Photo 1Several people have written various notes over the years giving details on the installation of the 1994 and later taillights onto 1990-1993 MR2s. I reviewed all the notes and instructions I could find before carrying out the modification on my MR2 and found that there was still room for more detailed notes on some parts of the installation. So I wrote my own.
For the list of parts, please see my other taillight page.
You'll need the following tools to complete this modification:
Lay out all the parts and make sure nothing is missing. Make sure you have a soldering iron, solder, electrical tape and appropriate electrical connectors. Cancel the security code on the stereo, if you use it. Write down the radio station presets, if you're bothered. Disconnect the ground cable from the negative battery terminal in the front trunk. See Photo 1.
Start by opening the trunk and disconnecting the taillight wiring harnesses under the carpet at each side of the trunk, as shown in Photo 2. Note that these connectors, like almost all electrical connectors on the MR2, are latching, so look for the release clip before you try to force the connector apart.
Now remove the two rear taillight side markers. Wrap the end of a large flat-bladed screwdriver in electrical tape (to protect your paint!) and lever out the side markers, as shown in Photo 3. Use a cross-headed screwdriver to remove the two screws that are exposed under each side marker, as shown in Photo 4. Save these screws for later use. Remove the single cross-headed screw on top of each taillight unit, as shown in Photo 5. Save these screws too.
The taillights are now being held in place only by two plastic clips, so simply pull them straight back from the rear of the car to remove them. See Photo 6. Gently pull the rubber grommet and electrical connector through the hole in the body panel so that the taillight unit can be removed completely. See Photo 7.
Repeat for the other taillight unit.
Remove the two carpet fasteners from the rear wall of the trunk by gently pressing the center “button” with a pointed tool, as shown in Photo 8 and Photo 9. Gently pull down the carpeting from the rear of the trunk. Note that there is no need to remove the plastic trim on the the trunk lip surrounding the trunk latch mechanism. See Photo 10.
Use an 8mm socket to remove the four nuts securing the center panel. Two of the nuts are in plain view and are shown in Photo 11, while the other two can be reached through the access holes in the body panel, as shown in Photo 12. Save these four nuts for later use.
Now take a firm grasp of the center panel and pull. You can either try pulling just from one end or from both ends at once. After the four nuts have been removed the panel is just being held on by two plastic clips, but they seem to have a very secure grip. See Photo 13. Follow Rob Griffiths' advice on the www.mr2.com page and make sure there isn't anything behind you when you're doing this.
At this point the exposed bodywork on my car was covered in a pretty good layer of dust, which I assume comes up from beneath the rear bumper, so I took a wet cloth and gave everything a good clean. See the before and after pictures in Photos 14 and 15.
The rear of your MR2 will now look very odd. See Photo 16 to see what I mean.
Because the wiring harnesses for the 1994-style taillights are different (since the reversing lights are wired separately), you have a choice of modifying either the new wiring harnesses to fit the old connector or the old wiring harnesses to fit the new taillights. I think the latter option is simpler and it is the method I'll describe here. You may wish, however, to review my notes on the different lighting effect that is produced by the two different harnesses.
First, use a cross-headed screwdriver to remove the two metal bars on the back of each of the old taillight units, as shown in Photo 17. Save these metal bars and screws for use in a moment. Now carefully remove each of the bulb holders from the old taillights by gently turning them anticlockwise, as shown in Photo 18. You'll be installing these bulbs and bulb holders in the new taillights, so be careful not to drop any bulbs on the floor.
Use a cross-headed screwdriver to remove the two corresponding plastic clips on the back of the new taillight units, as shown in Photo 19. Discard these clips and screws. Now transfer the old wiring harness to the new taillight unit. There are two things to be aware of here. Firstly, because the new taillight units do not incorporate the reversing lights, they have take one bulb fewer than the old units. The reversing bulb is the second from the end opposite from the tiny side marker bulb. Secondly, the old bulb holders are of a slightly different design than the new ones, so it is a little tricky to get them to fit. However, they do fit without any kind of cutting or shaping being necessary. Just take your time orienting the bulb holders as shown in Photos 20 and 21 and clip one side in before the other, then rotate about one-eighth of a turn to lock into place. The taillights should look like Photo 22 when you've completed this step. The left taillight unit is shown in the photo - the bulb positions will obviously be reversed for the opposite unit. Note the reverse bulb hanging spare. Finally attach the two metal bars to each taillight that you removed from the old units a moment ago.
