cracked taillight lens

I just discovered this evening that my right rear taillight lens is cracked. Well, it's beyond cracked, it actually has a hole in it I can put my finger through. :cussing:

I called the dealer's parts department and they want $223 for a new one. Ouch! Anyone know of a cheaper source?

 

Thanks, I'll try that. I googled and a lot of wrecking yards have search forms now. Hopefully I'll get some calls in the morning.

I looked at the thing tonight, and it looks like the whole taillight assembly is once piece. I guess that would explain why it's so pricey.

 

So, I tried a few online junkyards, but ultimately the best deal I found was a new lens from Texas Toyota. It came to appx $125 including shipping. Some of the junkyards wanted more than that for a used one, and the absolute cheapest I found was about $90. So, it made sense to me to go for the brand new one.

Now if only my Coastal Tech order would come in I could do all this stuff at once! :roll:

 

I suppose mine would have, but I didn't want to file a claim. Besides, at $125 I wouldn't have even hit my deductible anyway.

 

Well, I guess that was too good to be true. My taillight lens arrived today - they sent me one for 2003 and earlier, which obviously is no help to me. :cussing: Grr.

 

I have returned the old lens (they paid return shipping) but were not willing to order the correct lens until they received the one I'm returning. They got it on Tuesday. I called on Thursday, and they had not ordered the new lens get. Grr. So I asked them to do that. The '05 is about $20 more so I had to give them my CC info again.

I asked if they were going to pay the shipping. Long pause. I explained "look, it's not my fault you shipped me the wrong part the first time. Why should I have to pay shipping twice for your mistake?" He said his manager would call me back. That never happened. So I need to call tomorrow and find out what's going on.

At the moment I'm considerably less than thrilled with the service I'm getting, Stay tuned.

 

OK, in the end Texas Toyota of Grapevine did the right thing, so the story has a happy ending. They shipped me the correct lens, they paid the shipping this time, and I got it installed without incident. I did have to remove the tray in the trunk, so as a bonus I got to see the battery pack. It's amazing how few screws I had to remove. This whole car just pops together.

The tail-light assembly is held in place by two screws and two pop-rivet things. The screws are pretty much in the middle of the assembly, poking through holes in the bodywork, and are held in place by nuts. There's a little little trap door that gives you access for for bub replacement, but to replace the assembly you have to remove the whole trim panel. To do this you remove the trunk tray and plastic guide along the floor (by the rear hatch latch - it just pops right off), remove one screw, and the bolt holding the tie down eye.

There are two plastic zip-tie cable-tidying clips that screw onto the taillight bolt. These cable ties keep the taillight wiring from flopping around inside the fender. You can't pull them off - they're threaded onto the taillight lens screw, and they can't be spun off with the wiring still attached. So I had to cut the cable ties. Spin these off, remove the nuts, and the lens assembly will pop off. Re-assembly was much easier because now I knew where everything was. I did not have replacement cable tidy thingies, so inside my fender my wiring is (presumably) flopping around at the moment. I'll have to call the local dealer and see if he has the cable tidy thingies.