Loose light assembly

[ryu_haneda]

Hey all,

Just got back from a trek to and from Canada, and I noticed that I have a loose light on my passenger side.

It's the turn indicator assembly (the entire turn indicator, not the bulb or anything inside of the glass itself) that's loose. I tried popping the hood and seeing if I could tighten a screw just behind the side turning light itself, but that didn't do anything. Anyone else had problems with this?

-ryu_haneda
-wanting to make sure that light is tight and secure

[JPaul99GT]

the assembly secures in 3 spots. one of which is the screw you mentioned, but there is also a piece of platic that is the "male" counterpart to a "female" piece on the headlight assembly. they are both of black plastic, these must be joined. there is also a pin in the back side of the corner assembly that "pops" into a whole in the fender.

try taking the whole assembly out. just take out that screw and gently but firmly pull forward on the light. see if anything is broken, and put it back together being mindful of the 2 other points i have mentioned.

hope this helps

[ryu_haneda]

Thank you very much for the information.

Will I need to pull the bumper to get easier access to it? I did notice a white piece of plastic on the side of the car. One of the plastic pieces may be broken.

I will probably work on the car this Saturday. If I do, I may take some pics and post them.

Thanks again for your help!

-ryu_haneda
-trying to find some interesting stuff to do today

[Huffer]

You don't need to drop the bumper.
All you do is undo the top screw, and pull the light fixture out with your hands.
You might need to tug hard though.

[ryu_haneda]

Cool, sounds like a nice weekend project.

Say one of the plastic pieces that goes into the car is broken. Where would I go to replace it? Is it a Subaru-only part, or can something be fabricated for them?

[ryu_haneda]

My dad and I took a look at the loose light, and were able to unscrew it with no problem. There was only one screw that holds the major stuff in place.

Apparently, the system which holds the side marker up uses one screw and two plastic prongs (again, just as mentioned before). We found out that the light was not inserted with the plastic prongs in place.

Once the prongs and the screw were all back in place, the light wasn't moving. That's good news, but the bad news was that with everything secure, there's a gap between the side marker and the headlights. Dad thinks the car might've been in a fender bender before they sold it. (No visible body damage, but whoever fixed any prior dent or crash didn't do a good job of aligning.)

No worries, though, the light's not going anywhere now. :)

-ryu_haneda
-learning about my car, one loose/leaking/busted part at a time :D

[JPaul99GT]

sorry about your discovery, but glad i could help.

[ryu_haneda]

Thank you again for your help, I really appreciate how friendly the SL-i community has been... I hope to become more knowledgeable and be able to fix the car up myself in due time.

[gil_ong81]

my experience is that these cars are stupidly easy to work on once to get to know it a little. most things are laid out in a very logical manner.

i typically poke around a little to see what i can see, and then get dive right in. most times, it works. haven't come across a situation where i haven't been able to "damage" anything beyond being able to put it back together and try from a different angle.