Ballinger

A simple and effective way to "upgrade" the appearance of your RL is to swap out the rear turn signal bulbs. The OEM bulbs are orange and can be seen from behind the car as an orange blob "inside" your clear-panel turn signal lens. The upgrade is to swap in silver-coated "longlife" oem replacement bulbs that illuminate bright orange but are invisible against the silver reflector. This is an easy job.

First off, you've got to remove the black, plastic trim pieces that bridge the gap between the tail light and the opening to the trunk. Open the trunk, then gently pry the edge of the trim so that you can pull it straight back. It's retained by two plugs, and will pop right out if you extract it gently.

In the second photo here, you can see the trim piece, flipped on its face so you can see the light blue-colored plugs and the holes they popped out of. Take this trim off for both lights.




Second, you've got to remove the three mounting screws that secure the lamp assembly onto the car. Two are visible from the outside of the car and the third is inside the trunk. The first two are simple, Philips-head screws and you can see each of them on a Right tail light, below.

Both of these are very easy to remove. The third screw is actually a nut, and you'll find it behind a plastic panel that pops out of the side wall of the trunk on each side of the car. Once you open the porthole, you'll see this nut:
Spin that nut off, and the tail light assembly will now slide straight out and off of the car. Note that the screw you removed the nut from is secured like a "spike" on the tail light. You'll need to line that up when you put it all back together.


Once you've removed each tail light (do this one at a time), you can unlock the turn signal with a quick twist. It's the lowest bulb in the fixture.


The Silver Bulb is an oem replacement and it plugs right in. Replace the bulb into the socket, twist it into place and put the tail light assembly back on the car, securing the interior nut on the "spike" and the two Philips screws.




Replace the black, plastic trim pieces by pressing them straight on, and then close the trunk. Before you started, this tail light looked like this:


Now, with the silverized bulb, it looks like this:


Whoo hoo! A minor upgrade, but one that you'll notice from time to time and get a chuckle over how easy it is.

Chas2

Very nice DIY. Thanks!

neuronbob

Nice! Thank you very much.

Ballinger

My pleasure, gentlemen. Since I know someone will like to know, I purchased my silver/chromed bulbs from a joint actually called "Silverbulbs.com" and that's a link. When I did, there was no response to my email, but the bulbs arrived in about a week.

Of course, I considered doing the front, but the orange blob is much less visible on the front of the car and the job is significantly less convenient. Just the back will do it for me!

slick230

Looks nice, thanks for the post.

sleepinxlionhart

That looks nice. Just wondering, has anyone thought about changing the color of the turn signal? I wonder if only amber and red turn signals are legal.

I think LEDs would look great too: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...signal&x=0&y=0

fatty

Thanks for the pics/write up!

470hpGS400

iTrader: (1)

Nice job, looks much cleaner and a simple DIY'r.

fredren

QUOTE=sleepinxlionhart;10347753]That looks nice. Just wondering, has anyone thought about changing the color of the turn signal? I wonder if only amber and red turn signals are legal.

I think LEDs would look great too: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...signal&x=0&y=0[/QUOTE]

i would love to do led's but as with nearly all cars, you will have the hyper-flashing and will need to install resistors. I did try and install the resistor v-led sells, on my accord one time and it literally fried my flasher relay. It's a good thing paragon honda parts is open 7 days and had one left for about $8, but my friend has couple of those resistors installed on his 06 tsx and they have been working fine so it's up to you, whether you want to chance it. The flasher and hazard relay sell for about $15. part# 38350-SJA-004

db22

Only red and amber are legal in this country. Amber is a requirement in most other countries because it is faster to recognise the color change than to determine if the guy indicating only has one brake light or if you vision is obstructed to where only one side of the car indicating is visible. Amber just makes too much sense (that is why the DOT allows red!)

db22

I bought some LED's and you do require the resistor but the biggest problem is that Stanley bulbs (used in our RL's) are not the same glass diameter as most auto bulbs. This means the aperture in the housing has a restricted entrance hole and the LED replacement will not fit in the RL but it will in cars that use regular sized bulbs. Hope this helps people not to make the same mistake as me.

rlzippy

Thanks for the great info!!!

You'd also mentioned about considered about changing the front. Do you know where I could locate instructions on DIY Front Turn Signal?

Thanks in advance.

afjock21

i like putting on my turn signal in the RL and hitting the BRIGHT brake lights hahahhah... especially with the high mount brake light BOOM in your face driver behind me lol

Ballinger

The manual describes it, but you'll have more work to do. If you decide to do it, bring your camera, take a shot at each little step and then you, my friend, shall be our front-blinker DIY guy.

db22

In the 70's you could tell an imported car because it had amber turn signals and the domestic cars had red ones. Eventually the USA manufacturers realized that differentiating the turn signal color from the brake and light function was safer and they started to implement the amber signals.
I notice today that BMW, Audi and Jag, for example are removing the safer amber turn signals and installing red ones. I have to believe that the EU manufacturers think that Americans are either too dumb to tell the difference, too dumb to know how to use them or don't care about safety.
As for changing the bulb because the stock one looks amber?.................

Chas2

And in the 70's American car makers charged extra for the Euro look amber turn signals! Go figure!

TampaRLX-SH

I assume this is also the manner to access / change the backup bulbs?

I am considering having my RL windows tinted, and even with the backup camera, brighter backups would be on my agenda. I had done that on my 05 TL, without a backup cam and it was a blind crapshoot backing up in the dark.

Now I just need to research what bright whites to use.

afjock21

everything goes full circle

after all, the naive youth of america need to experience paying a premium and getting ripped off... how else will they learn? or will they?

ahhhh but i digress...

neuronbob

Wow, this needs to be Garagified.

Ballinger

Yes. If you find some bright ones, post it up.

db22

That's because the "cheap" US cars used a dual filament bulb for lights/brakes/turn signal and it costs more to have the separate housing for the amber lamp. BTW - it's not the Euro look, it's the rest of the world. Take a Corvette to Australia and you cannot register it without amber turn signals. It also makes a corvette look like a Berlinetta so why didn't Chevy try to upgrade the Vette? (Money of course, safety has never been a criteria ahead of cost).