Back-up Bulb Fell Into Lens

My back-up light stopped working so I bought a replacement bulb and set to replacing it. After several hours and many outbursts of vulgarity, I finally got the bulb holder out. And it was empty! I looked down inside and there was the old bulb down at the bottom.

I tried like heck to get that sucker out of there but there was no way that was coming out. Then I installed the new bulb and found out why - the bulb barely fits through the hole in the back of the lens. There's no way that bulb is every coming out.

So I bring it to Portsmouth Toyota. Clearly I need a new lens that doesn't have a bulb rolling around inside it, right? After 45 minutes, the service guy comes out and says that'll cost $588 because someone bumped me which is why the bulb fell out. I said, "Really? I'm supposed to expect a bulb to simply fall out of its socket when bumped?" His answer was that it's my fault and that Toyota would never cover it.

So I told them to leave the bulb I put in there and give me my car back. I'm not paying $588 for this.

Boo Toyota. Not happy with this one.

 

Have you ever called that number? I have. An absolute waste of time. I posted here to warn others not to be surprised if they ever find one of their back-up bulbs down at the bottom of their lens assembly.

 

I assume someone did bump me but I've had many cars get bumped and never had a lightbulb fall out of its socket from being bumped.

The service manager came out and told me that they were ordering a new socket. The service tech dropped 2 more bulbs into the lens trying to debug the problem. He's managed to get 2 of the 3 bulbs out of the lens but one just won't pull out. So I will have a bulb rolling around in there. I'd rather that than pay $588 to not have it in there.

 

They are replacing the socket. They have it on order. I expect I'll be back there next weekend for round two.

 

They say it's 90 minutes of labor to remove the lens so I doubt they'll be doing that to get the old bulb out.

As I said above, the socket opening for the bulb is very tight. It's about the same size as the body of the bulb itself. There is no way you're fitting needle nose pliers in there, especially while grabbing the bulb. Also, the lens area is deep so just getting at the bulb is difficult.

I have one of those "grabber" tools where you press the end of the tool and 4 wires come out to grab stuff. I tried using this for about 20 minutes and every time i got the bulb up to the opening, I just couldn't get the bulb back through that tight opening. No room. The service manager told me that the service tech used a flexible stick with a wad of bubble gum-like substance on it to get the bulbs out but he can't get it to stick to the last bulb for some reason.

 

They say no. They say it's been bumped so the warranty doesn't apply.