delta 88 tailights- falling out!!!

[lakesidebluexpy]

hi all-

my mom has a mid 90's delta 88. the tail lights keep breaking studs that are supposed to hold the light into the car body(a very heavy assembly with only 2 as i recall mounting studs!)

anyone experienced this problem? any solutions?? cost of replacement at dealer is absurd!

thanks for the advice in advance.......lakeside

[lakesidebluexpy]

btt......

can't believe no one has experienced this!

ok, an update-

the tailight housing/lens is held into the car body with 3 plastic studs. metal screws go thru the car body into the plastic studs. i suspect because of material differences(ie, different properties for metal and plastic, differing expansion contraction rates, etc) the plastic breaks at the end of the metal stud. truly a lousey design.

replacement(from dealer) tailight assemblies are over $200. each!

i would appreciate any ideas anyone has for a repair on this. has olds/gm issued service bulletins on this problem? my latest repair attempt was a plastic weld product(sort of like jb weld).

thanks in advance......lakeside

[ScoobyLives]

I had the same thing with a 97 that I just got from my dad. I removed the lens assembly and got some 2-part epoxy.

I just made sure that the areas around the posts were really dry and more or less dipped the studs into the epoxy mix and held them in place. Give them a couple of hours to really set up and then be very gentle when reattaching to the car.

It seems to have worked for me and certainly is better than $200!

[auto trainy]

I had the same on my 95 and ended up carefully drilling and tapping the howsing and replacing 2 studs with ss bolts (less heads) and also using apoxy at the base,the third stud had enough left to reattach with only apoxy. good luck