How to Replace Third Brake Light 2003-07 Cadillac CTS
Created on: 2018-07-10
How to install, repair, fix, change or replace a broken, damaged, burned out, cracked, faded, cloudy or chipped third brake light on 06 Cadillac CTS
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step 1 :Removing the Trunk Liner
- Loosen the center retainers on the trunk trim with a flat blade screwdriver
- Pop the retainers out with a trim tool
- Remove the trunk liner
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step 2 :Removing the Trunk Exterior Trim Panel
- Disconnect the electrical connector
- Remove the 10mm nuts from the third brake light and rear exterior trunk trim
- Remove the rear exterior trim panel
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step 3 :Removing the Third Brake Light
- Remove the six T15 Torx bolts from the third brake light
- Disconnect the electrical connector
- Gently grab the light housing and pull it up and off
- Unclip the wiring harness retainer off with a trim tool
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step 4 :Removing the Emblem
- Gently pry off the emblem with a small flat blade tool
- Pry off any doublesided tape with a flat blade screwdriver
- Clean the back of the emblem pieces with rubbing alcohol and a paper towel
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step 5 :Installing the Emblem
- Apply double-sided tape to the back of the emblem pieces
- Press the emblem pieces to the third brake light
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step 6 :Installing the Third Brake Light
- Insert the third brake light to the exterior trim panel
- Tighten the six T15 Torx bolts to the third brake light
- Press the wiring harness to the light
- Connect the electrical connector
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step 7 :Installing the Exterior Trunk Panel
- Remove any tabs on the trunk with needle nose pliers
- Insert the tabs to the panel tabs
- Insert the wire into the slot and press the rubber grommet on
- Line the studs on the exterior trim panel with the slots on the trunk
- Tighten the 10mm nuts to the exterior trunk trim
- Connect the electrical connector
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step 8 :Installing the Trunk Liner
- Insert the trunk liner into place
- Pop the retainers onto the liner
- Tighten the center retainers with a flat blade screwdriver
Tools needed
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Socket Extensions
Flat Blade Screwdriver
T15 Torx Driver
10mm Socket
Ratchet
Trim Tool Set
Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!
All right, so we're going to pop the trunk. Push that button right there. You're going to lift the trunk up. We're going to have to remove this inner cover. There's a retainer right here. Just take a straight-blade screwdriver and just gently unscrew it. Pull that off, and all around here we have some push retainers. You can use this trim tool. We sell these at 1aauto.com. Be careful not to scratch any of the paint.
Get in behind here, right there, and then squeeze like that. We can also use one of these plastic trim tools. We sell these at 1aauto.com. And pry out like that. There's one right here, and then there's one, two, three, four more over here. This last one is a little bit tricky to get to, but get in behind there and you can pull this off.
Disconnect the electrical connector first, and we pull this off. Pry up on this a little bit, wiggle it back and forth, and pull that out. This rubber grommet, just push it through, because when you pull this panel off, it'll come straight through.
Then we're going to take these 10mm nuts off: three, four, five, six, seven, eight. You have eight of them. All right, so we're going to take these eight nuts off. I'm going to use a 10mm socket and extension and a ratchet. Take these all off just like that. Take our last one out. Now we're going to tip the lid down, and we can grab this carefully. Pull it up and out of our way.
Then we're going to take this third brake light assembly off. We're going to take these torx, these are T-15 torx, out. Use a T-15 driver. There's six of these bolts in here. All right, now before we pull this off, I'm going to disconnect the electrical connector right here. Just grab this tab and pull it out like that. You're going to grab this, going to grab the light and gently pry it up a little bit, and that will pull up just like that. Oh, this retainer for the connector is on here. I'll just take this retainer off. Just get in under here, and we'll pry that up.
This is our old third brake light assembly. This is our new third brake light assembly from 1aauto.com. As you can see, they're very similar. A lot of the mounting holes are the same. On the backside, the stud is the same. The connector is the same. There is some slight differences. We're going to have to remove this emblem and install it on the new one. Get yours at 1aauto.com, and you'll be ready to rock and roll.
Okay, we're going to remove the emblem. I'm going to use a small, flat-blade tool. Get underneath here, and just pry underneath. Try to get under the corner. Just go around, just like this. Just peel that up, and then we'll do that same with this part. We left this outside in the sun for a little while, so it's a little bit easier to peel it up. If you had a heat gun, you could heat it up a little bit. That would help. Get underneath here. Just pry up a little bit. Peel that up. Then we'll transfer it to the new one.
So we're going to peel the back of this. Try to get most of this double-sided tape off of here, just like that. We'll do that for the rest of it. All right, so we got all the stuff off the back of this, so I'm just going to clean this off with a little bit of alcohol or some acetone, so put a little bit of acetone on a rag, wipe this off, and do the same for this. Yeah, a little bit of rubbing alcohol would work as well.
So there's some double-sided tape that comes with this, so we'll take this off. We're going to put some of this double-sided tape on the back of here, and also on the back of here. What you can do is line this up and just cut it. All right, so we put our double-sided tape on. That looks pretty good.
Before we stick it on here, we're just going to wipe with a little bit of alcohol right here, and then we'll take these, the sticky off here. We'll do this for all of them. All right, so we got that all off. Now we'll take it over here, get it lined up at the base, and we'll stick it on just like that. Then we'll take the center emblem part and do the same. There. Then we can line this up, and get it centered. Once that's centered, then we can push it on just like that.
All right, we're going to reinstall this. These little white things can come off. We'll install this to the back. We'll take our torx screws. Get those started. All right, once those are all in, we're going to snug these all down. Snug that up. Once those are all snug, then we're going to reconnect the electrical connector right there, and then push this down right here in that retainer.
All right, so before we install this, some of these tabs broke off in the trunk from the old one, so we're going to have to remove those. Right here, right there, and right there. All right, now we're going to install this in the trunk. We're going to fish the wire through this hole, and then you're going to push this little rubber grommet so that's in there properly. Then we're going to line all the studs up the way they go, just like that, and then we can install the 10mm nuts.
We can install all these 10mm nuts. All right, and then we'll take out 10mm socket, extension, and ratchet, and we'll tighten these all down, just snug, not too tight, because it is plastic that you are tightening down. So once it's tight, just a little bit snug. Snug that. Then we can connect the electrical connector. Push that on, and then this is going to get retained right there.
All right, we're going to reinstall this inner cover. Line this up with the holes. I'll take this big one first, and just push that right up there. That'll hold it up there. Then you can take these other ones. This is one of the larger ones. That's going to go right there. Then we can push that on like that, and then some of the smaller ones will go right here, just like that, and right here, and same for the other side. Then this last one right here, and then all set.
Thanks for watching. Visit us at 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.
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