KSES300

Anybody ever find a rusted out taillight housing?

A single taillight was burned out so I removed the screws and took the taillight assembly off of my car. I was surprised to find the taillight housing in question rusted through! I cleaned it out the best I could, but I could not get a new bulb seated. I plan to check them all in both assemblies and to get replacements in the salvage yard, but I'm curious, has anybody else ever experienced this?

808mcv20l

sounds like the tail light gasket between the tail light and body rotted away.

I've seen only surface rust on the tail light sockets before. what I usually do when I replace tail light bulbs is to coat the base of the new bulbs with di-electric grease, I know this is kinda extreme but it's like putting anti-seize on bolts you don't want rust welded on later.

most of the times the sockets are separate or part of a larger harness that plugs into the main car harness. If you can find that at the salvage yard I'd definitely replace the whole thing as it's likely other sockets also have some rust as well.

KSES300

That's the weird thing. There's no evidence of rot or decay on the gasket. I've checked the other housings and this single one needs to be replaced.




Yeah, it's going to make sense to replace the entire taillight because one of the lenses is broken anyway.