Ok the new N/S rear lamp cluster is in place so here is a resume of the action to take it out and put a new one in place. This is the Youtube video which is listed elsewhere on here but without doubt its the best one to follow and whilst there is no narrative its easy to follow what is being done.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHJa6z6e-a0
I was very unsure about stopping the roof mid movement but I left the engine running so that whatever controls these things didn't forget where the roof was when I stopped it.
Firstly I removed all of the plastic expanding rivets which hold the covers for the roof mechanism and the interior trim which covers the nearside bodywork. The remaining plastic trim cover is located behind part of the roof mechanism and is very difficult to remove unless the boot is lifted out of the way by opening and stopping the roof. Once this is done then the final piece of trim can be removed.
The electrical connection is easy to separate and you will notice that the part attached to the lamp is also attached to the inner body work but a gentle twist will allow it to be removed. On the light cluster that was fitted there were three 8mm nuts so once these are removed the assembly can be pulled inwards which releases the two fittings which are located into two rubber grommets on the leading edge of the assembly and outwards which releases the three studs from the bodywork.
I laid the original cluster alongside the one purchased from the eBay offshoot of Euro carparts at a cost of £130. It came with bulbs and a new gasket. On this item the gasket was fitted differently to the original in that it was clipped in place but was also held firm with four self tappers. It only had two threaded studs but did have to the two little fittings for location into the rubber grommets on the leading edge of the unit.
I am unsure whether or not my original gasket was fitted correctly because there are two slots which run around the gasket, one quite narrow and one quite wide. My gut instinct was that to get a tight seal I had to use the narrow slot. I coated the holes in the bodywork with petroleum jelly because this would help to ease the rubber into place and provide a degree of water resistance. I didn't fancy sticking any of these bits in place because that could cause issues if removal is needed later.
The slot in the gasket is roughly the width of the metalwork and because the new gasket was securely fitted to the cluster I had no choice but to put the assembly into place in one go. The two locators went into the grommets easily and the gasket itself took a degree of persuasion before it was in place. Using the petroleum jelly made a big difference to getting it all located but it was a bugger to try and grip the rubber. I used a very thin screw driver blade and my own finger nail to run around the inside edge to make sure that the rubber had gone into place. To be honest I did check the offside unit to make sure that I wasn't supposed to locate the gasket using the larger slot. Once this was all in place I put the two pieces of trim that cover the mechanism back and then lifted the roof to get access to the area behind the bar to replace the third piece of trim. Once this was done I closed the roof fully and re-fitted the remaining piece of trim which has one of the bulb access windows in it.
I re-seated all of the plastic rivets and the job was complete oh and I did check that the cluster was working before I fixed it all in place.
The lamp cluster came from the eBay arm of Eurocarparts at £130
Top photo shows old unit (top) against new unit. I have circled the fixing studs on both and the gasket securing screws on the new unit
Next photo shows the offending roof/boot mechanism bar which gets in the way of removing the final piece of trim
Next photo shows the old gasket with two slots marked. My instinct is to use the top one because this is the thickness of the bodywork
Next photo shows £5 worth of trim removal items
Last photo shows all of the trim bits
I also purchased a set of trim removal tools
The OEM plastic rivets were around £2.50 each and so just in case I purchased an alternative from Vehicle clips UK at a cost of £3.50 for 10 but in the event I didn't break any so I now have some spares
And as a final comment I have been finding water in the small plastic storage bit on the nearside of the boot. Whilst waiting for the bits to arrive for this little job I had put some sheets of kitchen towel all around the area so that any ingress would be easier to identify. After two days of really pissy weather the paper towels were all bone dry however when I opened the roof during the job process the little plastic storage bin was wet again. I reckon that its all coming off the boot lid, rear window and roof unit when its folding back into the boot storage area. There must be a moral to this and its either dont open the roof when its wet or wipe the roof etc down with a leather before opening.
