How to: tail light bulb replacement

Recently I had to replace the driver side brake bulb. Auto zone only sold them in pairs of two or more, so I had to buy two. However, I'm not complaining. Two bulbs for $6.48 (With Texas state sales tax) isn't half bad. So being that I have another bulb after replacing the faulty one, I decided to do a write up showing everyone how to remove the tail light and access the bulbs.

Tools needed: 10mm socket or wrench.... that's it. It's ridiculously simple.

First, remove the two 10mm bolts holding the tail light in place

Bolts removed:

After that, you can pop the tail light off. It's held in by some plastic things. It's going to be stubborn. Don't be scared to give it strong yank. That's the only way I could get it off. Thought I broke something.

Once removed, disconnect the plug with the wire running from the truck. This will allow you to have the tail light completely disconnected, making things easier.

The middle plug connector I'm pointing at is the brake light. The one above is the turn signal, and the one below is the reverse light. Changing the bulb will be the same for any three, but I'm doing the middle (Brake light). To remove the connectors, twist them to the left.

The brake light:

The brake light connector and the old light. The light is fine, but I decided to replace it since I had a new light and nothing to do with it. The light just takes some pulling and wiggling to remove.

The new light can just be pushed in till it snaps in place.

Once the new light is in, twist the light connector back in and reconnect the main plug

Pop the tail light back in

and screw the bolts back in


And you're done. Hope this was helpful

 

Great write up!

However, some of the pics do not show.

 

At your dealer this is .20 of an hour at $90 per hour. Probably per side.

 

Strange. Which ones? Theyre showing up for me.

 

The first 10 pics do not show.

 

The reason why most tail/brake light bulbs are sold in pairs is because if one is so old and worn that it goes out, the other bulb is just as old and worn and will probably go out soon. You might consider replacing the bulbs on both sides at the same time for this reason.

 

Sorry to hear that. If you need to see them to do something with tail lights, i can email you the pics

 

That's exactly what I did. This write up was done with the non-faulty bulb. The bad one was replaced yesterday