Advice on replacing a rear brake light bulb

[RMcG]

One of the two rear brake light bulbs is bad on my 2008 basic Yaris Hatchback. There is a plastic grill in the rear interior of the car that comes off with a screw driver as shown at the start of this video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ3LPRk4vwY . See also attached picture.

The video at the link above also indicates that you have to unscrew two nuts and take off the entire rear light assembly with all the bulbs and lenses. Yet after the removal of the entire light assembly, the demonstrator just twists the small bulb fitting (at 1:30 in the video) in a counterclockwise direction and removes that small fitting. It appears that the small fitting could have been removed without removing the entire assembly.

Is this correct? That is, do you have to remove the entire light assembly (or entire "light cluster") to replace a bulb?

Thanks,

R.

[myfirstyota]

No. Every bulb in the rear assembly is accessible without removing the entire housing.

[stykerdk]

Theres a trick here to do it without removing it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFR8AiAAdBc

[dogsridewith]

There are two reasons I'm glad I removed the left and right side housings when one of the four bulbs' elements burnt out on my 2007.

The huge flat-base bulb is nearly impossible to get out of the socket, so both sides got replaced when one quit. This revealed what I considered wacky Mind of Toyota wire routing which I changed to get longer leads to 2 of the the 4 sockets for later from-inside-the-car lamp replacement. Because the whole assembled light units were apparently shoved onto the back of the car with just 1 connector snap required to finish each side, the leads for 2 of the 4 bulbs went from inside the car to outside to back inside. (The manuals' mini blow-up drawings on bulb replacement were no help for me with this wire routing puzzle.)

I stopped major housing gasket leaks on both sides by removing debris and cleaning up everything, including the original gaskets, w/ a wet cotton cloth. (I also removed and stored both roof moldings--useless wet/frozen trash-traps in my opinion.)

Note that Toyota used, for each housing, 2 nuts and a slide-thingy rather than the 3 nuts which have most evenly compressed the gasket. They included an ingenious rubber push-button grommet next to the slide-thingy so the human can more easily remove the housing without breaking it. (Not mentioned in owner's or shop manual.)

[RMcG]

No. Every bulb in the rear assembly is accessible without removing the entire housing.
Thanks MyFirst, Styker and DogsRide,

I would like to just replace the bulb by doing the minimum work right now, since it is winter here. I have a 2008 base model 3 door Hatchback.

QUESTION: Can I remove the small fitting the bulb is in just by twisting it, as the video shows?

I would then just remove the bulb by pulling the bulb out and sticking a new bulb in. The guy in the video uses gloves to replace the bulb, to avoid getting fingerprint oil on the bulb glass, but I thought this was only necessary for headlight bulbs.

Thanks,

R.

[dogsridewith]

Pretty sure the answer to QUESTION is yes. (2007 and 2008 being same, and owner's manual showing bulbs replaced from inside the car.)

Note: I wrote post 4 from memory, and will check photos and manuals for possible edits.

I assure it wasn't a job I'd want to do during a trip. I added small amounts of grease on mating parts including the slide-thingy's, those big dual-filament flat-base bulbs, and at least some of the bulb holders that twist to release from the taillight bodies.

[06YarisRS]

It's just easier to remove the whole tail light. I just replaced the driver's side bulb on my '08 hatch last week.

[myfirstyota]

It's just easier to remove the whole tail light. I just replaced the driver's side bulb on my '08 hatch last week.

Be careful if removing the housing and you frequent dirt roads. I find a lot of crud and crap works its way up behind the housing making the clip that holds the housing in on the one side stubborn to come out. I actually broke my housing trying to remove it.

[dogsridewith]

Be careful if removing the housing and you frequent dirt roads. I find a lot of crud and crap works its way up behind the housing making the clip that holds the housing in on the one side stubborn to come out. I actually broke my housing trying to remove it.
"Note that Toyota used, for each housing, 2 nuts and a slide-thingy rather than the 3 nuts which would have most evenly compressed the gasket. They included an ingenious rubber push-button grommet next to the slide-thingy so the human can more easily remove the housing without breaking it. (Not mentioned in owner's or shop manual.)"

I didn't know about this grommet until I had the housing out...maybe that's not even why the grommet is there? Maybe it is just a sort of spacer/stop for locating the housing-to-body clearance? Mind of Toyota.

