Replacing Driving Lamp
Discussion
Mike Knowles said:
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.
It's worth picking up some protective covers from elise parts
Thanks Trunkie and stevie111s for your advice.
I thought I'd post a quick update as I succesfully replaced the driving lamp and it wasnt quite as awful as I'd expected.
Have added some comments to Mike Knowles instructions from my experience:
"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 (held in place by 'pushfittings' not screws so need to be pulled out), then the lamp is held in with 3 spring-loaded nylon screws (before starting on these, we placed a blob of Silicon Grease on the thread to aid unsticking), 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. (Before unscrewing the 3rd and final screw, we unscrewed the screw holding the lower part of the bracket - using an old blunt pocketknife to unsrew the screw from a right-angle). The enabled the lamp and bracket to be swung a little way nearer to the centre of the car making access to the 3rd screw a little easier). 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. (Refit the mounting bracket first, easier to hand tighten the screw from above/infront, also t helped to have a 2nd person there to help thread everything back together). 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, (a piece of 2" wide Duck Tape stuck along the edge of the clam did the trick nicely) 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.
Before refitting the grille installed polycarb covers and applied black Hammerite paint to the slightly rusty mounting brackets and central pillar the tow hook goes into. The polycarb covers meant a small adjustment with pliers was needed to the central hole in the grille to ensure a proper fit when put back."
That's it, job dun! (Now what shall I do with the >£400 saved?)
PS Thanks to K1 CERB for morale support & use of a nice warm garage :-)
I thought I'd post a quick update as I succesfully replaced the driving lamp and it wasnt quite as awful as I'd expected.
Have added some comments to Mike Knowles instructions from my experience:
"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 (held in place by 'pushfittings' not screws so need to be pulled out), then the lamp is held in with 3 spring-loaded nylon screws (before starting on these, we placed a blob of Silicon Grease on the thread to aid unsticking), 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. (Before unscrewing the 3rd and final screw, we unscrewed the screw holding the lower part of the bracket - using an old blunt pocketknife to unsrew the screw from a right-angle). The enabled the lamp and bracket to be swung a little way nearer to the centre of the car making access to the 3rd screw a little easier). 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. (Refit the mounting bracket first, easier to hand tighten the screw from above/infront, also t helped to have a 2nd person there to help thread everything back together). 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, (a piece of 2" wide Duck Tape stuck along the edge of the clam did the trick nicely) 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.
Before refitting the grille installed polycarb covers and applied black Hammerite paint to the slightly rusty mounting brackets and central pillar the tow hook goes into. The polycarb covers meant a small adjustment with pliers was needed to the central hole in the grille to ensure a proper fit when put back."
That's it, job dun! (Now what shall I do with the >£400 saved?)
PS Thanks to K1 CERB for morale support & use of a nice warm garage :-)
Gassing Station | Elise/Exige/Europa/340R | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff