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Replaced tailgate around Christmas after a collision, and now noticing condensation inside a taillight. Body shop says they're not responsible and are quoting $250 to replace. Please advice.
Edit: Thanks for all your advice. I'm going to ask my insurance if they'll cover this as part of the original collision claim. btw, I posted the same thing to /r/mechanicadvice at the same time, and haven't received a single reply there till now. Happy to see lemmy doing great as a reddit replacement.
What components did they replace with the original work? Did they just replace the bumper cover?
If you were charged for a new tail lamp/light assembly in the previous work, then this is on them. If they only pulled the original tail lamp as part of other work, and reinstalled the original tail lamp, then the tail lamp was probably cracked in the collision. That damage would be easy to miss and can take a long time to become apparant. It sounds to me like this component was not replaced in the original work and you are only now discovering damage that was sustained in the collision.
Too long to find an actual reasonable reply in this thread.
Likely cracked in collision, they probably didn't see the damage to it, likely didn't replace it. Buy the piece and replace it if it's that big of a deal. These pieces are all bolted on from the inside, after taking a few bolts out. This piece can be had as an "Inner Tail Light", for $70, and replaced in 10 minutes with a small set of hand tools.
It's already easily accessible in this car because you've gotta be able to replace the bulb, so it's likely as simple as opening a hatch or door panel type thing behind it.
If I'd already decided on spending $70 to replace the light, I think I'd just drill a small 1/8" (or 1mm) hole in the outside lens in the corner. It would be on the lowest point so liquid water could drain out, but at an upward angle from the bottom so rain and other water wouldn't fall into this new hole. This would be on the bottom left hand size of the light lens where you see the water pooling. Right at the green arrow:
The whole fix would take less than 5 minutes. If this fix doesn't work, or make it worse, then I could still fall back to the "spend the $70 on a new light and replace it".
Have done this. 👌
I recommend a slight modification:
pull the taillight off and drill the hole in the black plastic right by the lens so the hole isn't visible.
Just replying to chime in that I agree with Fermion and Kitnaht. It's definitely possible there could've been an invisible hairline crack in the housing that went unnoticed by the mechanic.
They could potentially fix it for even cheaper by repairing the piece:
It's a little more effort and time without the working light, but it might be helpful depending on @[email protected]'s financial situation.
I know it's a different manufacturer, but having had to replace multiple headlights on my 2008 Prius over the last decade or so... I can say this is definitely not a hard and fast rule.
Headlights are a totally different beast. This is a tail light, on the rear hatch. I haven't really had a car yet where the tail lights were difficult to get to.