Roadmaster Direct-Connect Base Plate Kit - Removable Arms

Video Transcript for DIY Install: Roadmaster Direct-Connect Base Plate Kit on your 2015 Fiat 500L

Today, on our 2014 Fiat 500L, we're going to be taking a look at and installing the Roadmaster EZ5 Base Plate Kit with Removable Arms, part number RM-522014-5. This is what your base plate is going to look like once it's installed in the vehicle. Nice, sleek, tucked away, the only thing that is going to be sticking out is going to be those chain tie-downs until you place on your arms. Place it in, let go, rotate it, and it's clicked and locked in place. They come with a bracket and the self-tapping screws to make way for that wiring harness. The first thing we're going to need to do is remove the six Phillips head screws on the bottom side of the fascia securing it to the core support. You're going to have three here: one, two, three, and three here: one, two, and three. Now, keep in mind that the six fasteners here on the passenger side are going to be the same to remove on the driver side. Now, on the inside of the fender, we're going to be moving to next, to remove the Phillips fastener here, and here, as well as the T30 Torx bit fastener located here at the seam.

Keep in mind that you will need to move your tires and adjust them to one side or the other to get in here to remove these. Now, if the Torx bit fastener is undone in the wheel wells and all the rest of the Phillips head screws underneath, we'll be able to open up the hood and remove the other Torx bit fasteners securing the top plate here. Now, we'll go ahead and remove the front fascia and bumper. First thing we'll do is pull out and away to remove the bumper. We're going to pull out on the bottom corner to remove it from the locking tab here. Once we have it out and away, we can go ahead and start peeling it back, making sure that once we get out a little bit to where we can get behind it, we'll disconnect the lights. You'll see the light harness right here and we'll just reach in, press in, and disconnect that. All right, you're going to notice that there's going to be another harness down below.

I'm going to go ahead and disconnect it from this one here. That'll be for the fog lights. Next step is going to be to loosen up these nuts securing the coolant lines here. Now, be very careful here that you don't break them or bend them too much. The reason we're going to need to move them is because they're in the way of the factory bolts securing the bumper. Now, we're going to need to replace our bumper with that base plate, so we're going to loosen those up and this should give us enough movement to be able to move them out of the way. We're going to go ahead and loosen up our fifteen-millimeter bolts securing our bumper to the frame.

This side is going to be your most difficult, especially on the bottom side, down here, but if we can get these ones out, the rest of it we can get with our power tool. Now, it's okay to pull these out since we do have the alignment tabs securing it still, so you can go ahead and pull them out and you won't need to worry about securing and holding the bumper down. Now, we'll go ahead and remove the three ten-millimeter alignment tab nuts. Then, there is one on the passenger side. You'll want to pull the bumper straight out, and you'll need to pull it over the top of the coolant lines. We're going to remove the radiator shroud next.

You're going to have two screws fastening it to the front, and then two little push fasteners up here at the top. This will be removed from the vehicle in case if the factory bumper would ever need to be reinstalled. Press in the tabs on the back side here and pull out. Now, we're going to go ahead and put our base plate in place, lining it up with the alignment tabs on the bottom first. Remember to get your passenger side in first and rotate it over since you do have the coolant lines in the way. Once we have it in place, we can go ahead and let it rest while we get the hardware to secure it. We're going to go ahead and temporarily fasten the two top ones on each side, so that way we can put our red Loctite on and secure our bottom ones in place. Once we have those in place, we'll come back, remove the top ones on both sides, that way we know that it's going to be aligned perfectly, and then put the red Loctite on those and fasten them down. All right, now we'll go ahead and place red lock tight on our factory bolts and re-secure them. Make sure that you hand thread them in first just to make sure that they're going to be in there correctly and not cross-threaded. Now, we'll go ahead and repeat that here on the passenger side. Remember, you may need to bend these out a little bit, just to get the bolts back into the holes, but you don't want to bend on them too much since they are pressurized lines. All right, now we'll go ahead and mark our fascia to make our cuts and trim it away to fit over our base plate. You can note the instructions to find out the exact notches that you're going to need to cut in your specific bumper. Note that different models will require different trimming. This is going to be the driver side and we're going to start off by removing this one here, we'll just mark it with the paint pen where we're going to notch it. We'll be removing this whole area here, and then it'll just be reversed on the other side. Now that we've got our inserts cut out, we'll go ahead and clean it up with a carpenter's knife. Now, we'll go ahead and torque our factory bolts to manufacturer specifications. Now, we'll go ahead and re-secure our coolant lines here on the passenger side. Just for safe keeping and in case any future owner of the vehicle wants to place the factory bumper back on, we're going to go ahead and put these alignment fastener nuts back in place as well. Now, we'll go ahead and put our bumper back in place. Remember that we'll slide in the bottom first, then we'll make those connections to our lights. Once we have those in place, go ahead and slide the top up in. That will do it for our review and installation of the Roadmaster EZ5 Base Plate Kit with Removable Arms, part number RM-522014-5, on our 2014 Fiat 500L. You can find this and everything else right here at eTrailer.com.