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Greetings. My trunk-located inner driver side Tail Light has lost a few LED's and I need to replace.
I've got the replacement unit, but before I dive in I was hoping to get some steps/instructions/tips on how to replace this piece?
I've searched this forum and the Web high and low - plenty of how-to's on the outer (main) tail light unit remove/replace ...
but absolutely nothing on this inner tail light ... looking at the new unit I just got, no threads, no bolts - male or female ... anywhere.
Couple of clips/tabs on the perimeter and that is all ??? Not sure if this thing is supposed to just 'snap' into place ?
Assuming that is a great way to break something when I'm trying to uninstall my bad one ... ya know?
Anyone, anything would be MUCH appreciated. this one - the inner tail light assembly - thanks
That taillight has the weirdest installation system I've ever seen. It involves a plastic "clamp". Whoever installed mine at the factory overtorqued one and destroyed the clamp, and worse, I broke a perfectly good taillight removing it because I could not remove the clamp.
Yeah, thanks guys. I'm going to be very careful with this. pdf's from Konigstiger above help a bit, my 2012 W212 was somewhat of a 'transition' model year, so my car doesn't match those diagrams/etc in the pdf's provided.
I'll take things apart slowly and methodically and post any gotchas or tips here afterwards.
I do appreciate the responses .... like I said ... absolutely nothing here or on general web about the inner tail light removal/install so every little tid-bit helps.
Per Strife above, ran in to the exact same situation. What happens is the white plastic tower-clamp seizes to the tail light assembly and post screw. It should loosen with the top nut, which releases the assemblies 'clamp' onto the body work, but over time ... it just seizes. You can fully remove the top nut used to tighten down this white plastic tower clamp, but it won't budge and won't release it's clamp onto the body work inside the tailight area.
I used a sharp razor knife to slice thru the vertical long 'tab' on the outside facing part of this 'tower clamp' and then was easily able to remove the entire assembly.
Don't be afraid to cut it at this area (see pics) ... your new tail light assembly should've come with this tower clamp included. And you can see on your new assembly that this piece freely moves up and down with tightening and loosening of the top nut.
Any way.... I digress. But thanks again to Strife for that absolutely accurate and critical 'warning'
- open trunk - pop out the plastic trim 'rivets'
- remove the trunk lid hinge arms plastic trim
- bend down the trunk liner just enough to access the inside of the tail light assembly
- disconnect just the one electrical connector
- loosen the infamous white tower clamp nut (if yours isn't seized ... congrats ... just pop out the assembly)
- if yours is seized (more than likely) cut it as shown in pics - then pop out assembly.
installation and popping back in lining trim rivets takes about 2 minutes.
thanks all. hopefully this will help someone else in the future.
new assembly - free moving/floating white tower clamp sawed off piece on removed assembly - vertical tab piece seized into slot sawed off piece on removed assembly - vertical tab piece seized into slot sawed off piece on removed assembly - vertical tab piece seized into slot
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