Replacing Bulbs in Taillight assembly on 2000+ MPV

Author: Alex
Date: Wed Jul 02, 2003 11:16 pm

If your backup, turn signal, taillight or stoplight bulb burnt out and you need to replace, there is good news for you - it's very easy to do.

My stop signal bulb just went out and here is how I replaced it.

First, you need a bulb type 7443 which is a combination stop/tail light (21W/5W). You can buy them almost at any store. I got a pair at Canadian Tire for CDN$9.49:

Here is how the bulb looks like:

To remove the rear light lens, first remove the two screws and pull the light outwards to disengage two hooks. The top hook on mine was quite stubborn so I had to pull quite hard. Eventually it came off:

Here are the hooks:

And the hook holes in the van's body:

To remove a bulb socket, just rotate it about 45° counterclockwise. It will pop right up:

Just pull the bulb and install a new one.

Reinstall the light assembly back in reverse order. It took me about 3 minutes to do the whole procedure.

While at it, I noticed that the lower section of the lens (on 2000-2001 model) has a dummy socket holder in it. It seems that Mazda planned to use this section for something. Maybe it is used on some specialty vehicles like police with strobe lights in it?

2002+ MPV actually has a duplcate tail light bulb in this place.

And, finally, here is the culprit - the burnt out bulb which lasted just under 3 years:

That's all, folks!

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