Reatta rear light bar: 14 bulbs replaced!

[14Accent]

Addressing the exterior lighting of my Reatta has been high on my list of "focused" repairs, right up there with fluid replacement, belt replacement, etc. I'm currently waiting on a pair of 890 bulbs to arrive from RA to replace the L/R front turn/parking light bulbs.

Last week, however, I managed to find a spare hour to replace every bulb contained within the main rear taillight assembly. I knew GM went a bit nuts, but WOW. Upon removal, I was presented with 12 2057 bulbs and 2 194's for side markers. Obviously, they all got replaced.

Thank god for wholesale pricing. 14 bulbs w/tax: $6.44.

 

[CharlieJ]

 

[14Accent]

I neglected to snap a picture of my own car, but here's an example:

 

[Skippy722]

I neglected to snap a picture of my own car, but here's an example:

View attachment 150955

I can’t say I’ve ever seen one with all lights functioning before

 

[mk378]

2.3 amps per bulb adds up to a lot of current.

Even on a more typical car with two 2057 on each side and some sort of center brake light, the brake lights use more power than the headlights.

 

[CorvairGeek]

I can feel your pain. Even the owners manual said to take it to the dealer for bulb replacement on the sedans (Wagons were easy). These have a bulb count of 15 (17 with the high mounted stop light), a lot of 194s. Quite an assembly when it is out.

 

[BHopkins]

I neglected to snap a picture of my own car, but here's an example:

View attachment 150955

Wow! That is crazy. It makes me wonder, why didn't Buick use a light pipe, or similar method? Were they really looking for that much intensity? It had to have crossed the engineers minds, that it wouldn't be too long, before there would always be at least one burnt out bulb in each tail light assembly.

Great job on getting everything fixed up. It is always satisfying to bring a car up to par, by getting previously neglected maintenance done.

 

[97prizm]

Wow! That is crazy. It makes me wonder, why didn't Buick use a light pipe, or similar method? Were they really looking for that much intensity? It had to have crossed the engineers minds, that it wouldn't be too long, before there would always be at least one burnt out bulb in each tail light assembly.

Great job on getting everything fixed up. It is always satisfying to bring a car up to par, by getting previously neglected maintenance done.

Were ccfls available at that time?

 

[BHopkins]

Not sure, but I doubt it. What I am referring to as a light pipe, is essentially fiber optic light transmission, but on a much larger and simpler scale than fiber optics. Are you familiar with what a bore scope is? Same principal.

I can't recall where I first saw it used, but I believe it was on a Toyota decades ago. I've also seen light pipes used in an instrument panel, with only one or two lights illuminating the entire instrument cluster by use of light pipes.

 

[paulo57509]

My friend's '78 Datsun 620 had fiber optics back lighting the dashboard knobs (headlights, wipers).

He found this out when he installed an aftermarket stereo. He was looking for an easy place to splice in the radio illumination and decided to tap off one of the knob backlighting wire(s). He took sidecutters to a wire and "crunch".

 

[14Accent]

Wow! That is crazy. It makes me wonder, why didn't Buick use a light pipe, or similar method? Were they really looking for that much intensity? It had to have crossed the engineers minds, that it wouldn't be too long, before there would always be at least one burnt out bulb in each tail light assembly.

Great job on getting everything fixed up. It is always satisfying to bring a car up to par, by getting previously neglected maintenance done.

Much appreciated! I tackled the front lighting this afternoon: couple of 194NA's and two ORIGINAL GE 890 bulbs that I got on wholesaler closeout from RA for a buck and change each.

I was over the moon when I found those 890's. Each front lamp utilizes 2 890 bulbs, one for the cornering lamp and one for the turn signal/parking lamp. The cornering lamp will accept any old 890, however the turn signal REQUIRES a specific design in order to avoid damaging the inner amber lens. AFAIK, GE was the sole manufacturer of the correct design. As they say: a picture is worth 1000 words.

The GE bulb (brown base) has a domed tip, whereas the Philips comes to a point. That extra few millimeters is enough to damage the assembly.