Question on repairing rear lights in the 328

I just posted on my adventures replacing the head lights in my 328 and announced that next project would be a rear light repair. Today I had a very exploratory look, but I am a bit baffled how to proceed.

First, the problem, as stated in my previous post, is that the head and rear lights of my 328 were previously replaced with LED but started to malfunction. I have replaced the head lights back to halogen. Somewhat elaborate, but overall fun project!

Now, the right rear light, still LED, only has half illumination, see below. I also show the leftt side for comparison since that one still functions fully.

However, during my exploratory look, going into the luggage compartment, removing the panel to get access to the rear lights, I have no good idea how to proceed. I include some photographs of the lights from the back compartment. I see three bolts with nuts, but they are placed at an impossible angle to reach with tools. I could l turn one with my finger, but the others are too tight. But I have not way to reach this with any of my wrenches. Also, due to the small compartment, it is impossible to keep a visual while working on anything inside the rear light. Also, I am not even sure these bolts are the right way to open the rear lights.

Any pointers from the experts? Is there an easier way to get to the inside of the rear light? Or if not, how can I loosen those bolts and nuts?

 

Oh brilliant! That indeed looks a lot easier. Thanks so much for the pointer, much appreciated! The hobby time of the weekend is over for me, but I will update with the results later.

 

Thanks to the good folks of this forum, this project was fun too! I used some bolt and nuts construction to open the plastic tabs, so I could have very fine grained control (listening to the warnings above!). Then it was very easy to remove the socket.

One of the LED replacement units was not working.

So I bought a replacement (another red LED for now, perhaps I will eventually replace all these back to halogen as well, not sure yet).


And now both halves are working again!

 

I tried not drain the battery with all my light projects, but I think I still went too long testing the lights without running the engine, since the battery was depleted when I tried to do a little test run after all the projects. So, another run to the autoshop for a charger and *again* remove the spare wheel (I see no other way to get to the battery, but perhaps I am missing something here too). But after just two hours charge, my little red baby is running again!

 

The previous owner pointed out that there was already some wiring in place to charge the battery without removing the spare, which I had completely overlooked! But once I knew where to look, I bought a SAE to O-Ring extension cable and can now charge the battery without going through the whole removal process. Happy as can be!