One of my tailight bulbs (P/N 7443) burnt out a couple days ago on my '01 ES, and because of the rainy weather, I haven't had the chance to replace the bulb until today. Since I had my digicam with me, I decided to snap some shots of how to access the tailights and their bulbs on any '00-'01 ES (and possibly the '97-'99 since the geometry of the tailights is about the same).

The picture below shows what you'll immediately see behind the tailight in the trunk, a plastic cover held on by (2) plastic Lexus screws. I used a Philips and needle nose pliers to pop them out.

 

After the cover comes off, you'll see all the tailight bulbs for the corner lamp. The nice thing about the '00-'01 (and '97-'99) ES is that Lexus makes these bulbs much more conveniently accessible than the 1st-gen ES. I remember when I had my '96 ES, that I had to pull out the plastic trunk sill, take out some plastic screws to pull down the trunk carpet lining, and still take out another set of bolts (10mm) to pull the actual tailight assembly out in order to get to any of the bulbs.

THIS is so much better now...

 

Here's a close-up view of the bulbs. Clockwise from top left: brake/tail light bulb (the bulb I had to change, P/N 7443), tail light bulb (P/N 2825), turn signal bulb (P/N 7440).

In case any of you don't know, the brake/tail light bulb has 2 filaments: top for the tail light, and bottom for the brake. The bottom has a wider coil than the top, which makes common sense. When I pulled out the defective bulb, it looked just like a burnt out household light bulb, black inside the glass housing with the top filament snapped.

All of the sockets for these bulbs are removed and installed just like the 9006 headlight bulbs in the 1st-gen ES (twist on, twist off). The bulbs themselves are removed by simply pulling straight out.

Hope this info helps out for most of you who might encounter a burnt out light nuisance in the future

 

Good tutorial!

 

Wow... Good to see Lexus made things easier... On my '96 ES I had to take the taillight out to change the bulbs...

 

Very helpful thread! Thanks Doug!

 

No problem at all. It's the least I could do to help out my other ES brethren, and most importantly, save yourself the trip from the dealership

 

They should look awesome once they are installed!

 

ughhh... he's just replacing bulbs... with some STOCK ones...

 

This should be a DIY sticky

 

Fog's look awesome, but it wasen't a good idea to install the 'stealth' bulbs because of the amber reflectors already built into the tail ligh housing. They are only good for 2002 - 2004 ES.

 

Already inserted a while ago in my DIY thread at the top of this forum
I noticed that as well in the tails of my ES. It looks like you'd have to break and remove the plastic amber reflectors already integrated in the tailight housing, and then you can install aftermarket turn signal bulbs of various colors and get the effect that you want. No way am I going to risk the life of my '01 tailights for that

 

That's pretty much what steviej said too Doug. I agree......I'm leaving te stock bulbs in.