Taillight questions

Hey guys,

My ol' mans gotta 2001 Z/28 and a while back we noticed that the taillights have a dent in them. It appears that someone hit them with a baseball bat or something. Except...the lights are plastic so if anyone hit on the lights it would crack instead of denting them. We didn't really think anything of it until my dad noticed the EXACT same pattern on a different car. The dent is identical on both lights.

What do you guys think caused this? Does anyone else have the same thing on their cars?

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c166/OUMike/P1050179.jpg

My passenger tailight has the exact same problem/shape. I'm not sure of the exact problem but I am guessing heat from the bulbs warp the plastic housing.

Wow...any chance someone had dark covers on them? See what bulbs are in there too. Had to buy a replacement for one of mine and their not cheap. Got mine from gmpartsdirect before finding out you could get new ones on ebay a lot cheaper.

Does anyone else have the same thing on their cars?[/IMG]

I have it on both sides, my reasoning is the same as yours, but it doesnt bother me enough to replace them just yet.

My passenger tailight has the exact same problem/shape. I'm not sure of the exact problem but I am guessing heat from the bulbs warp the plastic housing.

That is very interesting. We noticed this right after our Hurricane Rita evacuation back a year or so ago. Took us 38 hours to make a normally 4 hour drive. Brake lights were on A LOT. This sounds kinda weird though, because you'd think if it was gonna bubble it would have bubbled the other way. Outward instead of inward.

Can you replace just the covers and not the entire taillight assembly? How much would I expect for this through GM?

Thanks a lot guys. Wouldn't happen to have a partnumber would anyone?

Comes as one piece. Paid $82 + shipping from gmpartsdirect in '02 for one. Last time I checked they were $157 each new GM list, $98 at gmpartsdirect - stay away from the dealer unless you can get a huge discount.

sounds crazy but what about drilling a vent hole in the inside top of the tail light?

PN is different for each side, my passenger side was PN 5977792.

sounds crazy but what about drilling a vent hole in the inside top of the tail light?

You might then face issues of trapping water inside of the housing.

Just plugged the PN into gmpartsdirect to make sure the PN I posted was still good - GM list is now $186 and $116 + shipping their price, each. Yikes!

Either sitting on your tail lights for long durations or black outs cause that.

Either sitting on your tail lights for long durations or black outs cause that.

Yup...that sounds like the problem. Hurricane evac for 30 hours plus.

Thanks a lot fellas.

Just plugged the PN into gmpartsdirect to make sure the PN I posted was still good - GM list is now $186 and $116 + shipping their price, each. Yikes!

You might be able to snag a better deal from one of these guys: http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#Dal_and_Jason
Another thought would be to check the classifieds on here, I see 97-02 taillight pairs going for 50 bucks alot of time.s

There's a couple on Ebay right now. It looks like they go for $30 each with shipping.

ahaa I have that same problem! Mine is like that on both sides, the passenger side is a little bit bigger however. I would definitely believe its due to heat because i sit on the brakes all day long in my town..it sucks

So have black-outs been known to cause this? My brother has some on his car so it makes me wonder, he just got the car so we might have to take them off and see what is going on behind the black-outs.

Also like others have said, it might just be cheaper just to get some "new" (used) tail lights somewhere for a much more reasonable price.