328: How do I replace a certain bolt?

Now this is an odd one. In the two years since I had bought my car, I had been puzzled by the fact that the right headlight unit tended to wobble when I was driving at night, while the left unit was rock solid. Also, when retracted, the right hand side of the right unit was not quite flush with the bodywork.

The mechanic tried something: with the lights up, he tried rotating each unit about a vertical axis. The right one could be rotated each way quite a lot, while the left unit essentially could not be rotated at all. Eventually, the diagnosis was: the right-hand bolt in the right-hand unit's hinge was missing! Sure enough, looking down the slot between the light unit and the bodywork revealed a view of the flange of the white plastic bushing, but not the head of the bolt that should have been up against it! (With the bolt missing, I'm amazed the unit worked as well as it did!)

When I had to have the front spoiler removed to be rebuilt, I figured this would be a good time to fix this. I went to T. Rutlands and got a replacement bolt and, just to be safe, its plastic bushing. I found that I should have been lucky that this was on the right-hand side of the car, since when I looked underneath, the flange of the bushing could be plainly seen, directly above the auxiliary radiator. (On the left side, that area was completely hidden.)

I found that when I jacked up the right-front corner of the car, I could quite easily, from below, put the bolt in the bushing with my right hand and push up on the loose headlight unit with my left. I figured I was about to solve the problem, but here's what happened: when I turned the bolt, it didn't go into what I was told was a captive nut that I couldn't see. The bolt would turn but not engage!

I tried removing the panels at the front of the right-front wheel well, but that didn't help, since quite a bit of stuff was in the way. I hoped to see the captive nut and what might be keeping the bolt from going in, but no such luck.

Someone told me the easiest way to access this area (especially after the spoiler is re-installed) would be to remove the small body-color panel behind the headlight unit. He said that the heads of the two screws that held each end of this panel in place all faced the center of the car, so that with the spare-tire-well cover open, the inboard screws could be removed with a normal screwdriver, and the outboard screws with a long, skinny one. But on my car the inboard screws are facing the other direction and cannot be accessed with a screwdriver. (Can any other 328 owners compare this with their cars?)

I'm guessing my problem is that the original hinge bolt probably broke off, and its threaded portion is still in the captive nut. I can't see it, so this is just an educated guess. So does anyone have any bright ideas as to what I should do now, short of disassembling the entire front end of the car?

 

So, no one out there has ever had to replace a headlight-unit hinge bolt on a 308 or 328?

 

I'm certain that removing "the small panel behind the headlight unit" would do the job, but as I indicated above, I can't figure out how to access the screws. I looked at a 308 QV, and its louvered panel behind the headlight is very easy to remove, but on the 328 the screws are well hidden.

Again, as I said above, I removed two panels in the front of the wheel well, and that did not help.

Unfortunately, I can't see the nut, so I don't know its status. I'm pretty certain it's there, because the bolt does not go into where the nut would be; something is holding it up, and I suspect it's a remnant of the old bolt. If the nut were missing, the bolt would immediately go all the way in, and that's not the case.