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Changing the outer rear taillight on an '87

S

Sal Collaziano

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Hi all. Can anyone give me advice on how to do this easily? Someone has told me I can unscrew the black plastic wheel well part to get to this light.

Oh! I guess I can't forget. The problem is intermittent. Sometimes my signal is working and sometimes it isn't. At first I thought it was the bulb - but nope. Any advice here? Is this something I should take to my mechanic?

Keep in mind I consider it an accomplishment that I successfully changed a bulb in my top brakelight this afternoon... :p
 
Sal, the lights in the rear fascia of the C4s are a PITA to reach. It is recommended to remove the license plate and reach in that way, but unless you have really skinny arms it's next to impossible to reach any of them.

I even removed my gas filler door to try and reach my inner taillight and couldn't get to it. I tried from below, even going so far as to remove the bolts in the fascia to try and pull it back somewhat, in order to get to the bulbs, but although it does give a little, the bumper is still in the way and it is rigid. I finally broke down and paid the mechanic at the dealership to replace it. He had a hard time as well; as I've said, it takes a skinny arm. :eyerole

Glad to hear that it went well with the bulb replacement in the third brake light. :upthumbs

_ken :w
 
Sal,
Like Ken says, it's a tight fit but really not hard . The outer lamps require you to go from underneath. Just grab the receptacal and turn couterclockwise a 1/4 turn and don't drop it. Mine fell behind the (whatever it is) and took me a 1/2 hour to fish it out. In addition, if your having an intermittent problem, replace the buld. A lot of the time it's the bulbs way of saying replace me.:D The inner tailights are reached through the license plate removal.
Good luck:Roll
 
I had a little neighbor kid change one in my 84 . There was no way in heck I could get my arm in there !
 
Thanks for all the advice.. I really think it's an amazing shame how Chevy did this. It's pretty much unbelievable. How could they make a car like this? I'll probably leave this to my mechanic. I should be happy I got the third brake light without screwing something up!
 
easiest way ive found on early C4s is to take out license plate, then back up lite. if its the inside lite, you can reach it easily then, if its the outboard lite, I take out the two screws and remove the inboard lite and reach it thru that opening. Its a stupid set up. Later ones mounted the buckets in facia and made the bulbs accessible by removing just the outside lens with a few torx screws. too bad they dont make a retro kit for the early ones.
 
86targa said:
too bad they dont make a retro kit for the early ones.

Hear! Hear! Sounds like an opening for an entrepreneurial type. :upthumbs

_ken
 
I was wondering how you did that!

I tried without success to access those when I had my plate off recently but thought, "there is no way you can reach it from there!" Since there wasn't a real problem, I just gave up and figured that I would tackle that dummy when I have to. Now I know...find a kid with skinny arms.
--Drew:w
:bu:bu
 

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