third brake light bulb burnt out
 

:( I have a situation... My 1995 ES300 has a burnt out third brake light bulb. The brake light in the rear window. There doesnt appear to be access from the trunk. I have a new bulb for it but nowhere can I locate information on how to get into fixture to replace it. Can anyone out there tell me how to open it up so that I can change it. I hate to think I have to have the dealer change it for me....
Thanks, Matthew

Usually you can just twist the bulb socket out from underneath the brake light housing if you get back there in the trunk. My GS is different, though, it has a bunch of little LEDs instead of one bulb.

I'm not sure, but I think you'll have to take out the entire taillight housing.. The only time I've replaced taillights was when I cleared my tails so I had them unscrewed from the car anyway. I cant remember if I could just get to the lights without taking it out, but I dont think I could.

Its not that hard to get the taillight out though, there are like 5 screws under the carpeting on the back of the trunk. Two are in the corners and they can be a bit difficult, but it isn't all that hard.

Hitman, Matt is talking about the 3rd brake light, the one that's high-mounted in the middle.

To get access to the 3rd brake light:

- Place each hand against both sides of the plastic housing, and firmly grasp and pull the housing towards you. It might not budge at first, but it should move once you get a good grip on it.

- Pull the housing out just enough so that you can see the brake light bulb and stick your hand underneath. Ignore the speaker wires.

- Pull out the old bulb from the socket (it plugs in/out). Wear rubber gloves when handling the new bulb, and put the new one into the socket.

- Reverse the steps here to put the 3rd brake light back into place. Test out your brake light, and you're done :)

Yeah be carefull when you pull it too cause when I took mine off i broke one of the clips and now it rattles when my bass is up.. Just go slow but be firm when pulling it.

Adam

Heh heh... oops didnt really think too hard before I posted :egads:

Edit: Wow, reread the original post... apparently I didnt really even read the post too well either! :egads: :D

Major recall from the dead but I followed this walkthrough and did manage to take the third brake light out after much tugging, not sure whether I broke the clips from doing so though.

My question is how does the thing clip back in?

I've been living with it not sitting right for like almost a year now. The thing just doesn't "click" back into place so when I brake hard, the assembly will slide forward and sideways lots of the time and then I have to place it back when I've stopped the car.

Thanks.

Not sure if yours is the same as mine (2000) spyder but I was fiddling around the other day and decided I wanted to take out my stock sub as it has been disconneted anyways (I have a 12" enclosure in the trunk) I fugured it would allow more sound to come through the rear deck and maybe even minimize the rattling. Well after taking the 3rd brake light apart I realized the subwoofer is mounted (part of) to a bracket that holds the 3rd brake light in place. So unfortunatley I just mounted the stock sub back in (It's held in by 4 10mm bolts by the way). The 3rd brake lite has 2 hooks on the back that slide into the far end of the rear deck closest to the windshield and then has 2 clips on the end closest to you that slide over where the stock subwoofer is mounted (this is what comes off when you grab both ends and pull towards you. So unless 1.) the 94 is different or 2.) you broke the clips when you removed it you should have no problem putting the 3rd brake light assembly back in. Wish I had a camera handy when I did this as pictures are worth a thousand words. This is pretty simple to do so maybe I can take 10 minutes today to snap some shots of how it looks. Hope this was somewhat informative for you. :)

Wow thanks for the write up. I'm thinking it may be the same. Nothing is clipping back in and it still slides whenever I hit the breaks hard or corner hard but if I'm reading correctly, there are 2 clips that are seperate from the main third brake light unit and we have to access it through the trunk?

Pics would be much appreciated as well. Thanks again. :)

not accessed from the trunk but right underneath the third brake light should be your stock sub correct? Well attached to the stock sub are 2 black clips that hold the back of the 3rd brake light in place. Let me go get my sisters camera and post a pic.

This is what the brake light clips into.

that clips around this part from the brake light. Sorry so blurry.

1995 ES 300

Loosen the wire anchor (from inside trunk - push arrowhead plastic clip up) before removing the housing. This way when housing jerks loose you won't break the wires.

I used a paint can opener from Ace Hardware to hook under the interior edge. Once I had one side loose I used a small pry bar to pull the other side loose. I couldn't loosen the housing just using my hands.

Photo 2 showing housing off.