Protective plate for rear lights
 

Has anyone changed light bulb for the rear lights? I just did mine, changing the reverse light with an LED ones cause I just find the standard light is too weak. When I was changing it, I noticed this steel/aluminium plate covering the rear light from inside the boot, which you have to take off to be able to change the bulbs. but it's only on the drivers side. the passengers side doesn't have this plate. Is it like that or am I missing the left plate?

And I tell you... the parker lights are a biatch to change, scrape all my hand trying to reach it. I can't seem to open that box on the drivers side (next to the battery). the passenger's side wasn't too bad.

wouldnt it be easier to take the lights off and change the bulbs?

...I just finished switching all my bubs to LED's yesterday. Since I was replacing my springs/sway bars and brakelines and the wheels were already out, I just removed the front plastic piece in the wheel well and gave me access to the back of the headlights.

Eric u need to show me how to take the rear lights off, u know incase i need to put me new spare ones on :Freak_ani

you meant you want me to be available when you need to replace the taillights..... :rolleyes:

Thats normal - only the drivers side has that plate.

Thnx for remindin me of the taillights, just showed them to you now :yesnod: yes u are right tho.

Oh ok... thought I'm missing one side LOL
any reason why it's only on the right side?

lol yeah I was kinda shocked when I opened up the back too to change my lights couple of months back.

Interestingly I couldnt find a reference for that plate anywhere in the service manual either so no idea what its for. I initially thought it could be a grounding plate but it doesnt look like it. I enquired with my local Mazda service manager and he assured me that it was normal. He didnt say what it was for either. He did mention at the time (last year) that he had only seem them on the 05 models.

Anyway, which LED bulbs are you using? I've got the white BJUnion T20's on it at the moment thinking of getting somethign brighter too.

Not sure what brand, I just bought them off eBay. This is the one I bought for the rear.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/2pcs-7440-744...QQcmdZViewItem
It's not brighter than the standard bulb, so I switched back to standard. The refractor LEDs didn't quite hit the reflector area, so kinda useless.
I want to try this one instead, http://cgi.ebay.com.au/2pcs-7440-744...QQcmdZViewItem, hopefully it will be brighter.

The 3W one is the newer tech "Luxeon Star" type LED so theoretically it should be much brighter than the one you just purchased. Problem is, the seller doesnt have any specs listed so its hard to judge by the photo alone.

I'd be interested in how it performs though so if you do end up getting it, let us know what you think of it.

If I now had a dollar for every time I've read that on these RX8 boards (and maybe two dollars for every time it was later proved to be wrong), I'd be hearing FI whine by now. :mdrmed: