Diffuser in Smoked Taillight

[mbsickness]

I have a 98-00 OEM smoked tailight and there is a diffuser lens that is contained in the brakelight area. I see these wobbling around on many 98-00 W202's on the road. From th elooks of it the brakelight bulb gets the plastic hot and actually melts it. Have any of you removed the diffuser and what was the result? I find it hard to believe that this would make the light output any brighter. Here is a picture of the culprit...as you can see the only way to remove it is to break it into small pieces.

[audiophile]

so thats the thing that wobbles?
i think it spreads the light. maybe???

[mbsickness]

Originally posted by audiophile
so thats the thing that wobbles?
i think it spreads the light. maybe???

Yup, that's what wobbles. Drives me nuts as it makes your car look like an old jalopy. You can see in my picture that the sides are simply clear so that would not change the light. On top there are round ridges whcih would "spread" the light a little in a circular pattern. Just doesn't seem like it would do a whole lot. I'm thinking of breaking them out and see what they look like. My best guess is that they are used to soften the bulb hot spot leading to a more uniformed brakelight pattern. The only thing is that the non-smoked tails do not have this extra part and the lighter lens would show the bulb hot spot even more.

[audiophile]

is ti possible some glue can put in there to make to stop moving?

[Abuimad]

when i first got my car i always though that it was water stuck in the light..then i realised that there is no water....if any one has any way to fix the wobbling issue since it really pisses me off..post up plz

[FreeStyler]

Same here! Mine is half melted though, and its all deformed...

[mbsickness]

So I guess you guys just live with the wobbling light?

[mbsickness]

Okay.....I'm going for broke. Later today I'll be chopping up the diffuser so I can get it out of the light and see what happens to the light pattern. By days end I'll either have a taillight in which the light doesn't wobble......or a I'll have a pricey tire chuck. I'll post the results.

[audiophile]

good luck and let us know how it turns out.
see if you can take before and after pics.

[mbsickness]

Okay, I did it....broke the diffuser out and as predicted it works just fine without. I think it looks better without the diffuser as you don't have a dark spot. Light output....unchaged if not slightly brighter. The diffuser must have been a DOT requirement as I really don't se the point of this part. Here are the results.

With diffuser


Without diffuser


Side by side (left with...right without

[rollinrealbig]

I cant even tell the difference, screw that diffuser sh*t doesnt even do anything! cops will never know enough to pull you over and give you a fix-it ticket for that.

[audiophile]

i take it the one on the right is with out it (obviously) and the left hand side is still with it.
how hard was it to remove it.

[mbsickness]

Originally posted by audiophile
i take it the one on the right is with out it (obviously) and the left hand side is still with it.
how hard was it to remove it.

It took me all of ten minutes to remove. First remove the taillight from the car. Then thre are two tabs that locate the diffuser in the light....detatch these and the diffuser will be loose and rolling around the inside of the lens. Then I simply used a really long set of needle nose pliers and crushed it until it broke into smaller pieces that would fit through the opening. I personally think it looks better without as you don't have a big darker circle in the middle. I still don't know why they installed this part in the first place.