Photo 19
Photo 20
Photo 21
Photo 22
Cut off the reversing light bulb holders from the old wiring harnesses, leaving a couple of inches of wire attached to the harness. Discard the old bulb holders. Fit appropriate electrical connectors to the two wires (one colored red, one white) you cut. I used bullet connectors with good results. Both taillight units with the wiring completed can be seen in Photo 23.
Use four 5mm nuts (either official Toyota ‘caps’, part number 90179-05095 at 86 cents each, or just regular 5mm hex nuts) to attach the new reversing light assemblies to the new center panel. See Photo 24. Note that the lights are marked left and right, so make sure you don't mix them up and attach them upside-down.
Since the 1994 and later MR2s have a different wiring harness that the reversing lights plug into, you'll have to modify the wiring to make it work on your older MR2. Start by cutting off the connector and rubber grommet from new reversing lights and separate out the two pairs of wires. You'll need each pair of wires to reach the taillight wiring harness on each side of the car, so extend the wiring if it is too short. Be sure to solder and tape any joints if you don't want to be doing this again in a few weeks. Now add two pairs of electrical connectors to the four wires (two white and two green). These will mate with the connectors you added to the main taillight wiring harnesses in step 5, so make sure you use the appropriate gender connectors.
If you're trying to save a few bucks by not replacing the trunk lock mechanism, you can skip this step and move straight on to step 10. But I'd recommend you carry this out. If you don't, and your trunk release cable breaks or comes loose, you'll be stuck with even less luggage space than you had before...
Using a 10mm socket, remove the old trunk lock mechanism from inside the trunk. See Photo 25. Detach the trunk latch rod (to the left, in that photo), the trunk release cable (to the right) and the electrical connector if your car is equipped with the factory alarm. Remove the lock mechanism from the car.
If you don't mind having to use a different key to open the trunk on your car, you can omit this step. But it really isn't difficult as long as you are careful with small parts. I did it just by following Austin Tracy's textual description on the www.mr2.com page and it really wasn't hard. Start by laying out both lock mechanisms on separate towels. You'll be dealing with some small parts and you do not want to be crawling around on the floor looking for them.
If you take a look at Photo 26, which shows the old lock mechanism above and the new one below, you can see that the new lock cylinder is considerably longer than the old. This is because the new center panel extends good inch or so further back from the rear of the car. Start the rekeying process by removing the trim piece from the front of the lock cylinder on the new lock mechanism. Use a small screwdriver or a pointed tool for this. Try not to damage the trim piece, although it probably won't show when everything it reassembled. See Photos 27 and 28.
Now insert the key into the lock and remove the small C-clip on the back of the lock cylinder, as indicated in Photo 29. Remove the cable release lever, as shown in Photo 30, and the electrical alarm connector. Be sure you are holding the mechanism over the towel as you remove the lock cylinder and key from the housing. There is a tiny ball bearing in the back of the housing which will probably fall out as you remove the lock cylinder. If you don't see it fall, check inside the empty housing, since it will probably still be held inside by a dollop of grease. Take the ball bearing and put it somewhere safe.
You should now have extracted the new lock cylinder complete with key. Examine this part and notice that along its length are slots which house the individual pins that make up the lock. Each pin is held against a tiny spring by the presence of the key. As long as the key is inserted into the lock cylinder the pins will remain in place. See Photo 31. The new lock cylinder I obtained had slots for nine pins, but only seven pins were actually present.
Now carefully remove the key from the lock cylinder while holding it over the towel. You'll notice the individual pins will pop-up from the cylinder as the key is removed, as shown in Photo 32. Carefully extract the pins from the cylinder using either a pair of long-nosed pliers or tweezers. If any of the tiny springs come with the pins (and they will), insert them back into their holes in the lock cylinder. Note that it is important that you keep the pins in order, since it is the order (and length) of these pins that determines the lock's combination, so remove them one by one and lay them out on your towel, as shown in Photo 33.
Repeat the previous sequence of steps to disassemble the old lock mechanism.
