I have a blown rear turn signal light on my 1991 wagon. I can see two studs when I remove the side door and small panel and have removed the nuts holding the studs tight. However it feels as if there are more studs hidden behind a rug panel that is covering the fender, i. e. on the assembly closer to the middle of the car. The repair manual just refers to removing a panel and gives no clue as to how that is done. How do I get the rug panel off?

Bob

 

Are trim panels preventing access to lower side of tail light housing. The sedan tail light has 4 studs holding in place. Most panels are held in place w/ snap-in fittings that release when pulled. Make sure there are no screws or other retainers.

My 90 Shop manual only addresses sedan. Short of buying a Helm manual, you may be on your own unless someone on forum has an early 90's wagon.

good luck

 

Thanks, I have followed your suggestion and it is a dog! This is a terrible design. The panel is held in by clips, BUT various plastic parts such as edge trim, trays etc. had to be removed to clear the panel edges. I even had to remove the spare tire cover door to get the tool tray removed. Now I can access the remaining two studs. I will definitely replace ALL bulbs before reassembling as this is not a repair I want to do again. Imagine all this to replace a burned out bulb. I'm sure there are tricks once you've done a few of these but it seems like an overly complicated assembly around a part (bulb) that can be expected to fail periodically.
Thanks again,
Bob W.

 

This is a followup note. When I removed the assembly I could see the design is not as bad as my initial impression. The light bulb sits in a socket that can in principal be removed with a twist if your hand is small enough to fit inside the fender well opening. So I was too harsh in my criticism. However on my assembly one of the sockets was very difficult to twist for removal, AND I found that the cause of the bulb failure was leakage of water into the light housing. Not sure at this point how the water gets in because the housing is perfectly intact, no cracks etc. But looks as if total removal of the taillight assembly was appropriate in this case. Now I'm off to buy 2 bulbs, dry out the assembly and replacement.

Bob W.

 

On sedans, the foam gaskets that seal between body and light assy are prone to harden and leak w/ age. Not sure if this might cause leakage into lens assy or not.

I've also seen tail light assy leak w/ no apparent leak path. On 90 Accord I had, I drilled a drain hole in bottom to allow water to drain.

good luck

 

This should be useful to anyone who owns the station wagon. The design actually is pretty good. On the passenger rear which is what I'm working on, there is a storage panel in the finder well. When the door is removed you will see two screws on the outside panel. Remove the screw closest to the lights and the right side of the storage "box" can be slide forward so that you have nice access to the light sockets. There is NO mention of this in the factory repair manual I own. BUT once you see how it is done it is pretty simple.
I was also thinking about a drain hole. That will work for the bottom brake/taillight compartment but leaves the signal light which is a separate compartment still accumulating water. I'll think about it.
Thanks,
Bob W.