OK, a pole in the downtown Portland Powell's bookstore's evil parking garage jumped out and bit the back of my poor Lucy. I now admit that there IS a blind spot, as it caught the far L rear under that damned pillar. The clear plastic tail lens broke, but none of the innards, and I could use a new rear bumper fascia (which I need to delay due to multiple household expenses (washing machine and disposal both also chose this month to break). I'd like to replace just the clear lens so I don't get water in there, but I was told that's not possible. Do I really have to buy a whole tail light assembly to replace just the broken clear cover???? What a PITA!
I'm in the same situation as well: backed into something, broke the taillight cover, everything else works just fine. I've lived with it this way for nearly 2 years, through 2 wet winters, and it still seems to work fine, just looks ugly. A new taillight housing assembly retails for $177, but can be had for ~$130 from various online Toyota parts places. A new bumper cover (faschia) retails for $191, but again, can be found for around $143 online. I've been tempted to go ahead and order a replacement taillight housing and do the replacement myself. Just requires time and downloading the instructions from techinfo.toyota.com ($10 for 48 hours access, $50 for a month). When my wife smashed her drivers' side mirror on our Sienna, I was able to order a new mirror and then downloaded the appropriate section from the repair manual via techinfo.toyota.com. I figure I saved us at least a couple hundered dollars by not having to pay full retail for the part, and not having to pay the dealer's labor rate.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(devprius @ Sep 8 2006, 07:07 PM) [snapback]316677[/snapback]</div> Search here on Priuschat, I remember someone replacing a taillight housing and taking the time to write up all the steps in quite some detail. If I remember correctly, they even pointed out a few tips that you only will get from having replaced one. Thanks, Shawn
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TucsonPrius @ Sep 8 2006, 05:12 PM) [snapback]316679[/snapback]</div> I absolutely will do the replacement myself... haven't ever done it before, but I'm willing to try and am relatively handy. Glad to hear that the wet doesn't seem to damage the inner workings, since I live in Portland. I'll search again for the instructions here on PriusChat... I looked last night and didn't find anything, but I'll look again. Thanks! Sonya
Here's the thread I was thinking of: http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=2...p;hl=tail+light Thanks, Shawn
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TucsonPrius @ Sep 9 2006, 11:50 AM) [snapback]317033[/snapback]</div> Thanks for the link, Shawn. How come that thread didn't come up when I searched for "tail light"? Now to find the assembly for <$150... SOnya