After removing the 2 nuts on each side, I could feel, and then flashlight-confirm, that there was something holding on the outside of each housing. Even pressure, while dithering and rooching, was obtained by getting a couple tips of finger-tips (w/ maybe a bicycle spoke head to start opening space for the finger tips) under the outer edge of each housing.

Note that there is less reason to change the bulb base wiring routing from OEM if the bulbs are always going to be accessed by removing the assembly and then doing the bulb work outside the car. (A second reason is that the out-and-in wire creates a small water leakage path.) But the owner's manual is obviously showing the bulb replacement being done from inside the car, and once you see where everything goes, the simple one-cable routing switch will be obvious. And maybe only some cars got wired like my 2007.

[06YarisRS]

Be careful if removing the housing and you frequent dirt roads. I find a lot of crud and crap works its way up behind the housing making the clip that holds the housing in on the one side stubborn to come out. I actually broke my housing trying to remove it.

Yes, this is true. Mine took some wiggling and I applied a little anti-seize before reinstalling.

[myfirstyota]

I'm gonna have to look for this slide-thingy. I didn't notice one when I removed mine. However I believe it was -10° and I probably couldn't feel my fingers prompting a quick reinstall without looking too hard at the mounting strategy.

[dogsridewith]

(just added as an edit to post 9, with this post to be deleted)

Note that there is no reason to change the bulb base wiring routing from OEM if the bulbs are always going to be accessed by removing the assembly and then doing the bulb work outside the car.(A second reason is that the out-and-in wire creates a small water leakage path.) But the owner's manual is obviously showing the bulb replacement being done from inside the car, and once you see where everything goes, the simple one-cable routing switch will be obvious. And maybe only some cars got wired like my 2007.

[dogsridewith]

I'm gonna have to look for this slide-thingy. I didn't notice one when I removed mine. However I believe it was -10° and I probably couldn't feel my fingers prompting a quick reinstall without looking too hard at the mounting strategy.It is sort of a blunt steel spear head stuck onto the housing that slides into sort of a white plastic grommet stuck into a hole in the sheet metal...I think.

[RMcG]

Thanks to everybody for their replies. In the end I removed the entire lens assembly on both sides by using a 10mm ratchet wrench and removing two nuts on each side See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ3LPRk4vwY for a procedure to do this. There is a white circular plastic clip that fits through a round hole that also secures the lens assembly to the car (in addition to the two nuts and bolts). So be careful of that. You have to pull the lens assembly straight out to release this clip.

Even though I could access the bulbs from the inside of the car, I could not remove the receptacles the bulb are in by twisting these receptacles in a counterclockwise direction without taking the lens assembly out of the car; so I removed it.

With the lens assemblies removed, I was able to remove the receptacles. Removing the actual bulbs from the receptacles was also difficult. I could not pull the bulbs straight out of the receptacles; I had to vigorously wiggle the bulbs from "side to side" to remove the actual bulbs.

As suggested on the internet, I tried wrapping shipping tape around one of the bulbs and pulling on the tape. And that did not work. Wiggling from side to side worked.

Thanks again,

R.

[loikol]

What kind of light bulbs do you use?

[Gerant]

The lamps of the rear flashing lights, brake lights, and reversing lights are replaced from the luggage compartment. Methodically repeat the following steps. Remove the cover in the upholstery on the side where the lamp burned out. Push the locking dogs to the side. Pull out the lamp holder. By pressing and turning counterclockwise, remove the faulty incandescent lamp. Replace the incandescent lamp and replace the parts in reverse order. When replacing the light bulb in front, you will have to open the trunk. And if you want to install a spotlight on the roof with https://lightingandsupplies.com/specialty/hazardous-location-lights/, you will need special fasteners.

[Gerant]

Thank you for sharing your tips.

[loikol]

The process of replacing the rear brake light bulb is quite simple. Disconnect the connector by pressing the latch. Turn the lamp counterclockwise and remove it. Install the new lamp in the mounting hole by turning clockwise. Remove the bolt with a phillips head screwdriver and remove the clamp.
When I last had light bulbs, I installed 16.4 Smart LED Strip Lights (https://www.vont.com/product/smart-strip-lights-led-strip-lights/) in the salon. I saw from a friend how it looks, so I thought it would look just as good in my salon.
In fact, additional lighting helps a lot when you lose something or clean the salon in the evening.