I tried searching but couldnt find anything....and Im sure that Im not the first person this has happened to. The other day I was going to replace all the bulbs in the tail lights because my brake lights were out, and I ended up breaking several bulbs...I should have probably stopped after the first one, but I ended up with four broken bulbs. When I went to pull them out, they felt loose, but the glass came out cleanly without the metal piece. The two that I successfully pulled out, there is this hard dark green stuff in the socket....not sure if its supposed to be old sealant that the original owner put in. Anyways, I tried using needle nose pliers to pull out the remainding part of the bulb, but was unsuccessful. Please help...I would like to drive my car around without worrying about getting pulled over.

Thanks
JV

 

When that happened to me, I took my needle nose pliers and OPENED them inside the bulb base (where the glass used to be). You still need to turn the base counter-clockwise so that it will be able to "unlock" and you can then pull the base out. It's not really an easy task if the electric grease has hardened but it can be done.

 

just bend them so you got a solid peice to grab with needle nose pliers and twist away, worked for me.

 

I tried that and that didnt work out for me...I'll also try the other method given. Is there anything that I can safely use that will break down the hardened material in the socket to make it easier?

 

hmmm, maybe break cleaner, or wd-40...