Taillight installation instructions, please.

[nosuchsol]

Hey Guys,

Looking for some information on installing the taillights. I'd like to know what panels to remove and in what order. Also, how the heck do you get the battery cover off... I got the screws off but I can't push down enough to get the carpet off the ledge... what am i missing?

THANKS!

[woobiee]

i dont recall taking out the battery cover at all when i installed my taillights. you really just take out the light relays behind the taillights from inside the trunk, disconnect the wire harnesses and unbolt the tailights with 10mm sockets. thats all

[gonzo499]

there are THREE bolts holding them on. the third is a pain in neck to get to. i just put some clears on my '00 323 last night as a matter of fact. it's a peice of cake. i couldn't find my 10mm socket so i just used vise grips.


brent
'00 323ci

[nosuchsol]

Thanks for the help so far... so you just take the relay off and you can get to all three bolts? I'm not sure how you get to some of those!!!

Thanks
Drew

[nosuchsol]

It was easier and less time consuming installing a header... got the reverses in, now just the main taillights. ghead

[gonzo499]

mine is a 2dr, so it may be different, but after i took off the small panel with the bulbs in it, two of the bolts were exposed. the other third bolt was behind the carpet felt stuff. it was kind of a pain in the ass but i was able to push it toward the front of the car. once you can get to the third bolt, and the other two are undone, it'll pop right out. but if your car isn't an e46 coupe or convertible then all this info probably isn't helping much. good luck man. if your changing to the clears it's all worth it-mine looked great!


brent
'00 323ci

[nosuchsol]

Thanks... yah, I finally got it by screwing more with the carpet. I felt stupid b/c of the lower bolt... I scraped some knuckles on the plastic getting a socket wrench down in there only to find out after installing the new lights that there's a small circle piece of plastic that pops out to get easy access... doh!! But I got them in and i'll do a write up after I wash the car. =)