My neighbour is frequently having to replace the halogen bulbs in his DRL's, they are the ones under the bumper and are in the same housing as the fog lamps.

 

I'm sure that I recall someone saying that they were special bulbs that are very similar to standard ones but fitting standard bulbs will result in the frequent failures that my neighbour is suffering.

 

The ones he is using are standard P21 filament bulbs, he is sure they are the correct ones because he got them from Eurocarparts, that says to me he has a less than 1 in 10 chance of them being correct 😆

 

He says they are failing because the contact is being worn away through vibration & he won't let me  remove the lamp unit to tweak the contacts claiming the whole bumper has to be removed, is that BS?

 

It doesn't phase me to remove it but he is a highly strung panicker and worrier. I don't like to see him grovelling around under the wheelarch so often when I'm sure there is a definitive fix for the problem.

The front fogs on a PFL Mk.II are a doddle to remove, pull the small grille section adjacent to the lamp straight out, it's a push clip fit.  Then it's just a couple of torx screws.

 

Possibly the same on a FL.

Yes I had a pre FL and it was as you say, he was so impressed with it that he bought an identical later FL model, same colour and everything.

 

It doesn't look like it can be removed from the front but if I had bent down and started prodding and pulling (which is the only way with these vehicles) he would have freaked out, he is a very special person (I love him dearly though) and needs handling with care.

Even easier on a FL:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q8-RTv2fVY

Edited 11 December, 20214 yr by MicMac

Actually you don't even need to remove that cover.

 

I simply slide a thin knife down the side (the inner side closest to the centre of the car) and release the clip. Takes a few seconds.

I use a piece of stiff bent wire to remove my DRL/Foglight assembly buy pressing it against the spring.loaded catch. I have found that the rear bulb contact of the DRL does wear the centre contact of the bulb. It is a flat piece of copper coloured metal, it might be copper, which as you say abrades the bulb contact. It is so far down in the bulb holder that I have not found any way to bend it. I have re-soldered the centre bulb contact but that is a short term fix. Last time I soldered a small washer, I think M2, to the centre bulb contact to act as a hard point to prevent wear and I have not had a failure so far but I only did it about 3 months ago and the car has not had much use recently.

I'm not sure how I am going to break this to him 😳

 

He usually removes the wheel & the arch liner, he has only just worked out that by struggling he does not need to remove the wheel.

 

He has 3 bulbs left out of a pack of 10 so has changed 7 bulbs & now I can see that he could have easily removed the bulbholder and sprung the contact, he will have been frightened of the connector, he has seen me break a few in my time, we are opposite ends of the spectrum!

 

I will have to go out in the dead of night to remove and repair the bulbholders without him knowing!

Well that was embarassing 😳

 

The lower grille end caps whilst clearly seperate mouldings would not detach no matter how hard I pulled on them, as it was not my car and he was freaking out by then I stopped.

 

His is a 2012 MK2 facelift Combi, looked just like the grille in the video.

 

I'm sure the LH one has to be removed to fit the towing eye, that was just as resistant, they really felt like something would break.

I do not remove the end caps to remove my DRL assembly. There is a slot in the outer side of the end caps and I use a piece of stiff wire bent at right angles fed through that slot to press on the plastic release level. It takes a few goes to be able to get the wire into the correct position but when it us you can feel the springiness of the lever. I cannot find a picture of the lever at the moment but when you have removed one side all will be revealed.

Thanks, it's frustrating as I am itching to go out and find out what the problem was.

 

Why the 90° bend in the wire, do you have to rotate it when in position or is it just to give you something to push against?

It is to give something to push against and to position the business end. The wire that does the work is about 200 mm long before the bend.

By the sounds of the posts I believe a steel ruler would be your handiest tool.

I think that a steel rule would be too wide.

Like I said. A knife does the trick. Just a standard butter knife.

 

Just push in down the inner side of the DRL and lever it towards the light and it just unclips and pops out.

I used to use an expired credit card

 

They are P21W but ideally use a long life variant if possible. The 'normal' life ones don't tend to last well.

Thankyou to everyone for your contributions 👍

Looking at the DRL bulbs, they have a much thicker coiled filament than normal which suggest they are like anti vibration bulbs as used in industrial vehicles

The driver's handbook for a Facelift model says it is a PY21W. The Y indicates an offset pin. They are available in both white and amber but the white is harder to find. People wrongly guess that Y means yellow.

Need to check but I think the alternative marking may be 581 S.

Try comparing the old bulb filament size with a new bulb.

 

If you can't get the cover off then my trick is is put the wheels on full lock then remove the 2 or 3 lowest front wheel arch liner clips. You can then get your hand and arm behind the wheel arch liner to get to the lamp.

Thanks Pikpilot, I was sure I had read somewhere about the bulbs being slightly different, I will research the PY21W.

 

Normally you cant fit std bayonet bulbs in an offset fitting, he didn't say that he had to force them in, perhaps the offset is lengthwise pushing them properly onto the contact?

17 minutes ago, pikpilot said:

If you can't get the cover off then my trick is is put the wheels on full lock then remove the 2 or 3 lowest front wheel arch liner clips. You can then get your hand and arm behind the wheel arch liner to get to the lamp.

 

Thats what he was doing when I found him grovelling around on the wet driveway yesterday.

10 hours ago, pikpilot said:

The driver's handbook for a Facelift model says it is a PY21W. The Y indicates an offset pin. They are available in both white and amber but the white is harder to find. People wrongly guess that Y means yellow.

 

The handbook is wrong - it's definitely a P21W SLL (super long life) and not a PY21W...

 

 

 

2 hours ago, langers2k said:

The handbook is wrong - it's definitely a P21W SLL (super long life) and not a PY21W

 

Thanks for that. I have corrected my handbook. 

Thankyou Langers, thats what I recalled.

 

He will appreciate the info.

 

Although they probably wont have harder solder on the terminal so wont last any longer!