Replaced the brake light on my wife's Sentra

[Stelth]

2010 Sentra. Normally I wouldn't post about replacing a light bulb, but dang. Good thing this car isn't rear engined, or the engine would probably have to come out. First you have to take out those little plastic doodads that hold the trunk liner in place, then you yank loose the thingamajigs that hold the wiring harness on to the brake light housing bolts. I don't have an 8 mm deep socket, so I was able to make a 5/16 open end wrench work for taking the nuts off. Then you pull the whole works out the back by main force. Then, replacing the bulb takes about 10 seconds.

Re-assembly is the reverse of these steps, as they say. The hardest part is probably lining up the necessary holes, and getting the plastic doodads back in the holes without breaking them.

 

[Donald]

I thought there was some rule that any bulb needs to be able to be replaced in 5 minutes and thats why they went away from the old glass headlights (that never have plastic hazing problems).

Maybe it was just a goal of the automakers.

 

[2oldtommy]

The 1970 Buick LeSabre that had the tail lights in the bumper. required the bumper to be removed in order to replace a tail lamp. Not a very user friendly design! FWIW

Oldtommy

 

[jmsjags]

Most taillights nowadays just twist right out and are easy to access from the trunk. My mother's sable is the same as OP's though and it is kind of a pain.

 

[artificialist]

I often have to do this on many cars. I know of very few cars that have bulbs that simply twist in and twist out.

 

[exranger06]

I was replacing a headlight bulb on my cousin's 07 Nissan Maxima the other day. I had to remove the front wheel, remove a bunch of fasteners holding the plastic inner fender liner in, and peel the liner back to get at the bulb. And I couldn't finish because I got the wrong bulb. It uses a really weird 9012 bulb that I've never seen before. It retails for about $60 and it's just a regular halogen bulb! I will finish this job tomorrow.

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: exranger06
I was replacing a headlight bulb on my cousin's 07 Nissan Maxima the other day. I had to remove the front wheel, remove a bunch of fasteners holding the plastic inner fender liner in, and peel the liner back to get at the bulb. And I couldn't finish because I got the wrong bulb. It uses a really weird 9012 bulb that I've never seen before. It retails for about $60 and it's just a regular halogen bulb! I will finish this job tomorrow.

A 9012 is not a regular halogen bulb. It is an HIR bulb has special features that create more lumens per watt than the 9006 bulb that it is most similar to.