DIY: Removing the high mount Third Brake Light (rattle in rear hatch)

[SG4247]

So, after reading all the WEB has to offer on the removal of the third high mount brake light assembly, and not really having a good grasp on the task from the information available, I decided to tackle this on my own.

My third brake light assembly made an extremely annoying clicking noise that I could no longer tolerate. After several months of trial and error, I decided to just take the whole dang lamp out. Driving the car after removal of the lamp assy, confirmed the rattle/clicking was absent!

My method is VERY EASY, no reason for the average guy not to attempt this.

First step is to remove the interior plastic on the inside of the rear hatch. This is a fairly straight forward effort, that is covered is several other posts. No need to show that again.

Now, I started by placing no-stick plastic tape on the rear hatch as close to the brake light lens edge as possible. Use multiple layers of tape to protect your paint! The lens is sealed onto the rear hatch surface with an adhesive seal. Just like your front windshield, it is glued in. That seal first needs to be broken.

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I went to O’Reilly and got a set of plastic wedge interior tools for like $15. These work perfect for this job! They are orange and black.

I used the orange tool as shown to work along the bottom of the lens to penetrate the seal. Once I am satisfied the seal is broken, remove the lamp power connector and the 10mm nut on the stud from the inside of the rear hatch.

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Next, I carefully used all four of the wedge tools to disable the five plastic catch points on the lens. You can feel them un-latch with the tools. Gently pry each tool to separate the seal, and unlock each latch. When you see an 1/8" gap between the lens and the hatch surface - it is free.

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Then I continue to separate the seal and latch and gently rotate the bottom of the lens "up" as shown.

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Now, carefully remove the lens from the rear hatch.

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Note the five latch windows on the lens and the black seal material. These are the catch lock windows that we were disabling with the wedge tools. Because we rotated the lens "up", the top five catch windows - were not a factor in the lens removal.

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So, now we are left with this: You can see the LEDs and the housing just sitting there waiting...

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Do not remove the tape yet, in fact, you might want to add some more tape for the next step!

Next, I took my needle nose pliers and carefully bent the two black metal retainer tabs down/up slightly. There are two tabs on the left and two on the right. These are used to retain the LED housing against the inside of the hatch surface. They will not fit through the hatch lens opening for removal, without being bent inward slightly. This is very easy, bend them all just enough to fit through the opening in the hatch.

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Now, with the hatch open, use one hand to push the housing out, and use the other hand to guide the LED housing through the opening. Be careful to negotiate the grey plastic legs on the ends of the housing, out of the opening first.

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Once the housing is out, you can celebrate and have a beer (or two)!

Next, I removed the plastic tape and used Turtle Wax "Bug and Tar" remover to remove the residual black tar from the hatch opening.... NOT EVEN A MICROSCOPIC SCRATCH IN THE PAINT!

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Do not be tempted to use any metal tools (except for the needle nose pliers) on this job or you will damage the paint.

ALSO, no tabs or damage was found on my lens or housing. I couldn't be happier!