Third brake light

yeah those bolts are on pretty tight, one of my CHMSL (center high mount stop light is the industry term) is not working and I was going to try a swap from my other prius to see if it was the light or something else (fuse, wires, etc) but mine is stuck as well, perhaps WD-40 and some patience on a warm day will be the solution.

nobody will pull you over for the CHMSL, so if there is a way to drive with it until weather gets warmer it may be easier to remove in spring. Because my screws are set inside the LED strip so as to not be an eye sore, I am unable to get at them with vice grips, however since you have no need to save your LED strip, I would find a way to chip away at the plastic LED strip until you expose the screw, thus allowing you to get ahold of it with vice grips. (a pneumatic cut off tool would work great, along with long sleeve clothes, gloves & eye protection)

 

I consider myself extremely handy around the house and I had never heard of an impact screwdriver before, hope this video helps:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cWEbJk-jyA"]Impact Screwdriver - YouTube[/ame]

btw, if you think this will be a one time thing you may be able to buy the impact screwdriver, use it with a rubber mallet (so as to not cause any damage) and return the impact screwdriver immediately (I wouldn't look down at you for doing that)

 

Much easier if you remove the spoiler. My lense had a hole in it and the spoiler was loose so I had to remove it to repair the spoiler. You will need a larger that normal philips head screwdriver for best results. When you reinstall use some anti-seize on the screw threads.

On a related note, does anyone have a non-working third brake light with a good lense they'd like to sell?

Gerry

 

That's the best zombie kill advice of the week.

Perhaps, late next week my car is going into the body shop to fix some stuff, least of which is my CHMSL, the owner of the shop wants to try replacing the individual LEDs, if that doesn't work I'll buy a new unit and you can have my old one for $5 plus actual shipping, hope that sounds fair and I hope you don't mind waiting. Send me a PM so I'll remember you when I get my car back.

To anyone who needs to buy it, the CHMSL is toyota part # 81570-47041, $183.28 msrp, $134.65 on toyotapartsoverstock.com (their prices are almost identical to the popular toyotapartszone.com but their shipping is only a fraction of what the zone charges. if you wanted new screws that's part # 81577-12330, msrp $1.72, only $1.27 on toyotapartsoverstock.com. but I would try to find a stainless or brass pair at a hardware store.

 

My 2007 CHMSL was only $87.23 plus shipping from Parts Geek.

 

I put this in another thread, but just replaced third brake light in my 05 Prius and it still doesn't work. Ideas on why?

 

Did you have to remove the spoiler to replace the third brake light?