Boot panel removal process?

[st3v3cx-3]

Has anyone had to remove the plastic panel in the boot? How is it done?

Problem on my car is that when changing the boot light bulb for a LED one I managed to drop the existing bulb inside the boot panel area when it sprung out of the spring contacts. For some unfathomable reason to me, Mazda in their wisdom decided to have the boot bulb fit from the back on the plastic cover rather than like all the other internal lights where the bulb simply fits from the front into a recessed mount This is compounded by the wiring having hardly any slack and the hole not being big enough to get a mirror and magnet inside to try to fish out the loose bulb. So I've now got a bulb rattling around in an area behind the plastic panel when braking or accelerating

So warning to other CX-3 owners - if thinking of changing the boot bulb, make sure you completely cover the hole so there is no chance of the old bulb going down there!

[jtonline]

I pulled that panel back on both sides when I did my tail lights modification ( viewtopic.php?t=2247 ) but it was a long time ago and I can't remember the procedure I used. It must have been quite straightforward though, as I didn't have a workshop manual to follow. I think I lowered the back seats, removed the rubber seal around the boot edge on both sides and the boot carpet and then just pulled the panel.

There's a door in that boot side panel that just unclips to access the scissor jack, so if you remove that door you might be able to see where the bulb has gone without having to remove the whole side panel

[st3v3cx-3]

Many thanks for the feedback Julian. I suspected it will be necessary to remove the seal in order to get a tool behind to free off the panel. I did check inside the area where the scissor jack is located as it is right below the light fitting, using a magnet on a stick in the hope it would catch the end of the festoon bulb, but to no avail. Unfortunately the bottom part of the right hand panel doesn't seal off completely and leaves a small gap where the bulb might have gone. So looks like I will have to bite the bullet and remove the whole panel unless by some fluke it did spring out into the spare wheel area which I will double check first.