How do i remove the taillights so i can replace my bulbs which screws do i need to take out step by step to remove my taillights off an 87 camaro

 

pull the plastic interior pannels off in the back they are held on with big plastic screws. then youll see i think 6-8 plastic wing nuts on each side- unscrew them and pull the light out then twist the bulb socket

 

Hate to say it, but its not as easy as that. .. peeling them apart is not as easy as it sounds.

 

I'm afraid it is...

unscrew the two black screws near the hatch motor, then all the plastic screws, then pull the panel away...

reach into the "glove box", and around behind the cardboard stuff, you can feel a wingnut back there...

also you can get another in the spare tire compartment...

the others are very straightforward... then you just pull tail assembly away from the car...

10 minutes maximum for someone who's never done them before.

 

Wait.. nm.... I had an attack of the dumbazz their.. misread it, I thought he was trying to take the tail lights apart (lens from backing.. thats a biyach), but taking the tail lights off the car, that is simple enough.

 

yupyup

 

There's a spare tire compartment?

 

ur kidding right?

 

LOL hey i didnt know i had a spare either until i sold my 305 and the guy asked "Is the spare tire ok"?

 

lol!

 

this thread ranks up there with the bucketsub, and the garbage truck turbo on the berlinetta thread...

classic.

 

Actually, it's not really a spare tire compartment....the GM guys
were way ahead of their time, and knew it would be a great place
to mount an Optima battery!

 

eh, if you can fit them both, then more power to you...

the optima fit just fine in the stock battery location... plus now I have a spare tire AND an amplifier in that location.

if I had to put a battery in the back, I'd put it in the "glove box"

 

dude, i don't think any of the owners of my car new of a spare tire nor did i ask when i bought it. i didn't know it still had one til i had to replace the reverse bulbs, and low and behold there sat an untouched spare tire and jack (with that fiberglass backing still glued to it. i was like


ps im the 3rd owner

 

Spare? We done need no stinkin' spare.......

Somebody's actually making a Optima battery tray that bolts directly
into the spare tire well and brackets.....looks promising. I like my
battery in the back, especially over the right rear tire for better
weight transfer, underhood looks cleaner, harder to steal a battery
that isn't there and the best beni-batteries removed from underhood
temps last a whole lot longer! My last Optima lasted 7 years, and
was still going strong when the car was stolen!

 

a yellow-top battery doesn't care about underhood temps... they are extreme batteries for extreme circumstances...

although I believe the yellows don't last as long as the red.

 

Yellow tops are great batteries, don't get me wrong, but the only
thing they do better than the reds is they are meant to be drained
and recharged.....other than that the red has 9.6kw power vs 9.0kw
for the yellow. The yellow has actually a little less CCA at 32
degrees than the red. (900 yellow/1050 red).

(I sell Optimas, and I'm reading this off the spec sheet, I'm not such
a smartypants that I know this stuff off the top of my noggin!)

 

yup, pretty much the yellows are just better for car audio battery draining... and other draining scenarios as well.

 

wouldent a battery fit right underneath the "glovvebox"? then you can have a spare tire, a glove box and room under your hood. Just wondering.

 

there really isn't an 'under' for the glovebox, I don't believe... why would they waste the space?

 

Moving the battery to the back is mainly about weight distribution...
Or engine bay looks, I guess

 

10 pounds is nothing, so anyone that really moved it out of weight issues is obsessive/compulsive.

I know people like that, they remove all the seats in their car to get +.1 on the quarter mile...

lame.

 

whenever i was first looking into buying my car (back in 2000), i popped the trunk, looked around, saw the glove box on the left side, looked to the right and saw nothing. so i assumed that there was room under the panel for something and i asked the guy if that was where the spare is. he didn't know so we took it off and there it was....untouched. i'm just symmetrical like that

 

Meh, everything adds up. People also spend loads of money on suspension so their tires catch better, giving them .2 seconds better on the 1/4 mile... everything adds up...

 

it all adds up to obsession.

I see people with their seats removed, and all fiberglass vehicles, and yet they are eating chicken-fried steak, and guzzling a 6-pack a night, weighing in at over 250lbs...

but when you confront them about the fact that they weigh more than the total weight they removed from the vehicle, it's like logic does not compute.

oh well, I guess for the people who are (for some reason,) fighting for that extra 0.002 seconds in the 1/4 mile, it would be worth it to relocate that battery over the rear wheels.

but admit it, most people do it for looks or because they think it will make a big difference.

 

I completly agree. The only reason i mentioned the battery going under the glove box was b/c people always are talking about putting it where the spare goes. Keep the spare in there, ok so lets say it is a weekend car, you have to drive it on the weekends therefore there is a chance of a flat so you will need your spare. If you are going to move the battery justify it by saying "it cleans up the look of my engine compartment" Thats all.

