Well I always like asking questions before I try something to make sure I do it correctly, so I'm wondering how to remove the pre89 taillights. The rear interior is all out so I have access to removing the nuts very easily, but I'm curious what else I have to do. I will be chipping out the amber so I need to know how to seperate everything and remove the actual lights from the back of the car. Thanks

:beer2:

8mm nuts hold the light housing studs against the body (there are 8 studs per light if I recall correctly, one of them is in the top outermost corner and is a minor pain in the ass to remove). These nuts are very small and are easy to drop so remove them carefully. And of course you will also need to inclip the wire harness from the light housing. The light housing should them be wiggled free fairly easily although it may stick a bit at first against the gasket/body.

It is a good idea to have a new tailight gasket for reassembly. Many of the original ones leak already, and if yours don't now they almost certainly will if you try to reuse them. Also do not go too tight on the nuts -- I made that mistake once and it actually pulled the stud from the plastic tailight housing requiring a new light assembly :(

Mine leaks :tssk:

Yeah it's very easy. Just undo all the nuts and disconnect the wiring harness, then pull the lights off. You'll need new taillight gaskets though, the ones on my 89 were disintigrated.

I have a question though. Is there any way to remove the taillights WITHOUT removing all the rear interior trim? When I removed the taillights from my parts car I just ripped out everything.

Well the nuts are located behind the trim in the rear, so I don't think that would be possible

Well the nuts are located behind the trim in the rear, so I don't think that would be possible

Yeah I know, it's just such a bitch removing all that shit.

if you are gonna do that, might as well change out the light assembly. Since everyone here might have encountered this a bunch of times (including myself), the wiring on the original assembly are very frail and maybe even burned out causing for abnormal operation or lack thereof. If you are lucky to find one at the junkyard and its in good shape, hop on it, that assembly is hard to come by these days. If anything, just go to your nearest toyota dealership or go on ebay and see if they have it available. If you get it at the dealership, remember, its gonna be a pricey peice so be ready to pay up a serious amount.

i have a 91 na and i have a leak in the hatch, i think it is where the glass meets the metal right above the tail light. is there any simple way to fix this without looking too ghetto?