smoking rear tail lights

Realize that there were problems on the '04s (and '05s?) when the fins in the tail lights were (are) black. When the car sat in the sun the black allowed the fins to absorb a lot of heat...this led to warping of the fins and I believe some even had issues with the lens warping due to the extreme heat generated.

Most of those reports were from people who had to park in full sunlight in places that got extremely hot and a lot of direct sunlight (aka Arizona). I park my car in a garage at home and in a covered area of a parking garage at work so my time in the open sunlight is pretty limited and I've had no issues with the warping.

In any case, the reason they changed the fins to the chrome reflective design was to prevent these warping and overheating issues and I've heard no reports of warping since changing to the chrome painted design.

So, if you're in a situation where you have little direct sun exposure and this is important to you then, by all means, paint away. I think it looks better as the dark tint of the lower rear window creates a nice continuous line from tail light, through the window to the other tail light and, IMO, looks much nicer than the now chrome lights.

 

Ok, I tend to group the whole cluster as 'tail lights'...but your definition is clearly more accurate.

I'd then say that it's probably a bad idea to paint those black as the reflectors are clearly part of the way that the effectiveness of the lights are enhanced. It may even be illegal to paint those reflectors for safety reasons.