"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike)
04/25/2016 at 19:53 • Filed to: license plate, Hyundai, Accent, 2009 Accent, license plate bulbs
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"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike)
04/25/2016 at 19:53 • Filed to: license plate, Hyundai, Accent, 2009 Accent, license plate bulbs | 3
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WOW.....as simple as my base-level 2009 Accent hatch is, Hyundai went German-levels of overengineering in what is required to swap out the rear license plate bulbs. Please excuse the ranty nature of this post :P!
The whole thing started several months ago when I noticed that my reverse lights were a little dim for my tastes on ‘Humdrum’. Pop on DealExtreme (dx.com), buy cheap LED bulbs of the right socket, wait awhile for them to arrive, install them, and BAM...brighter, clearer light when I am backing up my fairly long driveway at night. :)
Awhile back I noticed that my license plate bulbs were quite dim as well. They both worked, but not very brightly to illuminate my plate. So, pop on DealExtreme again, buy another cheap set of LED bulbs in the right plug type, wait for them to get here.........and wait several months. My plate bulbs arrived just as Canadian winter was starting to kick in, and, unlike the rear cluster bulbs, any of which you can change in 5 mins with 2 screws, the rear plate bulbs are a BIZNITCH on this gen of Accent hatch.
I was also trying to remove security screws from the plate to replace them with regular screws / replace the plate mounts as one was broken as well, but without a Dremel, it was a useless attempt...
Here are some of the tools I assembled for the plate bulb / plate mount/screw changing fiasco...trim removal tools, all kinds of pliers, gloves (to not get the waxy undercoating stuff all over my hands), and 2 screwdrivers. Not pictured is a ratchet set as well, sitting down below the lip of my trunk.
So....to change the rear plate bulbs on the Accent, you go in from INSIDE. This required the removal of 2 trim pieces - two along the sides of the rear glass, and the main trim piece on the backside of the trunk lid. You can see the two side trim pieces sitting on my cargo shelf above. These pieces are held in with clips, but the clips are REALLY in there. I, sadly, broke two of them while trying to remove the pieces, so I will have to find some better superglue or epoxy and try and reattach them. (Truth be told, I had tried this when I first got the bulbs, but broke these two clips then and got frustrated so gave up and put it all back together) The trim pieces rattle now until I get those clips fixed or buy new trim pieces...you can see superglue residue on them from where I tried to repair them last time. There is a local wreckers down the road with 2 Accent hatches like mine with front hits...hoping I can buy the trim pieces from them for a decent price if I can’t repair mine!
The clips are supposed to look like this when not broken:
Here is the rear main trim piece after removal - it required 4 screws and 10 of those blasted clips...luckily I didn’t break any of those, but the metal/fabric “spring” part of the middle two clips popped off. Luckily they just pop back on, so they are back on that trim piece ready to be reattached!
From here on out I have no pics as the annoyance of the process was starting to get to me, sorry! Once the trim is off, access to the license plate bulbs is VERY limited. The bulbs themselves would be easy to change otherwise as they are just the “twist and pull” type sockets for removal, but the rear wiper motor / motor mount and support structure is all blocking the way. The right-side plate light is actually easy to get to if you have small hands (which I do!) to reach behind the support structure. I changed that bulb in 3 minutes. To get to the OTHER bulb, (as it’s on the side the wiper motor, itself, is mounted on) I had to remove the exterior trim piece over the rear hatch handle and plate lights to get to the light to pull the WHOLE THING out through the hole in the hatch to get to the socket in the back. (The long trim piece just below the Hyundai logo in the following older pic of Humdrum..)
This trim piece required removing two nuts, 2 screws, and then detaching two clips by squeezing them with pliers through the support structure from inside the trunk lid...then pulling the trim piece off. Once that was done, I could undo two MORE screws to remove the outer plate light cover, then pull the whole light assembly through the hole to the light of day, remove the bulb from it’s socket, and THEN put everything back together again...
Luckily, I still had the wherewithall to put the LED bulbs in and TEST them before buttoning everything back up as LED bulbs ARE sensitive to the direction they are installed. After verifying all was well, I reattached the rear exterior trim piece and put my tools away. The interior trim pieces remain on the floor of my rec room until a friend of mine can help me Dremel out the plate security screws and replace them with normal philips screws!
The results! Pardon the crappy old point-and-shoot camera quality, but as you can see, nice and bright, and if I hadn’t covered my plate info...nice and legible too! :D
JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
04/25/2016 at 21:09 |
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No screws/clips on the lenses? My Elantra had screws on the lenses...
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t
04/25/2016 at 21:19 |
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Nope, lense screws are accessible from the outside, but at an angle that is blocked by that exterior trim piece....only way to change them is to go in from behind to get to the bulbs....or to go in from behind to remove that trim piece...
gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
04/25/2016 at 22:05 |
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Why would you deliberately make your plate more visible than absolutely necessary?
Nauraushaun
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
04/26/2016 at 06:54 |
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There’s a lesson here, about changing things that don’t need to be changed.
Same lesson as the MR2 I saw at my mechanic today, who’s owner had upgraded his exhaust from dual tip to single cannon. The welds were terrible, it was improperly mounted and it was damaging the car. And for what? So he can say it was built not bought? So everyone can admire the empty hole in his bumper where an exhaust tip should be? So his neighbours have to hear the drone of his cannon every time he leaves the house?
I’m bitter because all the cars I love from the 90s have been ruined by this stuff.
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee
04/26/2016 at 06:56 |
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Well, I don’t do anything illegal (I rarely speed, and if I do, no more than 10kph over the limit because I want to keep my record clean / can’t afford the ticket), so I don’t mind it being more visible. If the police are going to pull me over, they’ll be getting my plate number anyway.
The most that changes is that other people could see my plate more clearly in instances where I cut them off or something, which I wouldn’t knowingly do, so....yeah. If they want to steal my plate number or something, they could walk behind my car in the day time.
The bulbs really were very dim before. Now they are a cleaner/crisp white and it just looks nicer. The purpose of plate bulbs is to light up your plate....mine do that effectively now. :P
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Nauraushaun
04/26/2016 at 07:28 |
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That seems a fair amount different than my case though...
I don’t see how my changing my plate bulbs was a bad thing...? It wasn’t a “performance” upgrade like an exhaust - I’m not claiming they do something better than they used to when don’t. It doesn’t annoy anybody else. The new bulbs are legitimately much brighter than the previous ones, so they are legitimately better (compared to your MR2's “upgraded” canon exhaust). As mentioned, the bulbs were very dim - I could barely read my plate from a few meters away in the dark, you should see how blackened in the inside of the glass on the original bulbs are.
I was also looking at the practical side. LEDs last much longer than standard incandescent bulbs. Now that I’ve done the swap, I’ll hopefully never have to go through this on this car again (same with trying to re-mount my license plate with non-security screws - means it will be easier for me to remove my plate and the new owner to mount theirs when the time comes).
It’s akin to an older car with tube tires....tubeless are much better in every way, so if you had the chance to swap using similar-to-stock rims without modifications, I would hope most people would do so because tubeless would simply just be better. I thought this was akin to that - measurably brighter bulbs doing their intended purpose more effectively with a newer technology that is longer-lasting and more durable.
I didn’t mention in the article that the right bulb was also cutting in and out at random (and it is illegal not having your plate fully lit), so this was also my way of fixing that as well as making them brighter and look a little cleaner. Clear white looks better on blue car than the off-whitey-yellow of incandescent bulbs.