repair rear tail lights and seals

shirtz · Postby **shirtz** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 11:51 am

hi guys my passenger rear taillight has never looked great. I tool them out yesterday for a look and the seals behind them are rubbish. I had just washed the car and the spare wheel well was full of water. do they make after market ones? any way a good sand and buff could fix this light or is it toast?

thanks

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 12:04 pm

I think that light's a bit past repairing, it looks cracked badly.

Give a light sand and polish a shot, but dont expect any miracles.

As far as keeping the boot dry, the seals are probably no longer available from Mazda (although, I havent checked)
But they're simple to make at home, Clark Rubber sells flat sheets of rubber/foam/etc that will suit, and can easily be cut to the necessary shape with scissors.

I'd choose a foam-rubber rather than just rubber sheet, the foam style will do a better job at conforming to the odd shapes behind the light and maintaining a seal.

apsilon · Postby **apsilon** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 2:28 pm

Fairly certain the genuine gaskets are still available and I think they're fairly cheap.

Polishing the lens however isn't going to achieve anything, they're cracks rather than scratches. Wrecker is likely your best bet for replacement. I know that there are aftermarket options but the ones I've seen are the clear style which personally I think looks out of place not to mention you'd need to buy both sides or it'd look really odd.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:29 pm

Those tail lights are toast. If you polish them they will look worse, as the polish will fill the cracks with white.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:35 pm

bruce wrote:Those tail lights are toast. If you polish them they will look worse, as the polish will fill the cracks with white.

True.

Although, if they're not too deep they may possibly sand out (or at least round off the edges and not look as bad)
Then a polish at the end will remove the sanding marks.

But if it were me, i'd just buy a secondhand pair and save myself hours of sanding etc for a result that may still look rubbish.