Kia braklights

An 06 Magentis How the heck do you remove the rear light on this thing..I removed the 2- 10mm nuts underneath but there is not enough clearance to pull it out on the inside without hitting the glass.

I thought that you could just screw out the 2 bolts like that on some Honda's with a flat head screwdriver, but these appear like they are not meant to come out this way.

Any help would be appreciated

does it have a little hump it sits up on, or is the deck flat? If its on a hump, ya gotta press down on each side of the deck around the light and just pull it out, can't you get behind it with a bulldozer or something like that?

Never heard of this Kia before, it is a European version ?

Nope, its been around for a long time...at least in canada it has Ive done quite a few but never had a problem with the rear light that i can remember....after you take the nuts off..can you at least slide it back a bit to get a bulldozer down there like tintman237 said?

I've done all the obvious things to get this out, what I found out is that once it's installed, the only way it's coming out is to remove the rear window Even if you were to get it out, you'll never get it back in without ruining your tint job. Most people cut around these ones .

It's too tight up against the glass to do a proper clean AND squeegee behind it (especially in this weather..you cant sent out work like that without proper pressure to flush out the solution even if you could weasel a tool in behind it. What the manufacturers did was glue the 2 screws into the plastic of the brake light after its installed rather then make them removable like some manufactures do (Honda for one).

I'll figure it out somehow.

thats it remove the window

wow its been a while since I ran into a brake light like that that ain't coming out

so break the studs off and then when you finish tinting it ...super glue the light to the back panel! Just like OEM! I feel for ya TW. Hate problems like that.

Problem solved..this should be a TOTW for this car if ever you want to do one without cutting around the brakelight .

This isn't exactly the way it started (Blade knows the story on that ) ,however all you do is remove the 2 mm bolts in the trunk and you know how some cars have a long oval hole through the metal where you slide the braklight back , then up and out? Well you just make one.

As soon as you remove the bolts , you have enough room to drill a hole beside each existing hole turning into a "slider hole" allowing you enough room to slide back and out.

Hope this helps someone out so they don't lose the kind of time I did

The next one I do will only take 5 extra minutes now

How many holes need to be drilled on each side? just one? ie. how far back does it have to slide b4 it will come out without hitting the glass?

1 hole right behind each so that is a total of 2 holes. You drill them to be just a bit smaller than the ones provided or the same size if you wish. you do them RIGHT behind so that the join so instead of having what was once 2 holes , you now have 2 "ovals" this allows you to just slide it back and up like some of the earlier Honda's.

Note: these holes are in no way an eyesore because it is up out of site in the trunk..it looks no different then the earlier Honda where the brake light came out this way.

This is THE only way of taking this light out and in again without damage to light or tint.

At least now there is an option..the next time I do this, it'll only take 5 extra minutes and this way you get a clean install underneath the braklight (if applicable in your state or province)

I changed the title of this thread because (although I didn't know this because I admittedly do not do many Kias) , this tip will work for any braklight with the same situation.

Ok, so I get an 03 magentis in last Thursday to tint. Saw the 3rd brake light and remembered this tip. So I drill out a hole behind each bolt hole and crawl into the back to take it out....no dice. so i crawl back into the trunk and drill out another hole...making the slide hole bigger. Back into the back seat...and it still wont come out...seems i cant get the bolts past the rear deck cover(at least not without ruining the tint as im putting the light back in), and trust me...i tried EVERYTHING!!

Thank god i dont do alot of kia magentis'