Third brake light broken mount x308

X300
1

I cross-posted this a tad earlier on another forum and am seeking maximum coverage. I think the underlying question is how to get the 3rd light cover reinstalled after it fell off going over a bump. There is a crack in the mounting bracket — details below.

OK, while riding an old work chum (expat Brit) about so he could marvel at my VDP, the cover fell off my third brake light and landed on the package shelf. Closer inspection showed the passenger side (US) outside edge cracked, dropping the rubber pin onto the shelf.

Timing is everything. I am off in the morning to a Brit car show near the DC area and am in some Jag sedan class of some sort.

So, I tried to use some crazy glue-like stuff to get the two pieces of the far side of the light back together. It had not split completely. I wouldn’t call that action entirely successful. I did get the rubber pin pack into place. What I could not do was get the external housing to Re-latch with the two prongs on the underside. There must be some kind of special incantation that is recited while holding incense in one hand and the cover in the other. So, some packaging tape is currently holding the cover in place.

The light fixture itself remains firmly attached to the glass. For all but the last two years of its life it has lived in a garage when not being driven. I don’t have that luxury.

Anyone have any guidance on getting the cover to seat properly?

Eliot

Eliot Brenner
Annandale, Va.
‘03 VDP in Quartz/Charcoal interior, bought 8/2020 at 29,862 miles.
Previous: 06 VDP in Radiance Pearl, slain by a tree at 86k after 20k blissful miles; '97 x300L that gave me about 80k miles of service before briefly going to live at Peter Crespin’s, and an ‘89 xj40 that went from about 30k to about 160k for me.

2

I removed the rubber to glass things on mine. They were only fitted on late models I think, and I don’t think they are an improvement! Well not when the car is this old anyway

3

Yes, they are basically bumpers to keep the upper part of the housing, which sits back off the glass perhaps a half-inch or so, from banging against the glass. In my case, the crack in the housing closest to the glass runs from the top about 3/4 of the way through the plastic.

In a perfect world I’ll carefully slide the housing off its glued-to-the-rear-window fasteners, do a proper job fixing the crack and put it all back together. And maybe then the cover portion will seat properly. At the moment it’s being held by scotch tape because it won’t reassemble properly!