According to the factory service manual, the rear fascia has to be removed in order to replace the license plate bulbs... WTH???

How do I get the housing out to change the bulb after removing the two Torx screws?

TIA...

 

Remove the tailight on the side that you want to change out. With the tail light removed, reach in and twist and unlock the license plate socket, fish the bulb and socket up to the tailight hole and change it.

Hope this explains it ok

 

Thanks. Just to be clear after I remove the two screws, I just pull the light housing down and then remove/replace the bulb, right?

 

I think there is just one screw holding the tail light in, remove it and pull the tail light out enough so it just hangs there, (or remove the bulbs and let the wires hang) now reach into the hole where the tail light was and you can feel the socket that holds the license plate bulbs, twist it a little and the bulb will come out, you can then change the bulb. Good Luck!

 

...thanks ... it's been a long day and I didn't realize what was being said...I will be changing them out tomorrow after a good night's sleep...

 

That's how I did it, but it was a pain to get them back in and the screws back in.

The easier way may be to remove the inner tail light and just twist the bulb holder out of the housing instead of removing the whole housing.

 

Thanks everyone...I got the bulbs changed but since the lamp housing lead was very short, I removed one of the screws in order to rotate it out of the way. I then pulled the lamp housing down, put the new bulb in, pushed it back in and put the screw back in.

Everything took about 30 minutes to complete.

Note to self: make sure to re-install the lamp housing before putting the tail light back in place...