So I managed to dremel open the light. Trunk button was the hardest part. I will post pics later (incase if anyone else needs to do it).

The problem with circular LEDs is that they all are working (except two) but they are really dim that makes them impossible to see with the cover on. However, the rectangular group of LEDs are working fine. Any ideas why?

 

So I managed to dremel open the light. Trunk button was the hardest part. I will post pics later (incase if anyone else needs to do it).

The problem with circular LEDs is that they all are working (except two) but they are really dim that makes them impossible to see with the cover on. However, the rectangular group of LEDs are working fine. Any ideas why?

 

I figured it out. Two of the LEDs are not working from the circular cluster. Its causing other to dim. I replaced one and its all better now. I will post up the details later.

 

I finally finished fixing and installing the light back. In short, the LEDs on circular and rectangular cluster are arranged in some kind of compound series circuit (didnt had enough time to map out the whole circuit), so if one or two goes out, all other lights either go out and get so dim that its impossible to see them. I replaced 3 LEDs and it was all good. The whole repair process took a long time. So, if you are rich and can afford to pay $267 bucks for the whole light (infiniti quote) for only 3 burned out LEDs then do that.

I have pictures and can post them along with details if someone needs them. And thanks for your help guys (eps. E_K).

 

I'd like to see the detailed guide. Good to know what the issue was!

 

Well, dremeling open the light and putting it back together takes the most time.

DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for any damage you may cause to yourself or the light or anything. Use this guide at your own risk and responsibility.

Details are below and pics are attached. The number/name of pics correponds to the step number:

Opening the Light:

1. First, remove all light bulbs, trunk button, trim piece and harness from the light. Also remove all screws from it.

2. Using dremel (thin cutting disc), start cutting on the dull red plastic housing. Its hard to exactly cut on the thin layer of cement and you don't want to cut the clear plastic by mistake. Look at the pics. When you dremel at high rpm, it will start melting some of the plastic. So, take breaks and scratch off the melted plastic using your hand.

3. Initially, I suspected that something might be wrong with the circuit board board. So, I made a small incision on the back and was able to slide out the circuit board. If you cut at low rpm, there won't be a lot of debris and most likely wont get into the light. Unfortunately for me, the circuit board was all good and something was wrong with the LEDS itself. So, I went ahead and opened up the whole light.

4. The most difficult part was the trunk button area. Use a smaller diameter cutting disc to cut it open. Be patient and don't cut the clear plastic.

5. After that, the clear glass will come off and you can pull out the reflector. It took me around 3 hrs to open up the light (including the small incision). There is definitely a learning curve so I can't stress this enough: Have patience.

LED Clusters:

6. Now you can pull the LED clusters out. The circular ones are soldered on a circuit board while the rectangular ones are wired. Both with 12 four prong LEDs. The main circuit provides same volts (i think) and it doesn't matter which connectors you use. In essence, both clusters are identical. However, for some reason, the LEDs are wired in some kind of series compound circuit. Depending on which ones go out, the whole cluster can go out. Which happened for the circular one in my case. I tried to find these LEDs at radioshack, autozone, aap etc but no one had it. I needed three to fix the whole cluster. You might be able to wire a jumper and have the cluster work but you might end up giving higher volts to other LEDs. I dont know for sure.

7. Moving on, find the burned out LEDs and replace them with the new ones. You will have to solder them on the board. Since my lights are tinted out and you can't see the rectangular cluster from outside. So, I took three from the rectangular cluster and soldered them onto the circular one. I took them from the end of the wire/line so the rest were working as well. With LEDs facing you, the end of the wire is in second row, right side.

Putting the Light back together:

8. Using dremel and sanding tool, sand the edges of both the red plastic and clear plastic. This is important as smooth surface will allow better adhesion.

9. Clean out the light as dremel debris would be everywhere.

10. Put the circuit boards back and the reflector in the red housing.

11. I used a combination of epoxy and silicone RTV. Epoxy would be almost permanent and if you need to open the light in future, you will have to cut it again. Silicone would a lot easier to take out. So, I put small patches of epoxy in corners and used silicone for the rest. Make sure to put silicone in trunk button area and also for any other incision.

12. Carefully put the class on it and clamp it down. Give it several hours to dry. Overnight is better. I used cable ties to clamp the light because of its awkward shape, good luck clamping it down with regular clamps.

13. After several hours/overnight, put some more silicone/epoxy if there is left out space.

14. Once it dried, put back the trunk button, bulbs, harness etc and install it back. I left two cable ties for half day longer just in case it comes off while I am driving

Since I was short on time, money and didn't had a spare light, I didn't do anything else to it. If you go through all the trouble of opening it, then try to retrofit another LED ring on the outter circle (if you want) or find the burned out LEDs online and install them too.

In fact, if anyone finds out where to get spare LEDs, let me know!

In the end, I save around $250 for the light which is a ridiculous amount to pay for 3 burned out LEDs. However, if you can afford it and don't want a messy living room, spend whole weekend, and a very mad gf, then by all means buy the new one .

 

Remaining Pics.

 

Last set of pics.

 

Good to see that you got it working. I sealed my taillights pretty much the same way.

 

Thanks for the DIY! I'm not so good with soldering so this looks pretty challenging..

 

Soldering is probably the easiest part of this whole thing. Do use de-soldering instrument and flux paste. Goodluck!

 

the button part seems a little unclear to me. is the button hole permanently attached from the clear lens to the back of the housing therefore cutting it from the back? correct me if i'm wrong.

 

Nice write up....Thanks!
My LED's all work, but I wanna remove the reflector piece covering the rectagular LED's...it seems like the light doesnt emit as bright or you dont see them as nice as the 03-05 tail lights.

 

Button area is cemented together as well, so you need to dremel that as well. But since the space is so tight there, it's not easy.

Removing the reflector is extremely easy.

 

Its just glued like the rest of the light (i.e. clear glass cemented to dull red plastic. If you have a small enough dremel cutting disc, you might be able to just directly cut the cement out. But then again, like rest of the light you will end up cutting on the dull red housing.