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3 Posts
Have this issue on my 16' HRV on both rear taillights. Enough water in both to fill a kiddie pool. I have HondaCare and they are completely useless and won't cover it. Straight up, the dealership quoted $705 to replace both (NOT!!!). After close to 5 months of back and forth with Honda US Customer Service to try and get them to address this (no updates on the case...they're totally useless) I broke down and bought both rear taillights on Carparts.com for ~$130 and replaced them myself this past weekend. It's getting colder each day that goes by and I couldn't wait any more for Honda to finally come back and say "sorry, there's nothing we can do." Honda's apathy on this issue has really changed my view of them.
Now...it's not a hard job to change the lights out...if I can do it anyone can. All in it was probably an hour for both lights. If you're out of warranty don't give the dealership the money. As others have mentioned: 2 acorn nuts on the hatch back, they were finger tight. An 8mm socket helps tighten them down or loosen. Then you remove the small plastic panel on the inside of the hatchback. You'll see 2 small lock nuts and you will need an 8mm or 5/16 box wrench to get them off. Tip: before you start loosening them, slide in a small tray or something small enough to catch the nut if it falls. Happened to me 2x and prevented the nut from falling into the hatch panel. After you get both off the whole light assembly comes off easy. I unclipped the light socket after I pulled the whole piece off the back which I found easier than trying to fiddle with it through the small access panel in the hatch. Before I put on the new lights I did a very, very thin bead of sealant across the top, and definitely in the 2 small pin holes at each end of the light assembly. After I got the first light back in place, I decided to pull down the panel to do the second one because I wanted more hand room to get the 2 nuts tightened. The panel just unclips and pulls down enough and that gave me plenty of room to get my hand in there with the box wrench.
Now...it's not a hard job to change the lights out...if I can do it anyone can. All in it was probably an hour for both lights. If you're out of warranty don't give the dealership the money. As others have mentioned: 2 acorn nuts on the hatch back, they were finger tight. An 8mm socket helps tighten them down or loosen. Then you remove the small plastic panel on the inside of the hatchback. You'll see 2 small lock nuts and you will need an 8mm or 5/16 box wrench to get them off. Tip: before you start loosening them, slide in a small tray or something small enough to catch the nut if it falls. Happened to me 2x and prevented the nut from falling into the hatch panel. After you get both off the whole light assembly comes off easy. I unclipped the light socket after I pulled the whole piece off the back which I found easier than trying to fiddle with it through the small access panel in the hatch. Before I put on the new lights I did a very, very thin bead of sealant across the top, and definitely in the 2 small pin holes at each end of the light assembly. After I got the first light back in place, I decided to pull down the panel to do the second one because I wanted more hand room to get the 2 nuts tightened. The panel just unclips and pulls down enough and that gave me plenty of room to get my hand in there with the box wrench.
