Broken taillight fastener
 

I took off my taillights to install a rear view camera and in the process accidentally snapped the fastener shown in the picture below. Does anyone know what this piece is called or where I might find another one? I have looked at the exploded part diagram on Nissan and I think this piece is only sold as part of the whole taillight assembly. I have not tried to remove it from the taillight assembly but I'm assuming since it has a hex base it can be unscrewed.

http://i66.tinypic.com/z3hvk.png

Any help here would be great!

I'd just go to a local parts stores (NAPA, OReillys, &c) and ask for the "the pin thing that my 370Z tail light housing attaches to." If nobody comes up with the proper name, it will be in the FSM.

It may be a quarter-turn connection. FSM will have R&R procedures.

I tried looking in the service manual initially but all I could find was section EXL 167 which shows how to remove and install the taillight assembly. No mention anywhere or even a call out to this part. Is there another section dedicated to R&R?

IIRC, EXL is EXterior Lighting. It may be considered a body part and not a lighting part. I don't have a copy of the FSM handy - computer it was on crashed. I no longer have a Z, so replacing it hasn't been very high on my priority list.

I'm gonna weigh-in and say you can't buy just that piece from Nissan. They will sell you the entire tail light assembly. They can't possibly stock all these small parts.

I think the best you can do is get a donor tail light and see if you can remove the piece from that lamp and reassemble on your vehicle.

I thought about that too but the cheapest used one I could find was about $125. Thats a bit steep to spend on a single fastener. Do you know of a place to buy used or even damaged tail lights?

I just wish someone knew what this fastener was called from a general mechanical standpoint. I've tried searching nearly every possible combination of fastener, clip, pin, rod, screw, etc. and looked through countless specialty car fastener catalogs and haven't found anything even remotely resembling this little guy.

Have you tried this place?

https://www.fastenal.com

Try searching the web for Give some of your local junkyards a visit/call.

I'd search the whole FSM* for "taillight" and try to find an exploded diagram - they usually have Nissan's nomenclature. Then search the FSM for that name to find the part number.


*Many PDF readers allow you to search all PDFs in a folder. Dump all the FSM PDFs in a folder and tell your reader to search all docs in that folder.