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How to adjust fitting for tail lights?

rfalc

New member
Location
Denmark
Hi guys,

Unfortunately I had a table dropped on my outer right tail light, trying to get it into the trunk, which resulted in minor scrates to the tail light, but more annoyingly the tail light moved down a couple of mm, making it misaligned with the inner tail light.

Today I tried to remove my left outer tail light to compare the two, to identify if any plastics had broken. To my surprise it turned out that the left tail light sank a to the same position after I reinstalled it (without touching anything else) and just screwed the plastic bolt in again.

It's been driving me nuts trying to figure out what's going on here. Is there a horizontal adjustment that I'm not seeing or is it somehow possible to install it incorrectly? I've attached pictures of both my tail lights as they're currently fitted.

Note the gap at the top.


 

nype

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Vancouver, B.C.
There are 2 little screws on each outer tail, but I believe these adjust the light figment depth wise.

Looks to me as though the hatch is sitting higher. Has it become misaligned somehow?
 

rfalc

New member
Location
Denmark
You mean the two plastic screws? Are they even meant to be turned? They seem to be to be locked in place.

Nope, the hatch is absolutely fine. As mentioned, the left tail light was fine this morning, until I took it out and put it back in again.
 

nype

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Vancouver, B.C.
I thought those little holes had set screws inside for depth adjustment. I haven’t had to adjust mine though.

I’ve removed my tail housings numerous times. Haven’t had this issue or seen it posted before. I have installed different euro incandescent outer housings as well. No issues with alignment like this.

Do the housings sit properly when they’re just initially snapped into place (before securing with the big white plastic screw)?
 

rfalc

New member
Location
Denmark
Yes, they do, at least that's my best guess. I had my father in law double check just to ensure that I wasn't doing anything stupid, and he came to the same conclusion.


Very interesting... I might drive by a VW mechanic and see if he can point me in the right direction.
 

Navi

Autocross Champion
Location
BK/NYC/Hamptons
ive seen that gap on almost every car.... I think it's pretty normal. Esp on 7.5 lights. The outer portion of the tail light has a different slope at the top than the inner portion. You're probably only noticing it now because you are checking for damage. Did you compare to the other side? Also, I don't think you can adjust the outer portion up or down, but you can for the inner portion so maybe move the inner portion to line up. You don't want to compare the top of the lights for equal level, but rather the lines of the turn signal.
 

rfalc

New member
Location
Denmark
I found a picture I took a month ago, where you can see the misalignment on the right and how it looked prior to me taking out the left and putting it back in again.

 
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