How to replace high mount lamp

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Zhaohui

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Messages
58
Greetings!

I owned a 2011 Nissan Leaf. Unfortunately, cover / lens of my Leaf 's high mount lamp broke / cracked. I purchased a whole set of the high mount lamp (the lens / cover only is not available in the market) and would like your input / protocol about how to replace the high mount lamp.

Your sharing and suggestion will be highly appreciated.

Thank you and have a nice day!

Zhaohui
 
High rear brake lamp?

Well, according to the manual, the entire spoiler has to come off first. And after that, there are two screws holding the cover in place, one either end. I've just looked at my car, and you might be able to use a right-angle Phillips head screwdriver to get them out. Nothing else will fit with the rear window there unless you follow the procedure outlined in the manual.

Here is the procedure to remove the spoiler:

1. Remove back door upper finisher.
2. Remove rear spoiler mounting nuts.
3. Cut rear spoiler fixing double-sided tape with cutter knife.
4. Lift rear spoiler, and then disconnect harness connector and rear washer tube. Caution: Never lift rear spoiler with excessive force to prevent damage to the parts.
5. Remove rear spoiler.

*Finisher is held in place with 5 clips and 4 pawls. Clips are one in each corner and one slightly offset to the right from the middle. Pawls are evenly spread the length of the panel, around the mid-section.
 
Thanks for GeekEV and mwalsh offering good input and sharing their excellent experience with me.

I replaced the high mount lamp without removing out the rear spoiler.

Basic procedure

1. Remove back door upper finisher by disengaging the fisher fixing clips and pawls.
2. Loose the rear spoiler (not remove out): loose seven rear spoiler mounting nuts (Five are line up in the edge of rear spoiler; 2 are covered by back door upper finisher).
After this step, you could get more space to remove high-mounted lamp mounting screws
3. Remove high-mounted stop lamp cover mounting screws (2), and then remove high-mounted stop lamp cover;
4. Remove high-mounted stop lamp mounting screws:
a. There is limited space between the screws (2), back rear door window glass, and rear spoiler;
b. Raise (not need to remove it out) the rear spoiler to increase the working space ;
c. Use low profile screwdriver to remove the high-mounted stop lamp mounting screws;
5. Disconnect high-mounted stop lamp harness connector
6. Remove high-mounted stop lamp
7. Install in the reverse order of removal

Reference:
1. Input from GeekEV and mwalsh
2. 2011 Nissan Leaf service manual
 
Thanks Mwalsh and Zhaohui!

Your instructions helped me alot. Just adding some comments for anyone looking at this old thread.

Even though I had bought the replacement lense module, I was dreading the replacement because it's been a while since I had to remove "finishers" (plastic panels covering the nuts and bolts and wires) or removed a spoiler. When I read, "cut through double stick tape and remove spoiler, I decided to put the new part on a shelf and wait until I had a free weekend.

When I reread this thread, I noticed some subtle clarifications to the proceedure from Zhaohui. I was willing to give it a go when I found my small 90 degree Phillips screwdriver and read that one needn't remove the spoiler, just loosen it. I had tried to remove the black plastic cover without loosening the spoiler, but it was too tight, if only I had been able to find the nifty low profile ratchet screw driver.

I shot over to Harbor Freight to try and find another lower profile screw driver, but the new model that they had there was a bit deeper and I knew that I would still have clearance problems. On the way home, I became resigned to loosening the spoiler.

First, I tried cutting down the bit to get a little more clearance (hardest part of the whole installation), but it was still too tight to easily access the screws. Then I found the super low profile ratchet screw driver in a drawer - gave that a shot, it worked, but I decided to try and pull the finishers. Easiest thing in the world - pulling the finishers. If I would have just done that, I would have been done in 20 mins.

When you pull the finishers, the nuts holding the spoiler on can be easily loosened with a socket wrench. Once loosened, you can continue loosening by finger, but leave the nut on the bolt - do not remove. Loosening the spoiler will give you just enough room to be able to use an offset screw driver to take the black plastic cover off and then the clear plastic led/lense module off.

Once loosened, I was able to use the latest version of offset ratchet screw driver from Harbor Freight. If you have a working thin version of the Harbor Freight screwdriver, you might be able to do it without loosening the spoiler, but it really only takes about 10 mins to loosen the spoiler and it will make the rest of the project much easier.

Good luck!
 
Hi
Thanks for the tips, I have a Nissan 2018 and had to give up trying to change this lamp, the reason being that the angle of the screws make it impossible to try and get them off, teyed with an adapter but couldnt make any of my bits work, teyed with ph2, ph3, pz2 and pz3 with no luck finding the lucky one that just fitted.

Now both screws to take the top lock are more or less Stripped, at this point I'm just going to ask a mechanic to fix this, way to hard to fix this on your own, all other lamps are easy in comparison.

If anyone makes it and change it on a 2018 model please let me know to see what I did wrong
 
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