Warning: tinting/vinyl on tail lights

[Panman]

I was booking my car in for window tinting, and thought I'd get the tails done at the same time here was the response from my shop who have a lot of experience with prestige cars as well as having done a number of 86s and BRZs

Hi Xxxxx,

Tail light tinting on the 86 is not a good idea. For some reason they cause some kind of reaction and crack. This is information from Toyota. The only thing I can suggest is buying some tail lights out if the US for about $1200 that are lightly "tinted"

Mark on the 86 forums can point you in the right direction if you want the imported ones.

Kind Regards,

Emily Freeland
Solar Style Window Tinting

[86_ZN6]

All tail lights outside the US are all the same.

They are not tinted

The only difference between Them is the clear relfector

[Mr.Jay]

Don't think they know what they are talking about. Tinting isn't what causes them to crack or leak. its a defect from factory involving how the tails were torqued to the car or at least this is what it is according to Toyota.

Many guys are running tinted tails or overlay tails no problem.

hell my 1st set of tails I painted red and they leaked but then again so did the brand new replacement set Toyota replaced them with. On my 3rd set of tails now and they are leak free.

I'm pretty sure she is referring to the Graizo tails which are tinted and cost like $2700. These are the only lights I can think of that come tinted as the US lights deff don't

[NemeGuero]

Did they give you a hard time replacing them since they were painted?

[OmarGC]

Originally Posted by Mr.Jay

Don't think they know what they are talking about. Tinting isn't what causes them to crack or leak. its a defect from factory involving how the tails were torqued to the car or at least this is what it is according to Toyota.

Many guys are running tinted tails or overlay tails no problem.

They do know what they're talking about. It's thermal expansion differences between the tint film and the actual tail light plastic. Yes, from the factory these tail lights end up being defective and can crack.

But using tint increases the probability of them cracking due to one expanding/contracting at a different rate. Just a note, even though Toyota/Subaru have tsb's on this, they can refuse to replace your tail lights under warranty. Keyword: Can


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[Mr.Jay]

Originally Posted by NemeGuero

Did they give you a hard time replacing them since they were painted?

Nope, the service manager (doesn't know shit) tried to give me a hard time but I showed him the leaky tail light thread, the TSB about the lights and then asked to speak to the GM.

Once I spoke with the GM everything got fixed and they agreed that yes this is a known issue with the car. Car was out for 2 days as Toyota wanted to send one of their own guys to go check it out. 4 days down time since I had to replace them twice.

Service manager was the same guy who tried to tell me any poor fitments is caused by the massive amount of tq this sport car makes then when I let him know that the FRS has less tq then almost all the cars they had in the showroom

Originally Posted by OmarGC

It's thermal expansion differences between the tint film and the actual tail light plastic. Yes, from the factory these tail lights end up being defective and can crack.

But using tint increases the probability of them cracking due to one expanding/contracting at a different rate. Just a note, even though Toyota/Subaru have tsb's on this, they can refuse to replace your tail lights under warranty. Keyword: Can

Then wouldn't tinting film on any plastic tail light increase the chance of this occurring?

I also spoke to the Toyota tech that came from Alberta to check out my tails and was told that as long as nothing was physically done to the tail lights they will replace them.

either way dealerships "can" try and deny you for anything regardless if it actually effects the car or not

[OmarGC]

It does increase the chances of this... it's happened to a number of other makes/models.

But judging how this occurs so often even stock just shows how poorly the tail lights were designed & constructed

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[Panman]

Originally Posted by Mr.Jay

Don't think they know what they are talking about. Tinting isn't what causes them to crack or leak. its a defect from factory involving how the tails were torqued to the car or at least this is what it is according to Toyota.

Many guys are running tinted tails or overlay tails no problem.

hell my 1st set of tails I painted red and they leaked but then again so did the brand new replacement set Toyota replaced them with. On my 3rd set of tails now and they are leak free.

I'm pretty sure she is referring to the Graizo tails which are tinted and cost like $2700. These are the only lights I can think of that come tinted as the US lights deff don't

Nope - there has been at least one case I'm aware of where tint/vinyl was applied to the tail lights and they have ended up with cracks all around the outside of the lights.

My original post was:

I wanted to get my clear factory taillights tinted, the people who I asked to do the tinting said they had advice from Toyota Australia that they shouldn't.

Just providing a warning to people as there are loads of people offering/selling vinyl overlays for the lights on these forums.

[Mr.Jay]

Ahh cool

never seen any tails with cracks on the outside yet

thanks for the info

[RZ86]

I know of myself, and one other person at this point in time who have cracked tails. Toyota declined my warranty claim, so I'm stuck with these until I put the Grazios on.

[Lonewolf]

Originally Posted by RZ86

I know of myself, and one other person at this point in time who have cracked tails. Toyota declined my warranty claim, so I'm stuck with these until I put the Grazios on.

You might want to wait a month on the Grazio's...Spyder Auto (here in CA) should have tails out after SEMA, and they will be much cheaper than the Grazio's...

[Panman]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf

You might want to wait a month on the Grazio's...Spyder Auto (here in CA) should have tails out after SEMA, and they will be much cheaper than the Grazio's...

As long as they are legal outside the US that would be awesome.