RESOLVED ​⭐ ​Silly question - what type of bolt or screw holds the number plate lights in? Also - how do you do a swap of the housing?​😆

[gsmdo]

⭐Hi there,

I shut the boot this morning and something fell onto the floor. It was the right hand number plate lamp 🤦‍♂️

 

 

As you can see, the whole alloy housing is badly corroded, and I remember having to use a self-tapping screw and some epoxy to hold things together when I fitted LEDs a few years back.

So, I have managed to source a new OEM housing for a pretty reasonable £80 delivered, and I'm going to order a new pair of LED lamps to fit into it (which I will be treating with a good degree of water and salt proofing to avoid a repeat of this).The only thing I don't know, is what size screws/bolts hold the lamps in place - can anyone give me a steer please?

Whilst we are on the subject - is this likely to be an involved job?  I see I'll have to remove the boot lock - is that going to come out in one piece with the latch mechanism?

It's clear I have no idea what I'm doing, isn't it? 😂🤣😂

As ever, any help and advice appreciated.

Mike 😃

[gsmdo]

So, today my new alloy casting arrived. I followed this guy's YouTube guide, which told me everything I needed to do for the job (with the exception of removing the handle actuator, which was easily sorted).

So, here's the new casting in place. I have temporarlily remounted the LED lamps from the old casting, but they will be replaced by the new ones when they arrive.

I used some red rubber grease to help seal one lamp in - but I'll clean it out and perhaps use some silicone sealer when I fit the new ones, as I'm not a fan of the 'crime scene' effect it gave the car.

To answer my own silly question - the bolts are M3 16, which I got from my 'come in handy' drawer. As I'm using stainless screws into an alloy  casting, I gave the threads a generous gob of copper grease.

The bolt is really awkward to do up - but I managed to find a use for a little ratchet driver I've had gathering dust for a couple of years, which did the job perfectly with just a hex bit fitted in it.

The only pain in the parts aspect of the job is that the number plate needs to be removed to get the casting out of the car. No problem if it's held in by bolts, but mine was held in by sticky pads. Luckily I had some spares - but cleaning the old foam off was a bit of a pain...

If it wasn't for that, this is a job you could comfortably do in an hour or so. Once you have the old casting out, you can take it away from the car and switch the parts from old to new in the comfort of your house, rather than stretching over the boot lid outside.

[Ianswebb]

Smashing write up, as always.🤙

[gsmdo]

So, the new number plate lights arrived today. It was a simple matter to remove the old ones - then a laborious process to clean the red grease off the left hand light - that stuff went everywhere... 🤦‍♂️

Still - the number plate lights and casting look pretty sharp now... 😎

...and so I have managed to extinguish ONE of the warning lights... 😆

 

EDIT - I heard back from Kev, my Audi parts mate. The casting is still available, for just over £90... 🤔