kaldES98

Hey guys. My neighbor has an 01 es and he might be willing to do me a favor and swap tails with me. How easy would it be if i had the two cars side by side and did the swap on the spot and what steps would i need to take ? Thanks in advance

JamesBond1

It's so easy. All you need is:
- small philip head screwdriver (to take out plastic clips that hold the pastic cover behind the corner tails)
- wide flat head screwdriver (to "pry" the clips that are in the top carpet part of the trunk)
- I think a 10mm socket with extension (to remove the nuts holding the the tails in place)

Just did mine a few months ago!

kaldES98

I heard something about having to replace wiring or something of the sort.. did you have to do that?

JamesBond1

What, no way. It's "plug-n-play". The only thing was:

I had two "extra" wires which where connected to two little tiny bulbs (one on each side of the corners), in my original 98 tails, which wouldn't fit into the new tail lights (you can see the place for it is blocked off in the new lights where it was supposed to go). They are so small and I think Lexus rendered it useless in their new design. So I just left the small bulbs hanging (I left the bulbs in so the dash light wouldnt come on - just in case)

All the lights work and no problems at all!

kaldES98

So when I put my tail lights on his car to replace them there will be an extra hole for a bulb?

JamesBond1

Correct - One on each side of the corner tails....

I went from old to new - I never went from new to old. With that said, I'm not sure if the newer ES (tail lights) can funtion properly without those two tiny bulbs... It might be a part of the "night light" (the less powerful light that is given off at night), when your headlights are on, to be visable to others...

You can unplug them right now from your car and see the difference...turn your lights on and off without them pluged in and you can see how it'll look/work as if they were on the newer ES.

Try it out... If the "night lights" still work properly and you know it's safe than do the switch...

Being visable at night is very important...Please consider his safety

Maxx941

iTrader: (1)

Wow must be a pretty Nice neighbor to offer that kind off deal.

It pretty much is a direct swap but you can utilize all the lights if you get the 2 harness of the 01 tails. You will be able to directly swap the harness.
I have done this.

This should be stickied on here as we know this question comes up alot
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...il-lights.html

Hope you get them.