But once mold grows on the lens, it can only be scrubbed off. I had to use a stiff brush and some strong cleaner on mine. I'm sure removing the red plastic lens is the only way.
Here's a cut and paste of my link above:
As some of you guys are thinking about retrofitting LED's into your tails, I thought I would share some of my findings and mistakes to save you the trouble.
Tools you will need: An oven, tin foil and cookie sheet, leather gloves, putty knife, goo gone(to clean up any glue smudges on the lens afterwards)
I had a spare cracked 89+ tail to test out first. Into the oven it went for 8 minutes at 300 degrees, face down on a cookie sheet covered with tin foil.
Good thing I had a spare one to break! I did not realize that the lens had metal rivets holding it in as well as the glue.
I also cracked it here:
It cracked by pulling it up wards like this, putting too much leverage on the lens:
A small cuttoff wheel and a dremel is the best way to cut the heads off these little bastards.
Now, with balls of steel, I stuck my mint JDM tail into the oven! It was not budging before I knew about the steel rivets, but now that they're cut off, it came apart quite nicely. I gently pushed from the inside with my thumbs to get it started (this cracked the diffuser in my USDM lens by the way). Once I could get the putty knife all the way in between the lens and the housing, I slid it sideways, all the way around to seprate the lens without stressing it. The inner parts and diffusers pop out easily from here. It worked well enough that I would be confident to to it again. The heat was enough to soften the glue but not melt or damage the lens or housing.
