2008 CX-7 Sport
My tail lights have a clear lens ( I assume this is standard/stock) however, the lens is a little frosty, opaque and as a result the brake rear lights and brake lights are not very bright.
1. Can I polish these like is done with headlights? It seems this is much softer plastic than headlights and may not polish well.
2. Can I install much brighter bulbs? If so, please give me some recommendations.
3. Is it worth replacing the rear light lamp housings? these seem pretty expensive.

thanks,
SR22

 

Try polishing them.

 

The brake light has a really bad design. If you ever look at any CX-7 (at least 07/08, I can't remember if/when they ever changed the tail lights and what year after 07/08) you will see that all of them have smoky tail lights and not only are they not very bright, but they're not red on the top half.

There is a tube that the actual bulb is inside. The tube is tinted red. The bulb gets hot enough that it melts a hole in the tube, and the plastic drips down onto the bulb. And then there's a hole in the plastic tube, which is the red part, and the light escapes from that hole, so it just shines white, and isn't tinted red.

This is sorta hard to describe with words, but if you look close up, or ever change the bulb to see it from the inside, you can tell exactly what I'm saying is what happens. I tried to ask my dealer to do something about it, but of course they just said I must have used the wrong bulb. But every CX-7 you see is like this. It sucks 'cause the only way I can think of to repair it and have red brake lights is to buy a new housing, which is not cheap. And then you'd have to get different lamps too, so it doesn't burn a hole in it again.

I filed a complaint with whatever federal agency handles recalls, I can't remember, probably DOT. Never heard anything about it.

 

You are correct about the melted area. I took a look. I’m thinking of drilling out the tube to open it up completely and then installing red led bulbs. Off to the parts store.

 

Thanks for that info. I tediously removed all of the red tube area by using a spade drill bit and needle nose pliers. I put red led bulbs in and now the brake lights are pretty bright.

 

Creative fix.

What bulbs did you use?

I've looked into it a bit and was going to try to find some LED lamps since they're not as hot as incandescent. But haven't yet.

Were you able to clean any dust/haze off the inside of the housing? They get smokey from the burning plastic which goes all over the inside and sticks to the clear lenses of the housing.

I love my car but this had always frustrated me a lot.

 

Sorry it took me so long to get back.
I used these. The brake lights are very, very bright now no can do get attention

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