Can tail lights be opened? Please, don't laugh...
 

Yes, I know, this has to be the weirdest reason for opening a tail lamp assembly.
And no, I have no clue about how this could happen.
Anyway, the fact is, my RX is carrying the dead passenger in the attached pic since I bought it... :sad:

Now, after reading on these pages that it's possible to remove the cover on the bulb of the reversing light to improve its effectiveness, I thought that while I was removing the light assembly for that mod, I could take the opportunity to get rid of the bugger.

But while the removal of the bulb cap was a piece of cake (as can be seen in the pic), the dead fly is driving me nuts.
There's no way to reach it from the bulb hole on the rear, and also a powerful vacuum cleaner gave no result.
I guess that the only way to reach and remove the beast is after detaching the external transparent cover, but I couldn't see any obvious way to do that.
Is it maybe sealed/glued to the rear assembly? And is there a way to open it without destroying the thing, anyway?
As much as I hate the dead fly to enjoy a free ride on my RX, I don't think I'm willing to pay a new light just to get rid of it... :rolleyes:

Thanks in advance for any hint!

I think you can but you would need to very carefully remove the rubber seal around the edge and look for pry points etc.If I were you, I
would remove the entire assembly and then try and rotate the assembly so as to position the fly in an area that he can either slip through the light bulb hole or through and area carefully pried open. Just my two cents.

I'm afraid I wasn't clear enough.
I did remove the whole assembly already, and rotated it in all possible ways, using also a vacuum cleaner while moving it around.
But the fly only moves around , never reaching the bulb hole.
It seems that there is an additional glass inside the reversing light, and the fly is stuck between it and the external transparent plastic cover.
I'm sure it could slip through a border pried open, but that's the point: I can't see any pry points, and I fear that the transparent cover is actually glued to the assembly.
Are you sure it's just pressed against the rubber seal?
Here's a couple of other pics, if that helps.

Tail lights are usually glue together not like headlights that you can heat up and you can pry it open

The assembly is glued together, sealed. You can try baking it, pull them apart, clean and re-glue. Or try to remove the sockets and use something to pick on the debris, or perhaps using a vacuum. Good luck. Mine has 1, too, but I hardly notice anymore. In time you will forget about it.

Yeah, pretty much as i suspected...
I guess the best idea is just trying to forget it!

There's another thing which makes me curious, though.
The manual gives the instructions for the replacement of the back up bulb, and says that the tail light bulb is a dealer job.
Now, I don't think that even the dealer should go any further than removing the light from the car, as I did.
In spite of that, I couldn't find a way to remove the tail light bulb from the assembly.
Just a curiosity, but does anyone know how to do that?

I had a collection in the tail lights of my 330. I always wondered how the poor things got in there but I left them alone. They become less noticeable as decay sets in. Nothing in the 450h yet, knock on wood.

Interesting...i"ve had a small spider (dead of course) in the tail lamp of my 07 RX350 since I bought it. The car I mean, not the spider!

From looking at the photo of your lamp unit, is there any way of sticking some flexible thing into the bulb socket and trying to suck out the fly? Or perhaps with some glue on the end of the flexible thing? Although you have to be careful not to get glue on the inside of the lens.

Just re-read your original post and saw you tried to vacuum with no success. Does knocking around the light unit (when it's off the car) help dislodge the fly into a position from which you could vacuum it out?

Now, just how do these critters get in there?

:)

Yeah, don't ask me! :confused:
In fact, it seems that there isn't any opening between the transparent plastic cover and the rear of the assembly. Both the reverse light and the tail light have their own glass, inside the plastic cover.
If I could find the opening from where the fly entered, I could probably suck it out...
But considering how many other folks had similar experiences, I'm beginning to wonder if these lights aren't assembled in some places full of these animals, which get stuck in there along the assembly line and stay with the car forever! :eek2:

I have to take a picture of my bug and will post here.

I have one in the quarterpanel light and one in the headlight.

I had one of my tail lights replaced just for the same issue, my stop lights quit. If it is just the parking light and signal light bulbs, you can change them. The LED stop light is a whole assembly replacement. No repairing the LED's.

how much is the lights? wondering if it's worth to get the 400h LED tail lights when the original one fails....

yeah, that would be awsome. are the 330 vs 400 directly plug and go lights or will some mods have to be done to make the 400 lights fit into 330

I was going to ask have you tried submerging the tail light in water? What about a metal coat hanger? I was going to say blasting it with air but that would probably make it worst.