Hi, I am finally getting round to looking at my low beam light, which is likely the ballast, so I have the manual, I have taken the grille off, I have taken the radiator splash shield off from under the car. The next stage is to remove the front fender splash shield, which the manual just show 1 screw (page 6083). A question, is the front bumper cover attached to the fender splash shields, I can't tell. Also, the manual says to remove the side marker lamps, I can't remember where I saw this, but I remember reading that this was not required? Is that so?

Many thanks

 

I think there are two hex head bolts each side, and I think they are pretty easily visible when you look at the inside edge of the fender/wheel arch liner.

I remember taking mine off years ago and I think there were a lot of bolts, but it came off easily. But it is a 2-person job if you don't have something soft for the bumper to pop off to.

 

Update: I was able to get the front bumper cover off quite easily. Despite what the manual says, I did not need to remove the side marker lamps, nor did I need to remove the front fender splash shield (only found that out later, manual is wrong), but removed the bolts holding in the bumper and could not as it's still being held in by 4 retaining rivets.

I am now stuck, I cannot for the life of me get these out. I tried (as someone suggested) getting cobalt drill bits and a punch, just trying on one, these rivets are so hard the punch makes no indentation, the drill bits slip and not drilling the rivets, just a hole adjacent to the rivets.

Anybody have any ideas on how to remove them? What other drill bits might be better than cobalt as these are not working for me.

The manual simply says "remove and discard the retaining rivets". I am so frustrated to be so close to finishing this and be stumped by something that is does not need to be there.

Thanks

 

Do you have a die, or angle grinder?

 

I don't, but can buy one, but just Googling these I don't see how they could get through the recess hole to access these rivets in the bumper. Is there a model you can recommend?

 

Didn't realize the rivet was in a hole.
They make burrs that are tapered on the end
Could the rivet be accessed from the other side?

 

No, not easily, especially with the car on the ground. ☹️

 

I seem to remember chiseling them out on my XJ8L, it was a real PITA .

 

Hi, I "remember" reading somewhere that I had to take the bumper off, but after playing with the rivets that was not the case. I could have seem that the headlights could come out (which was my real objective) without the bumper being removed. So, I originally had a problem that the driver side lower bean was not working, after checking the easy stuff (fuses, relays), they were fine, so I bought a replacement bulb and that did not fix it, so then I found out the HID light needed a ballast which was screwed on to the underside of the headlight assembly.

When I removed the assembly to get to the ballast I could see it was wet, also a back cover (I think for the self leveling motor) was not screwed on right. In any case I took the assembly out and tipped it upside down and maybe a cup of water gushed out. I have ordered a new ballast, so here hoping that it's fixed and just got to put the front end of the car back together again.


The good (passenger side) and the bad ballasts.

 

Quote "...but removed the bolts holding in the bumper and could not as it's still being held in by 4 retaining rivets."

IfI got it correctly, you want to remove your headlights. For this, removing the bumper cover is sufficient, there's no need to remove the bumper and drill out the rivets.

I have attached a picture of my car with the headlights removed.

 

Yes, thanks, I was mistaken and you are correct, just removal of then bumper cover. Thanks again.

 

I see you Clarky