taking the taillights apart
- Thread starter The DON
- Start date
It takes a lot of patience and care not to damage the tail lens. This is one part that you don't want to have to replace. (unless you can find a used one). If you try to force the lense piece apart too fast you will definitely crack the lense. The glue holding it together is like rubber and stretches as you pry them apart.
Here we go:
After removing the tail lense assembly from the car (about 10 8mm nuts under the carpeting) remove the black plastic trim piece on top of the assembly. There are about 5 or 6 phillips head screws holding this piece on. Next I used a heat gun to heat up the glue surrounding the lens and carefully pried the lens free from the housing. I originally tried the boiling water suggestion but it soon became apparent that I couldn't get the entire piece into the pan and it was cooling off faster than I could pry it apart. It was getting pretty time consuming waiting for the boiling water to heat the piece back up just so I could work on it again. There are tabs around the outside of the lense that need to be pried up with a flat screwdriver in order for the lens to come off. The glue starts to harden as it cools so you have to keep applying heat to keep the glue soft. I also used a razor blade to cut away the soft glue. Once the lense is free there is a clear reflector attached to the inside of the red lense that is held in place by plastic tabs. Remove this reflector and clean the reflector and the inside of the lens with a good glass cleaner. Remove the old glue from the lense at this time. Put the reflector back in the lense and seal the perimeter of the reflector with clear silicone sealant/adhesive. ( It's about an 1/8th inch gap all the way around the reflector.) Let this dry for 5 or 6 hours before reassembling tail lense assembly. While it is drying use a heat gun to remove all the old glue from the other half of the assembly. ( I only ncluded the last step about the reflector because I was getting lots of condensation in the lense piece; the main reason for wanting to do this project in the first place.)
Apply a bead of silicone sealant/adhesive to the other half of the assembly in the channel that the lens fits into and join the two pieces together. There are tabs around the perimeter of the lens that should snap back into place. Once this is allowed to dry (24 hours) reinstall the tail lense to the car. Repeat this for the other taillight; unless you are too pissed off after attempting to do the first one and for me even giving you suggestions on how to do it in the first place.
Hope this helps.
[This message has been edited by Chris W (edited 28 October 2002).]
Here we go:
After removing the tail lense assembly from the car (about 10 8mm nuts under the carpeting) remove the black plastic trim piece on top of the assembly. There are about 5 or 6 phillips head screws holding this piece on. Next I used a heat gun to heat up the glue surrounding the lens and carefully pried the lens free from the housing. I originally tried the boiling water suggestion but it soon became apparent that I couldn't get the entire piece into the pan and it was cooling off faster than I could pry it apart. It was getting pretty time consuming waiting for the boiling water to heat the piece back up just so I could work on it again. There are tabs around the outside of the lense that need to be pried up with a flat screwdriver in order for the lens to come off. The glue starts to harden as it cools so you have to keep applying heat to keep the glue soft. I also used a razor blade to cut away the soft glue. Once the lense is free there is a clear reflector attached to the inside of the red lense that is held in place by plastic tabs. Remove this reflector and clean the reflector and the inside of the lens with a good glass cleaner. Remove the old glue from the lense at this time. Put the reflector back in the lense and seal the perimeter of the reflector with clear silicone sealant/adhesive. ( It's about an 1/8th inch gap all the way around the reflector.) Let this dry for 5 or 6 hours before reassembling tail lense assembly. While it is drying use a heat gun to remove all the old glue from the other half of the assembly. ( I only ncluded the last step about the reflector because I was getting lots of condensation in the lense piece; the main reason for wanting to do this project in the first place.)
Apply a bead of silicone sealant/adhesive to the other half of the assembly in the channel that the lens fits into and join the two pieces together. There are tabs around the perimeter of the lens that should snap back into place. Once this is allowed to dry (24 hours) reinstall the tail lense to the car. Repeat this for the other taillight; unless you are too pissed off after attempting to do the first one and for me even giving you suggestions on how to do it in the first place.
Hope this helps.
[This message has been edited by Chris W (edited 28 October 2002).]
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