Rear Inner Tail Lamps Replaced

Each time I washed the car I could see water streaming down the inside face of the inner rear boot lid tail lamps. Green mould was now starting to form in the outer top corners of the lamps, which looked rather unsightly.

I started searching for lamp prices, initially with eBay, but I didn't really trust that they would be good quality.

So I turned to BMW Genuine Parts, expecting a cringe-worthy quote to which they didn't disappoint, and also eurocarparts.


BMW Genuine Part - £121.37

eurocarparts, Astrum branded - £32.40 (inclusive of a 25% forum discount)


It's quite obvious which one of the two I was going to chose out of those.

I got them ordered and went to pick them up, one of the boxes was labelled up in full retail print, the other box was just plain. Here's the retail box and how the light units appear straight out the box.

Cracking straight on with the job, I got the trim pullers out and removed the boot lid inner moulding clips, to allow access to the back of the lamp units.

Removing the lamps is a case of popping off the bulb holder unit, then undoing one nut. The lens unit then tilts and pulls out from the outside of the car.

Removing the lenses revealed a small build up of dirt and grime, expected due to the cars age. I gave it a good clean up and sealed the paint with some Dodo Juice Purple Haze.

Before (right) and After (left)

With the old lenses out I took a photo to compare the two next to each other, it really shows up how bad the old ones were.

And finally then, the new lenses were fitted and everything reassembled. For the small cost, it has made a big improvement to the back end of the car, really freshening it up and bringing it in line with the rest of the car. Well recommended if your lenses are looking equally as sorry for themselves as my old ones were.

Functionally too, these lenses aren't letting in any water during jet washing or just normal hosing down, which is the fundamental reason they got changed in the first place. So I can give the thumbs up to the Astrum product too.

Before

Before (right) and After (left)

After