If you’re talking about the side lights as in my picture above… Then no - they’re easily accessible under the bonnet… Just twist the bulb cap anti clockwise (IIRC) and they come out 
Must have nimbler fingers than me. I found it perfectly doable but a little awkward.
I would recommend putting some cloth underneath in case one of the bulbs drops out of the holder as you insert it back into the hole. I actually lost a bulb, never to be seen again, the problem being that some of these led bulbs are pretty big and don’t always locate that well in the holder, being just a push fit
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Replaced the side lights this evening, not the easiest of jobs and got the cuts and scratches to prove it.
My hands will sting tomorrow morning when I put alcohol gel on them as I go into B&Q 
Anyway, pleased with the difference , see photo when just drivers side swapped. Will certainly improve road presence.
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Hi,
I read the replies from Bettabuilder to the questions from 999to5 and myself and, it sounded so easy.
On the back of that I took the plunge and ordered the switchback indicators and controller unit.
However… what has turned up looks anything but easy. I suspect that the controller may even be the wrong one?
Perhaps I could ask for some guidance? Idiots guide please, because I qualify.
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Hiya, it’s not quite the same as mine and doesn’t dim the DRL’S when headlights on, it switches them off. Also doesn’t have the ‘get you home’ feature where the DRL’S stay on for a short while after ignition is off. They appear to be 3 times dearer too! Anyway, found them on Amazon and this was in the questions section.
Quite straight forward really. The light switch is fitted close to the battery under the bonnet, either from the battery main posts, or from a fused live lead close by. The earth lead is connected to the closest earth point. I have fitted an “in line” 5amp fuse that you can buy from Halfords, for safety, The unit has a third lead that is supposed to be connected to the dipped headlights of the car, and should extinguish the LED’S when the headlights are used. I have not done this , as it is very difficult to connect up on my particular car. Look at new cars that have them fitted, and you will see that all of them run with the LED’S on when the dipped headlights are on! The retro fitting of the DRLs makes no difference when the car goes through it’s MOT, as they are not mentioned, and the MOT tester ignores them, so no problem there.
The actual wiring of the control unit to the two DRLs is simple, the not so easy part is fitting them to the front of the car, in the right place. Just feed the wires down to the bumper from under the bonnet, and select a spot on each side screw the lights to.
Hope that is some help, or return and order the one I used? Good luck
Barrie
I fitted switchbacks to my NC when I had it. There are two options.
- Fit the switchback LED’s as supplied WITHOUT the controller box - BUT you will have to turn your sidelights on each time you get in the car and remember to turn them off when you exit.
- Fit the controller box - this, in effect, turns the sidelights on automatically when you start the engine and turns them off, about 15 seconds later, once you turn the engine off.
See my post on my NC mod here
After reading the rest of the comments against the drl controller on Amazon, it would appear I’ve ordered the wrong unit.
Could you let me have the link to the unit you used? I like the idea of the drl’s staying on as ‘guide-me-home’ lights and it might make more sense when fitting.
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Here you go!
They’ve gone up! 
Less wires etc and direct in line fused battery connection too! Only thing is to run a pair of wires to the other DRL across the front of the car. The single yellow can just go to one headlight (the nearest).
Barrie
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Hi Barrie,
Thanks for the previous guidance, but could I ask for a little more please?
The new controller unit has turned up and I plan to fit it all this weekend. Just so I don’t completely mess it up, could you kindly give me some direction on a couple of points?
Thanks in advance
(1) Acc? Where should I run this to?
(2)&(3)&(4)&(5)&(6) =
Wiring Instruction:
1.The red and black wire (the end with a fuse) are connected directly to the car battery + & - .
2.The red wire goes to positive pole of the LED daytime running lights; the black wire goes to the negative pole of the daytime running lights. + link crossing to other DRL on appropriate poled wires?
3.Yellow wire connects to positive pole of headlamp or reading lamp，when headlights are turned on, the brightness of the LED daytime running
lights will be halved（light dimmer).the yellow wire can be choosed not to wire up, which does not make any effect to use.
How would you connect these? Strip the sheath and solder the wires on or, some sort of T connector?
One final question. The indicator lenses within the headlamp are orange. How does this effect the white DRL bulbs? Or is this a 3.0 / 3.5 & 3.75 style change. Has my plan gone up in smoke?
Thanks again for the help.
Being ■■■■ at soldering, I would be tempted to try the new type of connector that is like a shrink wrap with solder in it.
You strip the wires put them inside the tube, heat the tube and it shrinks, insulates and solders all at once.
Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it??
Hi again, right, as per instructions, red wire with in line fuse to + terminal on battery, black wire to - terminal on battery ( both go to input side of controller output side of controller, the red hoes to indicator red and black to black wire. Yellow to positive (live of dipped headlight bulb. Only two wires on back of OEM bulb holder. I ran a pair of wires across the front of the car to the other indicator bulb. Scotchlock fasteners are probably the easiest connectors to use ( the ones you have pictured). The orange cover over the lens on your model can be removed but requires splitting the headlight in two and then regluing it back together. The LED’s are very bright and the orange will show pale and bright anyway, although not quite the same as clear obviously. Safetymatch on here has done this to his beautiful NC1 Icon, dont have a link to any pics though. I’ll msg him and see if he can post pics.
Barrie
This might give you an idea of the “look” with orange indicator lenses? Don’t think Dave (safetymatch) has the yellow dimming wire connected to headlights though.
Barrie
What bulbs did you use? Mine are nothing like that
Barrie, you’ve given me an idea with the video of safetymatch’s car there. I like the idea of DRLs but I really don’t want to split the headlights on my NC1 so I’d dismissed the switchback option. I’m assuming it’s either Mot compliant, or maybe just the case of pulling the fuse at MoT time.
I’m actually in the process of fitting separate DRLs but using a changeover relay to turn them off when the headlights are on, which is very straightforward, but I’d much prefer the switchback option so avoiding fitting separate DRLs. I’d welcome any pointers to sources of suitable switchback bulbs and their bulb holders from anyone…
John
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Hi John, I know Dave has only recently had his MOT’d with zero advisories but not sure whether he did anything with the switchbacks? If you look closely on the video, there’s white light ‘bleeding’ out the bottom of the orange lens? Contributing to the brightness I reckon. Let me get some links and I’ll put them up.
Barrie
Here’s a link to mine,
Hiya!, I’d not even heard of such a thing as heat shrink soldered ■■■■ connectors and then, by some miracle, I’m on YouTube sorting out that video of the switchbacks, and what pops up but a video from bigclivedotcom, showing exactly that product!! I think its a great idea, might invest in some! Thank you for sowing that seed! 
Barrie
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Thanks Barrie. That’s great. The orange lens does stand proud of the reflector so I’m sure there is light bleed. I much prefer the option of using existing lamps and not adding separate DRLs. I did look at the expensive option of adding foglights to use as DRLs, but I can do without them. In my experience I never use them in fog, but end up buying replacements when they are smashed by stones!
John
OR, you could fit these John, as I did.
I now have both! 
Halo DRL’S with projector style fog lamps,mounted into the OEM bezels.
Barrie
Just a word of warning on some of them. They come as complete unit so even if one of them fails you have to buy the full kit again.