Head lamp. Embarrassed to ask...

Hi,

My main light bulb has gone in my front lamp. I have spares, and I've replaced real bulbs before, but this is the first time I've replaced the head lamp ones. They've lasted a long time now.

So I flipped off the interior plastic covers, expecting to flip out the bulb, like my car, but no access to any bulbs there. So then I thought, maybe I need to ease out the whole unit to get to the bulbs, like the back lights. But in the front, there's a whole lot of grill and trim in the way. So that didn't seem right, a lot of work just for a bulb.

Then I checked in the maintenance manual (Piaggio Porter/Hijet), and it does indeed show you steps to take off the grill and trim.

Am I missing something? Stripping off trim and taking out the whole headlamp unit just to put a new bulb in?

Cheers

It's done from the inside. Look in the footwell, up under the dash, behind the headlamp. You'll see a square-ish black plastic cover held in place by a cross-head screw at the bottom. Remove that and all will be revealed. There should be a rubber cover over the connector, and bulb (472) is held in place by a spring clip.

However, it might not be the bulb, it could be corroded wires in the 'plug' that goes onto the bulb - I'd do a continuity check on the bulb first before unclipping it.

,
Ok, I'll have another look. I did take off the cover and see the standard rubber holder and clip for the main headlight, but it's the low beam/side light that's gone. But I didn't see any other bulb holders. I'll check again.
cheers

Woa, hold on - dipped and main beam are in the same bulb, sidelight on the 1.3 is a separate plastic lamp held in by a cunning spring clip accessed from inside the cover, then the sidelamp slides forwards with (gentle) persuasion. If yours is the 1.0 with the 'dim dip' that comes on with sidelights when driving I can't recall where the sidelight bulb is - Raggy will now I'm sure.

From what I remember on the 993 the main and dip are on the main bulb behind the plastic cover with 4 screws on the headlight itself. The side light is in the side plastic housing, one screw in the end and then it pulls of (gently). You got me thinking now, almost sure that’s it. Yes just looked out the window, the side light is in a plastic unit of its own with the indicator.
However I think cvw76 has a 2007 porter so that would make it a 1.3 and I am sure those headlights have the main/dipped as one H4 bulb and a separate side bulb in the headlight unit as well, the 993 just has the H4 main/dipped in the headlight unit. Good reasons to have a 993, headlights are only £18 each

I sit corrected, Raggy is correct - the corner lamp retained by the spring-clip is the indicator, side-light bulb in headlamp.

hi,

Thanks for replies. Raggy correct, there is a small black box with a plastic screw that has the bulb. It's not obvious it has bulbs when you first look. Very small, doesn't show you the usual rubber backs and connectors until you open it, and definitely a fiddly job if you have sausage fingers! Like many things on a porter/hijet...

But in the end, I didn't need a bulb. The connectors looked a bit gunky, so I sprayed down some WD40 and wiped it over, let it dry, and it came back on!

I also just put in one of those £80 ebay Chinese Diesel heaters this week, and it works fantastic! Really small, toasty warm, thoroughly recommend. May write up a post what I did with some pics.

Doing a proper alarm system this week. Does anyone know where you can get the ignition/door/lights wiring colours from? Doesn't seem clear in the main online pdf manual, and the popular alarm sites don't seem to have hijet or porter wire data sheets.

No biggie, I'll be probing the harnesses with my multimeter anyway, but it'll save a bir of time with trial and error.

thanks