So I ordered the complete tail light upgrade from Sewell a week ago, the newest style tail lights, and went to install them only to find out the inner tail light, the one that attaches to the trunk, does not fit.

Looking at it further the slot in the trunk and the back piece my existing tail lights have a kind of wishbone shape to them. The new lights are more egg shaped and are too wide and not correctly shaped to fit into the old slot.

Anyone else experienced this, do I need to modify the trunk in order to make this work? I plan to return them unless I am missing something.

Thanks

 

Shouldn't have to mod anything as long as they are lights for the isx50 shouldn't matter the year... Call sewall is the best advice I have.

 

I haven't heard of any issues with it, as far as i've read here, seems like it should just be a straight upgrade!

 

It is not. I talked with Sewell and they were no help.

From the limited amount of info I have found it will require modification of my trunk slots. I love these lights so I am going to do this tonight and will post pics of the differences and the install.

 

Actually, the OP is describing a known issue. I installed 2011+ tail lights (with the clear outers) on my 2006 and what's preventing the assembly from sliding into place are the metal tabs coming from top and bottom. You can either hammer those tabs back, cut them, or grind them down. I had them cut and everything works great. If you do cut the tabs, it might be a good idea to seal the edge with some touch up paint to prevent possible rusting.

Relevant thread #1: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...on-2006-a.html
Relevant thread #2: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...on-2008-a.html

 

For those who care here is what I did.

Here is what the space looks like prior



Then I took my dremel and a cutting wheel and cut off both "tabs" sticking out



Here is what it looks like after



I took brociouz's advise and painted the bare metal for two reasons. First to protect it, second to give it a smoother edge so it does not cut into the new housing.

And here they are installed



The people at Sewell had no idea you would need to modify your trunk lid in order to get these to fit and actually gave me some attitude about it because he believed I didn't know what I was talking about. Thank God for CL!

I recommended they put a note on their order page stating 06-08 IS models will need to modify their trunk lid in order to properly fit 09+ tail lights. I feel that is only fair to someone spending 1K on new headlights.

 

^ Very nice job. Other than modifying your trunk lid, were the lights plug an play? Did they come with different harnesses?

 

Yes, the kit came with four new harnesses and two orange light bulbs for the clear corner lights. Besides the cutting the rest was plug and play.

 

Cool.
I may have to pull the trigger and buy these!

 

thanks for the info, now I know what to look out for when I upgrade my taillights soon

 

No problem.

 

Learned something new today

 

Yup! Always happy to be proven wrong on here, thats why I joined. OP sorry for my misleading info, it looks great now good work on those tabs!

 

^^^ No worries, that is why we ask on here someone always seems to have the solution.

 

Once you cut the tabs....can you go back to the 06-08 lights? Or will you always have to use the 09+ lights going forward? Thanks.