Fitting a new headlamp

[loserkid]

Last night nature conspired against my elise and delivered a minion into my driver side headlamp.

Now I need a replacement - how easy is it to fit one for a "good with my hands" but "I know nothing about cars" type of person?

Also has anyone installed any light upgrades to their elise and are they worth it?

[Bonce]

Can't help with replacing the whole headlamp, but while you're on the job I definitely recommend putting Philips extra bright bulbs in, (approx £20) they make one hell of a difference to dipped and main beam visibility, especially seeing as you don't have driving lights.

[TheLemming]

Its relatively easy. Ive not done it myself but Ive seen it done.

You will need to remove the wheel, the wheelarch liner and jack the car up. After that its a case of disconnecting the old one and putting in the new.

It should be detailed in the service manual. If you havent got a copy, its about £60 and worth every penny

[Bonce]

TheLemming said:You will need to remove the wheel, the wheelarch liner and jack the car up.

Suggest you jack the car up before removing the wheel.

[loserkid]

Where would one purchase a copy of the service manual?

[Bonce]

Any Lotus dealer, or from Lotus themselves.

[thub]

Service manual - some kind soul has a pdf copy of the manual residing on a website. Try searching the Lotus bbs for an address. The file is pretty large, so you may prefer to purchase a hard copy anyway.

www.british-cars.co.uk/cgi-bin/gen5

[Felix7]

Last night nature conspired against my elise and delivered a minion into my driver side headlamp.

Now I need a replacement - how easy is it to fit one for a "good with my hands" but "I know nothing about cars" type of person?

Also has anyone installed any light upgrades to their elise and are they worth it?

Obviously helps if I actually type something?!? before submitting.

Try eliseparts.com, they do all the replacement bits + upgraded bulbs/double light kits, a bit like the Zertec kits for TVR's.

Upgraded the bulbs in the mainlights and it made a big difference, better than the candle that seemed to burn not so brightly in there before.

PC

>> Edited by Felix7 on Wednesday 15th January 13:18

[fergusd]

You don't need to remove the wheel.
You don't need to remove the wheel arch liner.
You shouldn't waste your money buying the lamp from Lotus.

Look at the following page, 1/2 way down, there's a link to my website complete with pictures on how to do it.
www.elise-faq.info/content/lights/index.php
www.ziplockk.com/driving/headlamps/index.shtml

Fd

[loserkid]

Well I've got the parts ordered from EliseParts.com and will let you know how I got on - I went for the uprated lamps and bulbs.

Thanks