Long story short, the dealership needed to replace the bulbs in my license lamps to pass inspection.....now I go to replace those bulbs with LED's, and I find that they completely boogered them up and there's no way for me to get any meaningful tool in there to remove what's left of stripped screws and whatever other crap they used to get me back on the road. Now I understand why my inspection took two hours.

In a quest to replace the whole setup, it's cheap. Can this easily be replaced by removing the interior panel of the rear lift gate? I was trying not to remove that panel to investigate and then again to replace the assembly.

Anybody done this? P/N 8127035120



Do the screws go through 3 layers of the assembly and then into some threaded insert in the lift gate?

It's a bit of a PITA to get at the light assemblies, you have to remove the latch assembly from the inside of the liftgate, cut your hands on sharp sheet metal and work blind and upside down to disconnect the bezel to get to the license lamp wire harness; as far as I recall.

But if you only have to replace the bulbs, that's easy, just 2 screws per lens.

FWIW, stick with regular bulbs here. If you go LED you will need to add a resistor inline.

What all do you want to replace? The entire trim piece or just the lenses and the housings for the lights?

Everything included in the box, or #1, in the photo. Both housings and wiring

Well you'll need to get those 2 screws on each lense out to be able to remove them from the entire trim piece. An easy out would work well if the screws are rounded out. If you really need to replace the entire thing then you would take the interior cover off, find the plug and unplug it and the little "clips" that the wiring tucks into and you should be able to pull it out from the outside.

I don't understand why you would replace the entire thing though if you just want to put LEDs in unless the sockets or wiring itself is bad I see no reason to deal with that hassle. Just find a way to get the screws out and then replace with new screws and bulbs.

I was pretty much in the exact situation as you. I couldn't get the screws out to replace the bulbs and I tried everything.

That whole panel can be removed but it is a total PITA. I cannot even remember everything you need to remove but all I know was I never wanted to do it again. Eventually I did get it off and replaced the bulbs. The entire process was a mess but it can be done.

No need to replace the whole thing. Once you get it off it is easier to get the screws out.

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Why? The LicensePlate/taillight circuit doesn't hyperflash and our trucks aren't CanBus. I've had LEDs on there for years with no resistor. Much brighter. No issues.

Yup no resistors needed,haven't converted my 4Runners' plate bulbs to LED yet (screw heads are rusted up) but I've used Philips 194 type LEDs on other vehicles' plate lights without requiring resistors. Nice white color and brighter. My parents' CRV has only one single bulb for the plate and the Philips LED is brighter than the original. The Philips LEDs also run cooler than incandescents, can't say for the other brands though.

Umm..yeah, as @TheDurk said, why would you need a resistor? I switched mine to LEDs 2 years ago. No issues.