How does one remove the red rear side marker assembly for bulb replacement? Does this pry out from the outside, our do you have to remove the rear wheel and wheel well liner (car is a 1991 GT) to access the bulb from inside the fender? Any help would be appreciated.

Jerry Magolan
1991 928GT (Black/Cashmere)132,200 miles

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Just did this. It depends on whether it's the driver or passenger side.

Driver side is easy, but you have to know what to feel for. You may want to practice on the front side markers, where you can see what you're doing (if the belly pan's removed, as mine was). You should not have to unbolt anything except for the rear passenger side - all the others snap out without tools.

Lie on the ground behind the rear wheel. Reach up from under the car towards the marker and feel around. When you find the assembly you should feel a rectangular rubber boot over it with the wires coming in the top. Pry off the boot with you fingers. Now feel around on the assembly. In the center will be a circular collar where the bulb socket is. On the inside of the circular collar, towards the front of the car, is a wide, 1" vertical tab. If you squeeze the tab towards the rim of the circular collar the socket will unlatch and you can pivot the bulb socket out. The whole socket comes down to below the bumper and you can easily change the bulb. Then reach back up, put the rear edge of the socket back in the circular collar and pivot it forward for the tab to catch. Then push the rubber boot back on. That's it!

Once you've practiced on the easy side, you can do the passenger side (after all, you'll want to replace the bulbs in pairs to prevent false bulb warnings). I didn't have to remove the wheel, but I'm lazy. You can try the same trick of removing the boot and pressing the tab on the passenger side, but the fuel filler makes it very tight to get the socket
out. If you can wiggle it out, great. Otherwise, first spray the the two 10mm nuts with WD40 (with boot on). Next, remove completely the nut and bracket on the forward side near the wheel. Then loosen, but do not remove, the rear nut with a wrench (if the WD40 is working you can spin it from then on with your fingers). Loosen it enough that the assembly can be pushed out far enough that the forward threaded post clears the side of the car (you may want to cover the post to prevent scratches). Slide the assembly forward so that the circular collar clears the gas filler tube.
Then remove the rubber boot, press the tab and remove the socket. Not fully removing the rear nut makes it easier to put back.

John Marum
'87 S4 5 speed

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Once the front of wheel well liner is removed, you should have clear access to the side marker light assembly. How much of the liner did you actually remove? If you only removed the very bottom portion, there will be a fender
bracket in the way, but you can still work your way past it.

The light assembly is secured by two 8 mm nuts, one front, one rear. These nuts hold front and rear metal (sort of "C" shaped) brackets. Once you remove the nuts, washers, the brackets will slide off and you will be able to pull the light fixture out and away from the fender to the outside. The bulb can actually be changed without removing the nuts and the assembly from the fender, but it's a real pain to do it that way. Also, when you remove the complete light assembly from the fender, you can check for any corrosion in the bulb holder and wires, and take care of that before it becomes a problem (and then you'll always have to whack the light to get it to come on).

wk