Okay.....we know the 1998-2000 model light can be cracked open and remove the orange. Anyone think its possible to do this with the 01's?????

 

I don't know but if anyone has done it I want mines done now!

 

Maybe one of the guys in the '01 group buy will try to clear his lights...

Aloha

 

Not me...

 

enginyr is one of us in the group buy, want to clear it out already huh?

 

haha ya!

 

Just got my "01" lenses from Steve. First thing I saw were three screws obviously holding something together, but what? I quickly whipped out the power driver with hopeful expectations that once the last screw was out, that all the lens pieces would fall out. NO DICE!. The screws hold the chrome reflector assembly. You can move the reflector section around within the light assembly, but I didn't see any other pieces showing any signs of movement. Next I pulled the bulbs to see if it was possible to "break out" the orange , just like what was done to clear out the front headlights. Again no dice. The orange section is right up against the front surface, so you would probably damage it if you tried to break it out. From the little I can see of the orange section, the most logical design of this lens would be to have the orange section be an insert that was underlayed behind the clear piece in front of it. I came to this assumption since the back up light section is clear and it appears to be the same continous piece of plastic to the turn signal portion.

Next, I broke out the old screwdriver to see how much give the edge of the lens had between it and the back portion which is black. I heard cracking sounds as I pried between the two pieces. After a few minutes and now a couple of permanent screwdriver pry marks on my new lenses, I gave up and went back to work.

Hmmm . . . No where did I last store that heat gun?

Stay tuned.

 

Hell ya....finally someone with some *****.

 

 

Well I heated up the lenses with a heat gun and tried prying away with a screwdriver. After not much success and a few more screwdriver gouges, I decided to put in the new lenses and practice clearing out the old ones first. Those gouges hurt !

The basic construction of the lenses appears to be the same. So hopefully it's safe to assume that if you can dis-assemble the old lenses, then the new ones should come apart the same way.

Can someone suggest the best threads to reference how to clear out the old lenses?

I'll try to practice on the old lenses this weekend.

Installing the new tail lights took me 25 minutes, just diving in without studying a manual. Anyone with a 10 mm socket wrench and a small and large bladed screwdriver should be able to take this on. I'd say this ease of dis-assembly was "designed in" by Lexus, since this is the same process required to change burned out bulbs. I've torn apart a lot of cars in my time and IMHO this car was put together right.



Glen