Ok, so one of my license plate bulbs is burnt out, and that needs to be fixed so my car can pass inpsection. Problem is, the screws that hold the covers over the lights are rusted away so there's nothing to unscrew, and the bracket that holds them is practically all rusted away too..and to get those parts from a dealer is almost $100 (about $40 for the metal bracket and around $50 for the light assembly)

I've tried 2 junk yards and niether of them seems to have the part.

Has anyone had this problem before and knows of a better solution? or am I stuck buying the parts from the dealer?

 

everybody's is rusted away but luckily i havent had to replace my bulb(s) yet. good luck man...i'd say f*$* the stealership and go up to autozone and look for something in the bulbs section with some sort of a bracket on it. (2cents)

 

Couldn't you just mickey mouse it with some glue or something, until you can get some parts from an autowrecker?

 

I've been to autozone and napa, niether really had something I could use. Autozone had a light that came close, so I may try to find 2 of them and make my own bracket to hold them.

I also thought about mickey mousing it with glue..I tried drilling out the cover to the burnt out light, but I was still having trouble getting the thing to come off..so I gave up on that for the time being.

thanks for the quick replys

 

i ripped that brakcet out and ziptied the bulb holders on the inside of the bumper.

 

also, i've noticed fencing aluminum is good for custom brackets and that....solid but easy enough to bend and drill. easy find at a hardware store.

 

zip tie that b!tch.

 

in your position id cut mine and just put a new one from kragen, its not expensive and are 3x better then normal ones

 

I had the exact same problem. What I did was I bought the new lamps online, which included the harness, 2 sets of lamps.

I ended up only needing the two metal screws, and the plastic grommets that they screw into (labeled #2 in the diagram), and the bulb. The grommets are extra--so just order 4 to be safe--68 cents list or 51 cents net each.

What you do is take needle nose pliers and simply rip the screws out by pulling down. They are screwed into the grommets so they will come out. Also, I believe you will be undoing the metal bracket which will be in poor condition. Be careful it can probably just snap in two it's so rusted. I used good ol' duct tape to keep it together.

You take the plastic grommets which accept the screws, and snap them in the bracket. Replace the bulb, and use the new screws to screw down the cover. Now put the whole thing back. From your kit you'll still have the harness, one side working, and you'll be missing a bulb, two screws, and two plastic grommets. You have enough parts left for when the other side goes bad.

You can find the parts in any Trademotion based dealer website. It's in the body section, called license lamps, and list for $31.53, sell for $23.65.

If you want you can simply just install the entire set of lamps with the harness--I figured I'd only replace what I had to. Well worth the $23 and change.

Here's how it looks--a pic is worth a thousand words. Good luck!

 

$23 is a lot cheaper than the quotes I got for that light assembly. I think I found some lights at PepBoys I"m going to use though..and I found some angle-iron shaped plastic in the basement I should be able to make a bracket out of. maybe I'll take a pic when I'm done..
thanks for all the suggestions

 

I had the same problem and did the following.

1. Bought a roll of pipe hanger like plumbers use. (Used the heavier variety)
2. Bought 2 license plate lights from advance auto.
3. Took the remains of the old bracket and bent the pipe hanger to match the angles.
4. Screwed the lights in. Wired it into the harness and ziptied back in to place. Just like new for under 20 bucks

 

what he said. zip-ties are pretty sturdy that could be your most afordable solution and best of all they come in bunches

-Dexter

 

it would also be really easy to just make another one of of aluminum or something, something that will work.

 

just make your own bracket... bend some metal or something