 

if you ask me, a yellowtop or redtop actually compliments an already-attractive engine bay.

hell, it even makes mine look better.

 

Its all opinionated, some people like the idea that there is nothing in there except motor, no ac, no washer fluid, no overflow tank, no emmisions, no wipers, no battery. IMO that ONLY looks good if EVERYTHING is outta there. I still have my battery in my engine compartment and I like it there as well, since the stupid low jack i have on my car will slowly drain my battery I need to charge it once a month. PITA.

 

Most batteries weigh a little more than 10 lbs.

 

whatever it is...

 

meh, was just sayin man, some people pride themselves in their 1/4... I mean, ur a V6 man, why the hell would you care if you lose .1 in the 1/4. Its just all what you care to get out of your car. If you go to the track every weekend, sometimes that .1 can make the difference if you kick your buddy-with-the-mustang's ***...

And yes, it is obsession. Im not obsessed with it, but there are other things about my car (and probably you too) that im obsessed with.

 

at least we are all in agreement.

now what I want to know, is what is the difference in me being obsessed with gaining .1 from 17.0 to 16.9, versus a v8 guy going from 14.0 to 13.9?

if the argument was that the 16.9 is still slow, and it's not much of an improvement, then all I can say is that there is always a faster car out there.

Dunno, just one of those things I never really understood.

I have an aquaintence that actually removed his gas tank, and put a "fuel cell" in his trunk. It was really just a smaller tank with a better fuel pump probably. Suppsedly lighter, (well it was only like 8 gallons, of course it's lighter,) he even went through all the trouble to put in an ice resevoir that cooled off the fuel as it went into the engine. He even admitted it had a nearly unmeasurable affect on performance.

I can see someone being totally obsessed with weight, traction, and fuel delivery, etc, but really only with a drag racer. 11 second being about as slow that I would consider a 'strip' car. Assuming they are trying to break records, and it's not a street car.

I just can't stand people who do really impractical things to their "daily drivers," especially when common sense tells you it's unreasonable to do it, and you really aren't benefitting much from it. This is usually things like pulling seats, moving the battery, and carbon-fiber.

Sorry for the threadjack,

/rant over
//everyone knows someone overly-obsessed with weight/weight-distribution.

 

alright, thats retarded. I will prolly move my battery to the back, for the added traction (pretty much immesurable) and to clean my engine bay up. Other than that, im not into weight reduction, otherwise I wouldnt be planning on 2 12" subs+ their amps... hehe

Its fun to idiotic friends, eh? I have a friend who jacked up his rear on his camaro.. was talking about how he has more traction.. and he knew this BECAUSE his tires were spinning more.. to him, spinning tires = awesome traction... dumbass...

 

sounds like we have some dumb friends...

cept they really aren't close friends, more like aquantences... because people that dumb aren't friends of mine.

when a friend of mine says something like that, I scare him smart.

/friends don't let friends jack up the rear-end on their camaro.

 

my battery plate is rusted out completly, so instead of fabbing up a new one to the trunk it goes.

 

WOW! This thread got completely off-topic....

LOL, oh well....

 

I dont think this thread is a bad off topic, but it is still off topic.

so to add, my battery tray when i bought the car i didnt notice was rusted through b/c the other person bought a plastic tray to put in its place. That one spot is the single only spot of rust that i can find on the whole car. It really annoys me, and my welding skills are good enough yet to replace it with metal. Oh well too bad.

One question 85and87 if you move the battery to the back wont the rust be completly visible? That would annoy the crap out of me.

 

Check out my fist coule pages on my site. I replaced mine with a metal plate. And I bought the MIG welder the week before. Def the best way little welding project to give yourself. My results look great I think.

 

a reciprocating saw took care of the eyesore

 

just to stick with the off topic topic... I had 2 red tops in my old '89 RS... one in front of each wheel well, and it looked 100 times better than a damn charcoal canister there.

 

cool idea ^^^.

 

that's a charcoal canister? what the heck does it do? I'd love to put in another yellow-top!

 

it helps the vaccum.

 

dang, I have so many vacuum problems already... oh well.

 

thought it was for emissions stuff????

 

It's so your car doesn't stink like gas whenever you drive around.... I just live without it, and enjoy the smell.


Ya!!!! amen to that one! Losing weight from a car to go faster kinda defeats the purpose I think, unless it's track only... Otherwise, get a streetbike, be the fastest thing on the road, and don't have any creature comforts... Otherwise, enjoy your 4 seats, carpet, sound deadening, power windows, power steering.....


Anyway, I imagine Loudmouth got his tailights off so....

 

I bet so...

you know, those taillights weight like 20 pounds