How to replace rear third brake light on a 01 stratus?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Ok I got my oil changed yesterday and the repair guys said the rear third brake light was out. It was a $20 repair estimate. It’s no big deal but I was just wondering if I can do it myself. The odd thing is though there is a housing covering the brake light. In the manual it doesn’t mention this housing but it is clearly blocking access to the bulb. Here are some pics:

Now if I have to buy a 10 or 15 dollar tool to remove those special caps then I’m just going to have the mech guys do it. But if its a simple twist and pull deal I’ll do it myself. How do I get access to the bulb on the inside of that housing? I can barely get my hands in there through the opening you see above. This is puzzling me. Again $20 is no big deal to get the rear third brake light replaced but I would like to see if I can do it myself for just the price of the bulb.

Thanks for any tips.

Kevin

Topic

[hpdog259962]

Pic Links Don’t Work Yoda icon_link_error.gif

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I know I loaded them to my own webspace and I added the http:// to my domain name and I used the [img][/img] tags.. I don’t know why they don’t work….

Kevin

[hpdog259962]

Can You Link It To THe Pic Site On Webspace?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I just tried uploading them to my root directory and still no go. I’ll just go ahead and upload them to my photobucket account. I know that will work. Back in a minute.

Kevin

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Ok here we go these should work:

Ok so how do I remove that housing with those caps over the screws????

kevin

[hpdog259962]

Is there a way to get at it via the trunk?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

That IS the trunk. I can barely squeeze my hand in there through that opening but I don’t know what I’m feeling in there.

Kevin

[hpdog259962]

Hmm. I think you might be stuck, it’s very hard to change 3rd lights in newer cars.

I don’t know, maybe someone else will.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Maybe that will clear it up a little.

Again this isn’t urgent or even critical. I can take it in to get it replaced I was just wondering if I could do this myself without screwing it up. Thanks

Kevin

[hpdog259962]

Uhhh…

Quote:

Hmm. I think you might be stuck, it’s very hard to change 3rd lights in newer cars.

I don’t know, maybe someone else will.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Ok well I thought I might have been missing something obvious. I’ll wait a day or two and see if someone else has a cheap suggestion for removing that cap. If not $20 ain’t that big of a deal.

Thanks for trying.

Kevin

[Garibaldi]

Ok I’ve got a suggestion. It looks like the screws that hold on that plate have some type of covering over the head- can you remove that somehow by getting an edge and pulling it off? (4th pic). Or you could get a crowbar and get under there…

[Anonymous]

They might not be bolts. They might be
plastic push-fasteners.

After you pull them out they will probably
be scrap so get some new ones first.

They look something like this…………

[Anonymous]

Hi,

How much are they? If they’re only a few bucks I might do it but it if it adds up at all I just let firestone do the replacement.

Thanks for the tips.

Kevin

[Anonymous]

You should try to find them – my guess it that if Firestone breaks them they will charge you for them in their general shop fees…

I may have had pretty good luck but I’ve rarely broken them.

[Author]

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