How do you change the taillight on a 2000 VW Bug?

Answer 1

Inside the trunk there is a round panel about 6 inches in diameter just in front of each tail light. Typical German engineering dictates that you take a small flat blade screwdriver and pop this panel off the light you want to access. Then you reach into the access hole and unscrew a large plastic nut with your fingers. It takes several turns to get the nut to come off. Make sure not to drop it into the fender well, quite frustrating if you drop it like I have before. After you get this plastic nut removed, you will then move to the outside of the trunk - just to the side of the trunk opening. You will be prying the now loosened tail light assembly out of the fender. To do this, you will need to find something that like a sharp rigid plastic wedge and slowly pry it under the rubber weatherstripping on the tail light assembly. If you were to resort to a flat blade screwdriver, I would place something rigid and flat under the screwdriver so you do no not dent the fender while prying the light out. Even with the plastic nut removed from the trunk, the light is still difficult to pry out of the fender. The assembly has plastic tongs that catch under the outer edge of the assembly (the part on the outside of the assembly) toward the outer edge of the rear fender.) It is important that you only pry on the assembly from the part of the tail light assembly closest to the trunk opening. If you pry elsewhere, you will break the assembly. You slowly insert the wedge and pry gently on the rubber weatherstripping to lift the edge of the tail light assembly out of the fender. It takes kind of a popping action to pry and "pop" it this corner of the assembly out of the fender. Notice it will appear to be hinged on the outside, but again, this is not a hinge but a sizeable lip on the outer edge of the tail light assembly. Gently pry the assembly out of the fender, and as you pull it completely out of the fender well, you will notice that there is a piece of spring steel that is attached to the stud that you removed the nut off at the beginning. You will want to pay attention to the placement of this stud as you will have to put it back into the hole in the trunk when you re-insert the tail light assembly later. After you have removed the tail light assembly, you can then remove the bulb and put in a replacement.

Re-assembly: You insert the tail light assembly with the tonged portion - the part with the lip first, put this lip under the fender, then push the stud into the hole in the trunk for use later. Press firmly on the tail light assembly and it will pop back into place in the fender. Reach into the trunk, take the plastic nut and place it through the the access hole in the trunk to re-install it onto the stud that holds the tail light assembly. Tighten several revolutions, you will know when you have secured it properly, just turn it until finger tight is as tight as you can get it. Pop the plastic cover back into the access hole and you are done.