Overview
The rear light display of the DeLorean is contained in two mirror-image lenses mounted to the fascia. The light bulbs themselves are mounted in sockets that are part of a circuit board. There are five bulbs and four functions. From the center of the car going out, these are: back-up light, brake light, taillight, brake light, and turn signal indicator. The boards are the same for the right and left, just mounted upside-down from each other.
Bulbs
Tail Light Circuit Boards
Factory original circuit boards are prone to failure, most commonly as a poor connection where the bulb holder is attached to the board, resulting in intermittent connectivity. DMC Texas has developed a 21st century tail light circuit board with a new design and, for those with bad connectors on their tail light wiring harness, an alternative connection method.
LED lighting Upgrades
With the addition of a proper flasher relay, these bulbs can easily be replaced with LEDs for brighter lights and less electrical draw. DMC (Texas) offers a variety of LED upgrade packages with and without the modern replacement circuit boards:
Sometimes you will see where the amber turn signal lens has faded, occasionally on one side, sometimes on both. The amber portion of the lens is NOT separately replaceable and while mixed results have been achieved over the years by painting, the most reliable fix is to replace the entire lens assembly.
License Plate Lighting
The rear number (license) plate is illuminated by two bulbs mounted above the plate. These lenses tend to fill with road dirt and should be cleaned from time to time.
NOTE: The license plate light lenses are held in place with two screws each. The screws are threaded into a steel plate on the inside of the fascia. The steel plate is NOT attached to the fascia in any other way, and will fall inside the fascia when the lenses are removed. To reinstall the lenses, remove one of the tail light fixtures and reach inside, holding the steel plate in place while starting the attachment screws.
NOTE: Certain LEDs (dome lights, license plate lights in particular) can be inserted both ways but will only work in one direction. If you install an LED bulb and it does not work, simply reverse the bulb in the socket. This does not apply to the tail light and parking light bulbs, nor the marker lights.
Revised 7/5/2016 DAS [formatting. license lights]