3rd Brake Light Lens Replacement

Found a leak dripping down headliner above the rear window onto the head rest on my TRD double cab. Started reading all the threads about the bad gasket in the brake light design. I then went out and looked more closely at the brake light and found a decent crack in the black trim piece and the lens.
After reading a bunch of threads I am concerned that to replace the lens I need to remove the headliner and access it all from the inside? I can not believe they make it that hard to change the lens or a burned out bulb?? Can anyone confirm if that is indeed what needs to be done?? If that is the case I am wondering why I would go thru all that and replace it with the same awful design??

 

Sucks, and I know I’ll be replacing mine in the future. If you searched and read the threads, you have all the answers how to replace it and the new third brake light part number.

 

You only need to drop the back of the headliner. Then you can reach in between the roof and liner and remove the 2 nuts that hold the light.

It’s a little time consuming, but not difficult.
(After you’ve done it once, it only takes like 15 minutes thereafter.)

 

Hey @beergeek , how does one go about dropping only the back part of the liner? I’m having the same problem as OP, can’t find much on how to get to the brake light on gen 3’s.

 

Post #12:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ultimate-3rd-brake-cargo-light.488385/#post-15011371