I am thinking of installing a rear view camera with 3.5" monitor on my R57 to help with the poor rear visibility. On my previous R56, I installed a parking sensor system by tapping the power from the reverse light bulb holder.

After reading the owners manual, and poking around on my R57 it seems that the access to the bulb cluster is a lot more restricted and bulb changes are supposed to be done via a tiny opening when the top is in the easy load position. I tried taking the taillight off from the outside but after removing the 3 torx screws it only comes out by a little before getting stuck and I can't see what's holding it in.

Any ideas how to make this fiddly job easier ? I

 

Do you really need to remove the taillight? According the Owner's Manual, changing a bulb is just by reaching in and twisting to remove any of the 4 bulb holders. You should be able to improvise a wire attachment to the reverse bulb holder.

Something else you might be able to do is unplug the taillight connector and tap your wire there. You can probably reach in and unplug it by feel (you may have to press on a tab on the connector to release it). However I don't know how much wire slack there is to work with. The reverse wire is grey/blue stripes.

To remove the taillight after removing the screws, you have to release a couple of tabs from the inside, at the top and bottom.

 

Yes the owners manual makes it sound straightforward.

Unfortunately the access opening is only around 5-6 sq in size and awkwardly located under the rear part of the hood when its lifted, location as shown by arrow. Basically I'm working blind and have to feel around not knowing what I'm doing. The other taillight is even worse, with the soft top motor and electronics crowding the limited hand space.



This is the opening