you get the light out start grinding off the plastic around the nut - do this carefully until you can get a set of mole grips around the nut

once you can get the mole grips clamped on rotate the nut to loosen

because it’s held in by a plastic moulding into the bumper you cannot use heat or hammer a larger size torx bit in without risking break the bumper

it took me nearly an hour to get this one bolt out

replaced with a standard passivated flanged nut when rebuilding with my new used DRL

its a of a job for something that should take 15 minutes

Hope this helps someone out

 

[steveras57]

Surely your not implying! that fiat used cheep fixings to make a simple job as difficult as possible.
That would be so unlike them i just cant believe it .
However just want to say that i really appreciated the excessive use of deleted expletive emojis musta really p***ed you off! and ive been there enough times myself deep in the and cursing away to myself!
Have to say i always pin back the wheel arch liner like that when changing a drl bulb ( a human with normal size hands cant do it through the"inspection flap") and i cant afford to employ a child or a midget to do it for me!.