Removing the Taillights

[peruano85]

well i just wanted to let everyone know how much of a pain in the a$$ it is to remove the taillights on the tC...on saturday me and a friend of mine tried to take my taillights so i can tint them but took me 2 1/2 hrs to take them off...for those of you who have not tried to take them off i would recomend to take ur time and find out the proper way of taking them off because u may damage ur lights and ur bumper...sorry i dont have any pics to post but here is some on the things u need to know if you want to remove the taillights..

First u need to remove the cover protecting the harness in the trunk.

Then you want to remove the wiring harness and begin to unscrew the bolts using a 10 mm wrench.

Be aware that one of the bolts will be all the way on the top hidden by the carpeting and a second bolt will be covered by a plastic clip that you'll need to remove.

Once you have removed all 3 bolts you will not be able to remove the lights easily. What i found out is that there are 2 clips under the bumper holding the light on to the body frame. What i used were two flat head screwdrivers but be careful not to scratch ur bumper. One of the clips will be easy to pop off but one of them is pretty hard. I accidentally broke off one of the clips.

Anyways after i failed trying to put the tints i decided to put back the taillight w/o the clip that i didnt break and it went in fine. me and my friend came to the conclusion that the clips are not even needed so i didnt bother putting it back. i might try to take my other taillight off this coming weekend and i'll be sure to take pics of the process...

[chubster41]

yeah Ive heard the removal of these things is a PIA.

I didnt take mine of to tint them tho...I just made sure everything was masked

[K20si]

yeah most tail lights are hard to remove on sports cars but if you wanted to tint you could just mask everything

[peruano85]

yeah didnt think about that....anyways could anyone give me any tips on how to tint them? i gave up that day after it took me 2 1/2 hrs to get it out and the unsuccesful in tinting it.

[*Yoshi*Scion.tC*]

why do u think the clips where in there?? not for you to sa u dont need them!!! u think they would jus waist money on that?? nooooo

[peruano85]

then could you explain why they have them there for?

[dj short-e]

I want to tint the top half of my back lights but i've never done that b4 on any car.. what do you use to tint them? I have the LED lights in the back so i want to tint the top red and yellow out..

and after reading how hard it is to take them off, what would you suggest to mask everything around the light?

[peruano85]

i kind of gave up on taking mine out because i didnt realize it was a lot of work to remove them..i have seen people use window tint or spray paint but i'd be very careful if you spray paint them w/o removing them from the car...i would search around the web for others who may have taken them off properly..sorry i'm not more help..

[jdn1979]

I removed my tail lights in 30 minutes. But you should remove your bumper to do so. All you have to do is open the back hatch pull the long piece of plastic out that surronds the spot where the deck locks onto. Then on the bumper up by that area you will see a philips head screw on each end of the bumper take those out. Next lay on your back underneath the car and remove the 4 plastic pins holding the bumper to the car and then go to the wheel area and right where the bumper meets the quarter panel in the wheel whell area there is a 10mm screw that you need to take out. After those 3 steps just pull the bumper off the car. Then go to inside your trunk and disconect the wire from the tail lights and unscrew the 3 10mm screws holding the tail lights in and your all done.

[joshtc]

When I Got Mine Tinted All U Have To Do Is Take Ur Rear Bumper Aff Then Take Off All The Screws Only U Dont Need To Remove The Clips Those Will Come Out With The Lights When U Yank Them Out.pull From The Inside Outward And They Will Pop Out Trust Me. Dont Worry They Wont Brake. Hope It Help U Guys Out.

Joshtc `las Vegas`

[Hitt_and_Run]

You can always whip out the crowbar to remove the lights... it doesn't look pretty and leaves quite a mess, but I garantee an easy 1 min removal.

[Miss JDM Xo]

this should help

ScionLife View topic - HOW TO: Remove/Install rear tC bumper and tail lights)

[navylife59]

Don't forget to check out our Tech Article/ How-To Section first. If we don't have it already, I can get it posted for you.

http://www.club-tc.com/forums/exteri...reinstall.html