Rear Lights - Rear Door

[loovic07]

I've a light out on the drivers side rear door. I removed the panel on the inside and was confronted with a plastic sheet stuck to the metal door pressing with the most obnoxious black gunge. Removing this plastic sheet there are a myriad of fixings, bolts etc. how do I get the light cluster off to replace the bulb - or am I making this too complicated?

[Bob]

Not sure what you mean.

The driver's side of the Bongo Friendee doesn't have a rear door.

Do you mean the tailgate?

[loovic07]

OK the drivers side of the vehicle rear light on the tailgate.

[Bongolia]

Think I have this right as I have not long done mine however I took the plastic trim off to clear the rear white lrnses but if memory serves me right....emove tear door inner handle if you have one. Prize off the interior panel watch out for clips falling off. Remove the polythene sheet with goop round it and you should see the back of the lamp units on those will be wires running to like a screw cap turn it a clock and the holder pops out with the bilb in it. Then put it all back after swapping the duff bulb.I think

[Rickster]

The above method is the correct way to do it, I had 3 out of 4 dead on the back hatch, the red ones were a nightmare to to.

[loovic07]

Thanks for the comments. As I mentioned I got to the same place with the plastic off and the interior of the "tailgate" exposed but am still not sure which clips, screws, etc are required to remove the light cluster.
Does the whole cluster - ie all of the lights - come off the rear of the tailgate. Sounds like an awful job !! Any more info would be useful.

[cwilliams255]

I didn’t even know there were any lights on the boot door except number plate, I thought it was just reflective. I’ll have to go have a look now

[Ian]

Tailgate lights are not present on pre-99 Bongos.

[loovic07]

This is a 2004 2.0 L Petrol with two RED lights and two WHITE lenses, these are inactive...

[Roy748]

Hello.
I have a new shape bongo and had the same issue a year or so back, I wrote a post then on how I managed to replace the bulbs, see below

. If you are referring to the new shape bongo then it's a little tricky but possible. You will in addition to removing the bolts you have already, you will also need to remove the rear card, which is held on by a number of plastic clips around the edges of the card. Once removed you will see polythene covering all the access holes. Remove this carefully as it's stuck with a sticky tar like substance and will need to be reused. You can now access the bulbs in the rear tail gate if you have small hands. You may need to remove the entire light unit to access the bulbs otherwise. If so there are 4 plastic clips (2 each side) that need to be squeezed together to allow them to be pushed up and out the back. I found sliding a 19mm spanner over the clips squeezed them together sufficiently whilst I pushed them up and out at the same time. There are also 2 philip screws that also need to be removed. One is located behind the lock selonoid which just needs un bolting and moved aside. The other is accessed via a cut out in the metal panel.
Finally unplug the rear light connectors from the wiring loom
You should now be able to remove the light unit from the tail gate.

I removed my light unit in the hope of cleaning up the reflectors in either corner as mine had discolouration due to water incress only they are sealed units so no joy.

[cwilliams255]

I didn’t even know there were any lights on the boot door except number plate, I thought it was just reflective. I’ll have to go have a look now

I went to look and oh yeh there are lights
Previous bongo didn’t have them, got a bit of water in one of the clear ones, will have to see if I can get rid of that

[Bongolia]

Hello.
I have a new shape bongo and had the same issue a year or so back, I wrote a post then on how I managed to replace the bulbs, see below

. If you are referring to the new shape bongo then it's a little tricky but possible. You will in addition to removing the bolts you have already, you will also need to remove the rear card, which is held on by a number of plastic clips around the edges of the card. Once removed you will see polythene covering all the access holes. Remove this carefully as it's stuck with a sticky tar like substance and will need to be reused. You can now access the bulbs in the rear tail gate if you have small hands. You may need to remove the entire light unit to access the bulbs otherwise. If so there are 4 plastic clips (2 each side) that need to be squeezed together to allow them to be pushed up and out the back. I found sliding a 19mm spanner over the clips squeezed them together sufficiently whilst I pushed them up and out at the same time. There are also 2 philip screws that also need to be removed. One is located behind the lock selonoid which just needs un bolting and moved aside. The other is accessed via a cut out in the metal panel.
Finally unplug the rear light connectors from the wiring loom
You should now be able to remove the light unit from the tail gate.

I cleaned mine by drilling a drain hole at the base of the reflector and then filling it with a mix of Vanish oxy bleach and water,leaving it to soak for a bit then rinsing it under the tap . I got an amazing amount of crape out and the white reflector looked 100% better.
However I tried gilding the lily and screwed it up by trying to dry it out with a squirt of alcohol which promptly dulled the reflector. So only a 40% improvment then.

[loovic07]

Ok Thanks for the removal description - what bulbs do I need - the red tailgate lights, not the sidelights?

[Rickster]

W5W bulbs, they are available from pretty much anywhere.
If you have to replace the ourers in the cluster, they may be 21/5 big wedge type, again, available and have now finally come down in price.
With regards to the tailgate lights, I would recommend Hella bulbs, they seem to survive numerous slams without killing them.

[Roy748]

Having applied the same approach in that I too drilled two small holes in an attempt to clean out the reflectors but to no avail, I ended up buying some white (as my van is white) self adhesive vinyl and covered them so now they blend into the body of the van.