I just bought carbon fiber taillights for my protege. I was wondering how easy/hard it is to install them. How do I remove the old ones? I haven't looked yet. I am going to install them this weekend. Any advice? Thanx.

 

It's all straight forward, everything just pops in and out. Open your trunk and start taking those little black things out. Everything will come out nicely, no need for force until you have to pull out the black plastic piece. I forgot which way to pull, but it will pop out as well. Then you just unscrew a few things that are holding the tail light in place, and then twist and take out the bulbs......

 

I just installed my carbon fiber tailliights about 3 weeks ago. It was a breeze. The biggest pain are the little black clips that hold the trunk lineing on. The first step is to remove the trim that covers the trunk latch....it is held on with clips so give it a good tug and off it comes. Next you have to to remove the clips that hold on the trunk lineing around the tailights...I think there are like 2 or 3 clips. Once those are removed, peel back the lineing and you will see 3 nuts. Remove these and the taillight assembly should pull right out. Now just swap the bulbs over to the new assembly. Each bulb is different and has its specific hole so you can't put them in the wrong place. Once you have the bulbs in the new assembly just slide it back in and reassemble. Should only take about 20-30min. Good luck.

 

Just a quick tip for removing the clips that hold the trunk liner in place.
Don't just try and pull on them...they will break.
Hold the outer part in place and pull just the center portion out.

They will come out easy and you will not have to replace them. Just thought I would give my 2 cents before you find yourself visiting a Mazda's parts counter.

Where did you find CF Altezza's? They're hard to find in Canada.

 

haha, Silver, true true, gotta be gentle with those....

and when you're putting them back, slide the outer ring all the way down, and then slide it in, and pop the middle circle all the way in. For some reason it took me 5 minutes to figure out how to put them back hehehe

 

thanks for the help. I am going to put them on now.

SilverProES:

I bought them from nopionline.com. They just lowered the prices on them $162 US.

 

Ordered mine from protege5online.com Been dealing with him for parts since I got my car. Only thing with him was that he only takes paypal. It was a big step for me to sign up, and send him money. I started with a small order, and have been working myself up. Very reliable service so far.

Edmonton, AB

 

tester, Didn't you pay big for going to a U.S. supplier since our dollar sucks with the exchange??

I've checked out protege5online and his prices seem pretty descent if you're paying U.S. dollars.