Does anyone know if that silver piece that covers the reverse bulb (within the taillamp housing) can be removed (without disassembling the entire tail light housing)? Trying to get better reverse light output.

 

It's chrome on my 08.

If I'm thinking of the right piece (the one that covers the bulb so you can't see it from the outside) then that has a purpose. It looks like its there to help reflect the light emitted from the bulb onto the surrounding lens so you get a good output of light when reversing. If you remove it the bulb will be "visible" and the light output will not be directed but rather scattered. Hope that makes sense.

Your best bet is to change out the bulb (which is what I did) to say one with a bunch of led's so the output is much brighter over stock.

 

^^ NO!

Don't get LED's.

Light output is WORSE with LED's than the halogen bulbs

Trust me on this one, and if you don't read up on the superbrightleds.com main page where they state the same.

I thought this wasn't true, so i tried it. I tried three different sets of bulbs, the last of which was a 1W set and the output was still horrid.

It looked 'cool' but the only thing that lit up behind me was my brake lights...

To get decent output out of LED's you need the proper 3-5W ones, that are 100$ and they have heatsink's on them.

Also, the people behind you, can't see the LED bulb's during the day...

 

While this may be correct for bulbs with an led just at the end (therefor light emitting is only from the end of the bulb and in one direction, straight) this is not true for bulbs that have leds on all sides (therefor emitting light from all angles).

In the picture below, imagine if the only light emitted was from the single beam on the end. Not very bright for sure. However, when you add more leds to bulb it now has more light output.

I tried this experiment in the front headlights. I put in a bulb with an led at the end, and the light output was straight forward and not very luminous. I put in another bulb with leds at the end and all around and it was much brighter and a lot more luminous. Big difference for sure!

If you have the option to try the bulbs out before you buy I'm sure you can make your own decision.

 

Thanks for the great input guys. 01LEXPL, did you try the multi-direction LED's? Reading up on the other CL threads posted, seems like the most significant improvement would be to add auxilary lighting below the rear bumper. Just wish there was a less obtrusive way to get better lighting. It would be awesome if some company made an auxilary back up light imbedded in that rear bumper corner lens.

 

Have to take down the rear hatch panels to get to the bulbs.

 

There has been a lot of talk about improving the candlepower of the rear back up lights. Some people have converted to H4's. There's a write up here.

 

Never heard of that H4 retrofit. I wonder if the bulb gets hot enough to cause damage to the housing/lens.

 

I have seen it here. Had pics, too.

 

Any idea where this write up is? It should be stickied if it can be found.