DIY fix is possible if you are patient and very careful

Dear Car Talk:

I recently discovered that the lens is missing on the center brake light on my wife’s 2016 Lincoln MKX.

The dealership (where we bought the vehicle) quoted more than $650 to replace the whole unit. Apparently, you can’t replace just the red, plastic lens. The service tech confided in me that they had replaced the center brake light on three such vehicles recently, and that they were all lost in car washes.

I am a do-it-yourself kind of guy and found a third brake light unit online for $160. Do you think this is the type of project an average Joe can handle, or should I cough up the money to the experts?

It just grates me that something as simple as a brake light lens is so complicated and expensive to replace.

Thanks in advance for any guidance and assistance you can offer. — Jerry

Can an average Joe handle this? Well, an average Joe with lots of patience and no young kids nearby to hear him cursing.

I’ll be honest with you, Jerry. It’s a pain-in-the-butt job. It’s not a good design, in terms of repairability. You have to remove the car’s upper rear spoiler. Lincoln decided to attach the rear spoiler with a bunch of plastic push-pin locking fasteners that are almost impossible to get at and remove. It can be done, but it’s slow and frustrating.

So maybe you could just go through a more powerful car wash and see if it’ll rip the whole spoiler off? It could take you hours to remove. I’d suggest going on YouTube and watching a video or two of it being done. You may pick up some time-saving tips. Or you may run to your dealer and fling $650 at him. Once you get that spoiler off, it’s actually an easy do-it-yourself job.

And getting the spoiler back on is a lot easier than taking it off.

One other option is to stop by a body shop and ask them what they’d charge to do the job for you. They do this kind of work all the time when doing post-collision repairs. Maybe they’ll be cheaper.

Whoever does it, have them make sure the edges of the lens are flush with its housing. If the lens is mismanufactured, or sloppily manufactured, it can leave a lip, which should be sanded or ground down. Otherwise, the new one will be vulnerable to being torn off in the car wash, too.

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