Previous owner or a garage they used must have put cheapie screws in . As they were rusting I decided they had to be swapped out with stainless steel screws before they became non-removable when the time comes that a bulb goes.

One screw has approximately 4mm of the screw body protruding. I have tried spraying penetrating oil on it, gripping very tightly with pliers and unscrewing but it won't budge. The pliers do not appear to grip enough to stop rotating round the outside. Are there any special pliers that are more likely to get it out? I am guessing heat and drilling won't be the best ideas as the tail light would probably be damaged. I could try a soldering iron on the end of the screw perhaps and heat it moderately.

The other screw is tight and camming out and the screw driver won't grip it. I am guessing an impact driver will be likely to crack the lens, as would drilling it out.

Thanks in advance for any pointers,

Are you able to get a set of mole grips on the end of the screw?

On the snapped one it would definitely be possible, probably not on the camming out one. Will have to get myself some mole-grips. Thanks for the pointer!

Thought back into the mists of time.. had this on a Type 2 campervan. Couldn't get on the screws at first but what I did was carefully drilled off the screw tops (Dremmel or similiar would be handy for this...B&D in those days!) I was able to pull off the lens then as nothing was holding it. Screws were still in the lamp unit but there was enough sticking out to get decent purchase on with the moles and draw them out after I left them overnight after dosing with plus gas. (youngsters read WD40.)

Bear in mind camper lenses were flat - if you have screws at opposing angles you may be able to "jiggle" lens off but could still find yourself in the sh ...trouble.

Great so I may have a use for that small dremel-type tool I bought because it was cheap afterall! I know someone else with a favorit tried drilling these screws out and cracked the lens so I know this can easily happen. Might be worth leaving the camming out one now until a bulb pops as it will be more rusted and easier to get the head off.

Might have to venture into a scrappie to try find a replacement before I get the power tools to it. Never been to a scrap yard before.

You could try putting some tape around the holes and carefully drilling it with the dremel - using a round headed file type bit - high speed, well suppported, light touch, Once the head is broken off - slide out the lens. Rest is easy.

Leaving it till a bulbs blows - may happen at the worst possible time..

Another option is the "reverse drill" type bit (?easyout) that will lock in and unscrew the screw....

Good Luck!

Bas

Had no luck removing it with lots of effort. Only managed to snap a bit more off.

Considering putting a soldering iron on the end of the screw for a long while to thoroughly heat it up, and then maybe spray it with some of this stuff Pipe Freezing Kit 220ml - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys (unless I can find a can of Loctite Freeze and Release somewhere) the only problem is it will no doubt damage the surrounding plastic/reflector with the differences in temperature and chemicals from the spray.

Any thoughts?

Replacement units from Sdealer are £50 but I guess that would remove any difficulty of going to scrappies and asking for the lights then finding I can't get the screws out of those either.

At least I managed to replace the fog screw relatively easily and have greased the threads a little to aid removal later.