Taillamp bolts

[RatboneRanch]

I was trying to remove my taillamp cluster and one of the reverse torx bolts snapped off for some reason. Looks like the other one will, too. I guess I'm now stuck with trying to drill them out. Anyone else ever have this problem? 

[Loren]

Hmm.. haven't seen that. Do you have a lot of corrosion?  Any pictures?

[creekman]

Knowing you have a problem you might soak the remaining screw with a good penetrant over night before trying to remove it.  Since the mounting bracket I'm guessing is aluminum and the screws are steel you might have some galvanic action going on.  Hopefully the screws were not over tighten in the first place as lens are subject to cracking and checking.  My C4 lens assemblies a number of years ago were $500 each so treat with care.

 

I wonder depending on the mounting brackets you could remove the mounting bracket so you could work on apply penetrant from the back side and maybe even grab the bolt with vise grips  and turn the bolt out from the back of the bracket?

 

[hardtailer]

What do you mean by a reverse torx bolt?

The tail light is held with one single M6 bolt (hexagonal head) per side.

Only removing the bracket requires removing the 2 per side torx studs. Spray the remaining studs with penetrating oil from from behind after pulling the light clusters away

Edited June 21, 2019 by hardtailer

[creekman]

I just read your post again and like Hardtailer I question why you call the bolt, 'reverse torx'?  Is there a chance you tighten the bolt rather than loosen it.  Those bolts were never very tight anyway...