You should now have two lock cylinders laid out with the pins for each alongside. Note that my 1993 MR2's lock cylinder had a full complement of nine pins, as shown in Photo 34. You should now transfer the pins from your old lock cylinder to the new one. Transfer the pins one at a time and make sure each pin ends up in the same slot in the new cylinder as was in in the old. Your new lock cylinder should now look something like Photo 35, where I've inserted the old pins into the new cylinder and the new pins are laying alongside. Insert the key (the old key, since you've just rekeyed the new lock) and you should see that all the pins are pulled flush with the cylinder. If they aren't you're either using the wrong key or you've mixed up the pins somehow.
You now need to reassemble the new lock mechanism. Place the tiny ball bearing in the lock housing as indicated in Photo 36 and temporarily hold it in place with a small blob of grease. This ball bearing is what provides the “detents” in the lock mechanism when you turn the key to the left for valet mode and then back to vertical again. Insert the lock cylinder with the key in the vertical position, being careful not to push the ball bearing out of the housing. When the lock cylinder is almost home press the ball bearing down into the spring-loaded hole indicated in Photo 36. The lock cylinder will then click home and be held in place by the ball bearing, as shown in Photo 37.
Fit the alarm connector, as shown in Photo 38, followed by the metal disc and cable release lever. See Photos 39 and 40. These parts can only be fitted in one orientation, so if you refer to the photos you should have no trouble. Finally, reattach the c-clip to secure the entire mechanism.
You might want to transfer the new lock mechanism's pins to your old lock cylinder and reassemble the old lock while you can still remember how to do it and still have the parts.
Fit the new lock mechanism to the car with the two bolts previously removed. Reattach the trunk latch rod, cable release and alarm electrical connector. Before you close the trunk, it might be a good idea to test the lock mechanism. Remove the striker from the underside of the trunk lid and insert it into the latch. Turn the key a few times to test. Also test the cable release lever inside the cockpit. Test valet mode by turning the key to the left and removing it. In this mode the internal trunk release lever should not function. Reattach the striker to the trunk lid and test once more.
Take the new center panel and reversing light assemblies that you put together in step 6 and offer it up to the rear of the car. You will immediately notice that because the new reversing lights are quite deep the rear body panel prevents the center panel from being attached, as shown in Photo 41. Mark the places on the rear body panel where the reversing lights come into contact and go and fetch your hammer.
Take a deep breath and gently hammer the body panel in to provide clearance for the new reversing lights. If you hold an old towel over the panel as you hammer you should be able to avoid chipping the paint. It only took me about 30 seconds of gentle hammering before I'd provided enough space for the center panel to fit. See Photos 42 and 43. Be careful not to distort the metal around the lock mechanism when hammering on the right hand side.
Attach the new center panel assembly with the four nuts you saved in step 3. Ensure the reversing light wires do not pinch as you tighten the nuts. See Photos 44 and 45. Make sure the lock mechanism aligns with the hole in the center panel. Adjust with a suitable precision tool (eg, hammer) if required.
Offer up the new taillights and connect the two pairs of electrical connectors for the reversing lights. Make sure no water can get into this connection - wrap it in electrical tape or shrink tube if necessary. Press the taillights home so that the metal bars snap into place, making sure you don't pinch any of the wiring harness.
Secure the taillights with the two screws at the side and the single black screw on top, both of which you saved in step 2.
Insert the tiny bulbs into the new side markers and rotate to lock them in place. Snap the side markers into the taillight units, plastic clip first, metal clip second.
Note that if you have the Japan-spec. amber rear side markers these will not have a hole for the bulbs. You can either fit them in place without the bulb (in which case I think your car will not be 100% legal from a lighting point of view) or you can carefully drill a hole in the back of the side marker to accept the bulb.
Peel away the clear backing from the new “MR2” logo and offer it up to the back panel. The semi-transparent front sheet has little notches cut into it to help with the alignment, as shown in Photo 46. Smooth the logo into place and carefully peel away the front sheet..
And that's it! Reconnect the battery, clean-up, reprogram the stereo and take it for a drive!
Click on any of these thumbnails for larger versions:
If anybody has any questions or comments on this article, I'd be glad to hear them. Email me at cars [at] noegruts [dot] com.
I'd like to thank the following people who helped, whether they're aware of it or not, in the preparation of this article:
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