Does anyone know if the taillights from a 00-01 fit an 02-02? I really don't care for the chrome look of the 02-03. Thanks for the help.

David

 

Yes........

 

Thanks for your help.

 

They are plug and play, but make sure you use the corresponding wire harness, ie. 00-01 harness and not the 02-03 harness, if you're putting 00-01 tails into a 02-03.

 

I have to admit that I am not sure what you mean about the wire harness. I do not currentlly own a Maxima but did have a 95 a few years ago till it was hit from behind. Why would I need a different harness? I am picturing that the tailight assembly just pops out and you put in the new one. Fill me in if you could please. Thanks PM!

 

I replaced my 00-01 tail light with the 02 tail light and they just plug right in.

 

they arent "plug and play" if you have to get a diffirent harness
i always wonder why everyone say that

 

Unless they have more or less pins or uses a different connector, I don't see how it would need a different harness then the one on the car already. It not like the headlights where they switched to a different type of light.

 

A different wiring harness is needed, the problem is that they use different bulb sizes in the 00-01 compared to 02-03, if you can find the right size bulbs that will fit then you could probably bypass the harness... If you can't find correct bulb sizes, a harness is the only way to go.. Not too expensive either.

 

Let me lay it out then.

Very simply, it goes:

Wiring in car -> wire harness -> tail light assembly

If you swap 00-01 tails from a 5th Gen, you take out the wire harness and the tail light assembly from the 5th Gen and replace the corresponding components in the 5.5th Gen. Plug and play.

Just do it, you'lll see what I mean. Reggie and I took less than 20 mins to swap em, and only because the sealant was troublesome and made a huge mess when you pull the tail lights out.

 

One more thing, if you swap tails with someone (between a 5th Gen and 5.5th Gen), you won't need anything except for maybe more sealant because you just have to take the wire harness with the assembly. If you buy the tails off eBay or something, I don't know what comes with em, but from what I've see you will probably need bulbs and the corresponding wire harness from Courtesy or Dave B.

 

I swapped my smoked '00 tails for the clear ones on an '03. That was one of the first mods I made to my car, and it was literally a plug and play - no wiring issues whatsoever. The hardest part of the job is breaking the sealant in order to pull the lights out.

 

hmmmmmm, we are getting way to many different answers here, some people swear that you have to get a new wiring harness for the tail light section, others swear that no new wiring harness was needed, can we get a solid answer guys, i know this has to be a repost, but for 8 people here talking and not a solid answer, obviously it has to be re explained, maybe a sticky formed, with pictures so people dont get scared by "YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THE WIRING HARNESS" when all it really is, is no more than a foot of wires that un hooks from the main wiring harness via clip right next to the tail light assembly

 

I just did it on my car. Went from chrome 02 lights to 00 SE lights. The harness stays with the light. You simply remove the light, unplug the harness, install the new light and plug in the cables. You don't have to do any wiring at all if you are swapping between 2 cars. You don't even have to remove the bulbs. Nothing complex about the job at all.

You'll probobly get some PMs with offers to swap lights.

It may be different if you buy some light boxes that show up with no wiring at all. I think the parts that clip the bulb into the housing may be different but those swap with the light.

 

The sockets on the 00 SE tails didn't fit directly into the 02 tails...Got the harness, works fine. Who knows why it works for others, but I am telling you, it does not work for me... I don't go and spend money on useless parts before rigging it first. So I tried to get them to work with the 00 harness, didn't work.

 

you should consider getting the taillights from the 00-01 Maxima SE with the Black trim around the back rather than the chrome...it's a lot more sporty than the fully red lights.

 

pretty sure thats what this whole thread is about

 

i dont know how much the wiring harnesses go for from dave b but custom enterprise sells the harnesses for $20 bucks a side, heres the link (and yes my car is the last picture on the site), i did not need the harness for these tail lights
http://www.customenterprise.com/view...sd/scspid/1805

 

My answer in this thread was already a "solid answer", but in here is a re-explanation with a couple of pictures for those of you who are having issues understanding.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=447360

This is one of the simplest mods out there, so I hope this will suffice and that there is no need for a step by step pictorial.

 

This is about as definitive thread on this subject as you will find.

Thanks,