Filthy License Plate Light Lenses

Wifey surprised me last week when, on a rare occasion that she drives (borrows) my 2022 T4R, she also used the back tailgate and so commented to me as clean as you keep your truck, why are the license plate lights so dirty?

She said she attempted to wipe them off for me but could not, as the dirt was on the inside of the lens units. I had never paid any attention to it, but after she brought it up, it bugged me.

I decided to take them apart to clean them on the inside.

I don’t know how they got so dirty- there are black rubber gaskets that seal (supposed to seal) the lenses against the bulb housings, and all held together by two Phillips head screws per unit.

Anyway, I disassembled them and cleaned them up. Much nicer now.

For grins and giggles, I also took the time to put a pair of new “peanut” light bulbs in them while I had them apart. Because, sure as hell- if I would not have done that, one of them would have burned out anyway in the next week or so. That’s just the way a lot of stuff works for me. So, I beat them to the punch. lol.

Anyways, no biggy, but dad gum it now I have clean license plate light lenses. Lol! Easy task.

Before and after pics:

 

I'm not too sure why dirt gets into them. I originally swapped them for a sealed board LED style but they were too bright and lit the ground so I went back to the OEM housings with LED lights.

 

Nice! My guess is that the dirt is coming in through the window seal.

Now I need to check mine.

 

Nice. I did the same with Meq. plastic polish. Much better.

 

Man i wish i had some peoples time to complain about such things.

 

I have this problem currently. I do like the extra lighting but it causes a little glare to happen in my backup camera.
I might just throw some tape on the edge of the one side the glare is and see if that kills it. If so I'll just put something a little more permanent there. (Paint?)

Edit: Originally I changed them because the OEM's were so full of dirt they hardly worked anymore. LED's work a lot better and are sealed units.