Noticed one of the tail lamps on my 95 was loose and thought it might just be the lens. No--the lens screws were tight but the tail lamp itself seemed loose. So I figured one of the bolts that holds the housing to the bumper must have loosened. I removed the license and reached up to feel behind the housing but the bolts seemed tight. So I pushed the housing and the damn thing just popped out of the bumper. Seems the plastic bosses that the bolts attach to just broke so now the jus the bosses (without the housing) are attached to the bumper. So I figure I need to buy a new housing but just out of curiosity, I lightly pushed on the other housings and these also just popped out--again breaking at the plastic boss.

I guess the plastic just ages over time and gets brittle--I now have 3 of the 4 housings in this condition. I guess the el cheapo way to fix would be to undo the bolts to release the pieces of boss and then epoxy these on the housings. I suspect this fix would be a mistake. So I will be ordering new housings.

The GM number on one of the housings (drivers side inboard) is GM16509624 2 and the number on the passenger side inboard housing is GM16509624 1. I searched GMPartsDirect and they only list GM16509624 without any other digits. The price is good ($14 versus $20+ retail) but I wonder if there are any differences between drivers side and passenger side housings and/or between inboard or outboard lights. Anyone else have experience with this?

 

I take it no one else has this problem? Don't worry, based on the way plastic gets brittle over time, you eventually will. So in advance, you might as well know the part number is 16509624 and the price from the dealer is $28 versus GMPartsDirect which is $14.46.

 

Im not suprised to hear this...I had a similar problem with my 86 rear tail lamps and they are different then yours but they cracked where the screws goes into and holds them to the inner lamp support bracket.

The plastic becomes brittle with age as well.I had to purchase a new set of lamps and thankfully,a forum member sold me his used set for a good deal.They were in excellent shape and this time around,I put some antiseize on the screws,since the old screws had also rusted inside the plastic,making removal of the screws breaking the brittle plastic even more so.Im hoping antiseize will prevent this from happening again,at least for removal if thats needed down the road.

One last thing,some people or former owners tighten the lamp screws on later cars and can cause cracking in there.
Use care not to overtighten the screws.
:)

 

I glued the one I broke back together, and then I didn't push on any more!

Ken

 

I like to revive 9 year old threads so I just thought I would note the same thing just happened to my 1995. Took a bit longer but my car has had an easy garage life. Tail lamp housing completely split where screws hold it in and it was hanging off back off the car. I note another one is similarly loose like this one. Hmmm, when will the next one go.

From what I can tell here I need a 10mm socket, remove license plate and reach around to remove and install hosuing.