Watch out!!!

[philje123]

Hey guys, just something that ive noticed regarding the front indicator units.

Yesterday i had driven down to preston and when i returned home i noticed that the plastic lens off my front drivers side indicator unit was missing.

My first thought was that someone has hit my while parked up so i checked for damage and none was visible.

I noticed that the surface to which the lens is glued/bonded to was very brittle and crumbled very easily, so im guessing that the glue has degraded over time.

I went out today and got a new unit from the scrappers for £5 and noticed that the lens was loose at the front, with the glue in a similar condition, so i have just taken the lens off, cleaned it up and stuck it on with some epoxy resin glue and hopefully that should hold.

My other lens must have been in s similar condition the new one that i got and whilst driving on the motorway the wind has cought the corner of the loose lens and taken it off!

Just thought i'd comment on this don't know if anyone else has experienced similar problems... but have a check of em next time your at the car!

[anewman]

Spare a thought for the Favorit owners who end up having rusted in screws that won't budge no matter what you try. I'm having to order 2 new side repeaters (luckily cheap on ebay) and 2 new rear fog and reverse lights due to rusted in screws

I'm guessing with the felicia lights there are no exterior screws on any of the lights to rust?

[philje123]

No they jus clip in... the front ones are quite hard to get out... but once you've done it a couple of times its ok, and the side repeaters just un-clip from inside the wing by reaching under the wheel arch.

[jeffers]

when i bumped mine the other day the front indictor lense just popped off then

[richardsfavorit]

Yes I had the pleasant experience of rusted screws on Favorits as well - not great. But what do you expect from stuff that has been suffering 10+ years of british weather! WD40 / or a drill I find works quite well!!

[philje123]

Well... did a 120 miles round trip yesterday (Down to the RR day at awesome in case your wondering) and indicator lense still there!!!

[Psyzygy]

Originally Posted by richardsfavorit

Yes I had the pleasant experience of rusted screws on Favorits as well - not great. But what do you expect from stuff that has been suffering 10+ years of british weather! WD40 / or a drill I find works quite well!!

A couple of other tricks:

If you can get at the spot where the screw meets the bodywork, yes, penetrating oil is good.

Best one. TIGHTEN the screw just a little bit - do this even if the former isn't possible. There will usually be a bit of slack in a screw so it won't damage what you're attempting to remove. The advantages of this are that the screw head won't get damaged in the undoing direction so once that bond is broken, removing the screw won't be fraught with blue air when the screwdriver takes the edges off. Then there's the element of surprise, the screw just won't be expecting it

If you're REALLY stuck and if you can safely do so, heat up a screwdriver head and hold that on the screw for a while then let the screw cool, it may expand & contract enough to loosen the rust bond. (Use an old screwdriver though because the temper will go.) Then do the above.