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I'm swapping out my taillights on my '03 LX sedan, and I'm having the hardest time removing with outside lenses. The inside ones on the trunk lid I swapped in about 10 minutes total, but I must have struggled with the left outside for an hour before giving up. I removed the 3 nuts on the inside, tore off that white fastener on the far inside, and crawled under to remove the one screw on the bottom, but it simply won't come out. The top seems free, but it feels like something is still holding on to the bottom.
I haven't been able to find any information on how to remove the tails, which makes me think it should be as brain-dead easy as the trunk lid mounted ones. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious? Is there some trick to pulling them out, or am I just not applying enough pulling force? I'm hoping I don't have to pull the bumper or anything off to get at another fastener of somekind.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Scans of the maintanence manual would be wonderful as well, as I'm assuming it's described in there.

Thanks,
-- Dave

 
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well unfortunately you do need to remove the bumper cover to get at the fastener
(its not hard though...its similar to the front bumper cover)

 
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Thanks for the info Falken. Funny how when I searched for information on taillights I couldn't find what I needed, then I search for how to remove the rear bumper and I find a dozen threads on sedan taillights
Anyways, I did manage to figure it out, although it took alot longer than it should have because I wasn't always looking in the right place. For the benefit of anyone else who's interested, here's a rehash what's already been mentioned elsewhere and what I ran in to:

Tools needed:
standard set of metric sockets
set of deep walled metric sockets for nuts on long bolts
screwdriver with #2 phillips bit, 1/4", and 1/8" flathead
socket adapter with #2 phillips bit for tight places
your hands

Removing the bumper:
All bolts/screws can be reached without crawling under the car, or removing any carpetting in the trunk.
On each side there is a set of screws directly behind the tire, on the outside edge of the wheel well. One is a small hex head going stright up. Just below that is another screw, this one with a round phillips head.
If you have splash gaurds installed then below that will be two more screws that hold the splash gaurd on, remove them and swing the splash gaurd out of the way.
Next follow the contour of the bumper to where it ends just under the car, there will be two small black fasteners near the middle, separated by about a foot from each other. These are friction fit fasteners that push outwards as the center piece is pushed through them. To remove each just insert a small flathead screwdriver under the center piece at the obious place, and start prying it out, alternating sides to keep it coming out even. Eventually it will be out far enough that you can pull both pieces of the fastener out.
The last two bolts go horizontally through the top of the bumper into the trunk. Open the trunk and look head on at the bumper. At the top there are two black covers (rectangular with rounder corners) which are flush with the surface. You can pry them off easily with a small flathead bit. Behind each cover is a bolt which you remove simply.
Now there is nothing but some friction fit tabs holding the bumper onto the car. Start at one end and tug on bumper until it snaps right out. Once one side is done, keep going through the center back, and to the other end, it will come off pretty easily at this point. Make sure you have a nice place to lay it down so you don't scratch it up, a sheet of bubble paper or rags would work fine.
All of this can be done by one person easily, no need to jack it up or have friends help.

Removing the outer lights:
Right below the outer taillight will be a black bracket which is srewed into the lense, and bolted into the trunk. Do *not* bend the bracket, it helps hold the bumper up and would be diffult to bend back into proper position later.
Remove the two bolts holding each bracket into the trunk, you can leave it screwed into the lense.
Open the trunk and pull back the carpet behind the light. You only need to remove a single 1/4" flathead plastic screw, and yank it on an angle to give you enough room to work. There are 3 nuts on bolts the same as the center one on the inner taillight, and are easily removed. Now you should be able to just slide the taillight straight back.

You can now unscrew the bracket and put it on the new lenses, and start reversing the process.
Be careful when putting the bumper back on to slide it into the brackets so that it fits properly.

Hopefully someone will find this useful Sorry no pics, wasn't my priority at the time. Took me about 3 hours of fumbling around to do it all, but I could imagine it taking less than 30 minutes now that I know what I'm doing.

-- Dave