:: The One with Replacement ::
I’ve developed this penchant of DIY-ing practically everything, no thanks to my knack of breaking alof of stuff.
The most recent is my rear right tail lights (thank you palm tree-chai and my own bodohness). Guess this is going to be my 1st of hopefully many better situation HOW TO.
Step #1:
Get a replacement tail light assembly from kereta potong/spare part shops/aftermarket shops whichever suits your tastes and budget. Newer models/aftermarket assemblies may/may not be compatible with the electrical wiring set-up.
Step #2:
Open your boot and open the plastic cover shielding the electrical portion of the assembly.
Step #3:
With care, slowly remove the electrical board from the assembly. Care not to break the fragile plastic clip-like thing that holds the board onto the assembly.
Step #4:
Using a suitable sized open end/ring spanar, loosen the three nuts holding the assembly to the body.
Remove the assembly from the body with/without brute force.
Replace the old assembly with the new unit. In my case, the “Made in Taiwan” assembly came with rubber seal that was too thick. Removing the original assembly seal and exchaning the thick seal with the old one seemed to work better.
Step #5:
Cautiously insert the electrical board with bulbs back into its position. You dont want to break a few bulbs in the process. Make sure the board sits properly.
Step #6:
Last but not least, test the assembly before and after finalizing the DIY.
THERE YOU GO!
Now, peculiar minded people such as myself would go get a good quality yet much lower priced imitation product. Here are two setbacks of non original parts in this case.
Setback #1:
There is a 0.5cm gap at the top portion of the assembly. Nothing serious as any water will then flow down out, avoiding electrical wiring.
Setback #2:
The new assembly seems to be a tad short on the right side. Will have to take another look at this, perhaps could be the assembly is not seating correctly. A quick check shows that imitation product is of a marginal difference in dimension.
May 30th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
5mm gap huh? and a bit short on the right side too… definitely poor workmanships lah.. don’t blame the parts lah… lolz..
May 31st, 2009 at 7:56 pm
chee fei : fei kor kor, dont like that sabur me la. just checked. the dimensions are slightly smaller than the original. measure liao.
May 31st, 2009 at 11:31 pm
high5 to the same spirit of DIY-ness =)
June 1st, 2009 at 1:50 am
Hoho… how much is the Taiwanese rear lights? How much cheaper than the ori from Proton?
June 1st, 2009 at 8:23 am
ooooooooooooh….DIY!!!!
June 1st, 2009 at 3:06 pm
jccy : yang amat berhormat JCCY, i believe its an honour for you to comment in my blog.
tokmoh : lousy lights are rm60 per side. not too sure how much originals are but for that price and the sole fact that i can get ONE not a PAIR, beats original. works well too. doesnt fit that well thats all.
gerald : you la, you be ready to spend some $$ and i’ll help you DIY things on your car.
June 1st, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Dude the chrome bit is still ok what… The lense sold in my hometown costs peanuts only…
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:49 am
DIY KING.. thank u for helping me all the time in DIY-ing my things…
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:40 am
impressive.
USEFUL “HOW TO”!
write more of these sort in the future. (:
June 2nd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
kitkat : hi! you are from tokmoh’s and the other blog…cant remember which one…hehehe.
grace : the handy man can!
justin : thanks! another one coming right after this.
June 2nd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Kev: I think kitkat is also MyviKiller in paultan.org ehehe
RM60 for both side, fuyoo… very gud value for money…
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:19 pm
tokmoh : uuuhhhh….anyway its rm60 for one side. i only broke the right side.
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:22 am
Tokmoh : Yup I am, changed it coz KitKat sounds better… Have a break, have a KitKat!!!
Kev : Another DIY-er here. Anyway I got into the same situation few years ago, but then I just bought the lense (inc rubber seal) for just RM 10!
The only difference is that mine is the old Kancil.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:10 am
kitkat : hehe, nice to meet you myvikiller/kitkat. anyway, i used to drive an old Mazda 323. the older generation cars allows you to just change the damned lense (screw on, seal on). guess car manufacturers got smart eh?
even now the newer generation cars you cant really change your audio head unit.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Imitation products are always like that. Sana pendek sikit sini panjang sikit.. Btw how did the rim swap went?
June 6th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
vincent : hehe, made in taiwan/china, haih. anyway the rim swap went well. it was the iswara that required the spacer (which bro-in-law already had).
the only issue is mine is 195/55/15, his is 195/50/15. my tires fitted in his alloy rims. the prob arise cuz one of my set of waja rims had a big dent and his 50 tyre “tak makan” that area causing a minor leak if you press the tyre wall. lateral pressure (weight of car) doesnt cause it to leak.
so i went back to PJ from cheras and bro-in-law went to serdang from cheras. tiba tiba sis called their tyre pancit (yes, THAT rim). felt so damn guilty. rushed over to help them tukar tyre but both our braces tak boleh pakai (not steel, so haus). rushed over to sri petaling (it was 530pm sunday) and luckily had a shop open to help out.
so, all in all, spent 100 for alignment +balancing +swapping
another 100 to fix that bengkok rim for bro-in-law.
RM200 for a set of wheels, its a steal. =)