Yes you have to remove the panel to access the bulbs. Panel is pretty easy to remove if it’s not cold.
Ohhhh, but it IS cold here in Denmark right now ... I'll have to try anyway ;-(( Thx for the advice !
It’s colder here in Finland. It was -35c here couple of weeks ago... If it’s less than 10 degrees below freezing just turning the heater to max for 10…20 minutes is enough. It’s also good way to get rid of moister inside the car if after that you open all the doors.
I haven’t used any tools for it. But you probably need some tool to pull some clips that stay in trunk lid. Flat plaid screw driver or side cutters work fine. That’s gen 3.
I have BAD experiences with LED parking lights - they burnes themselfs up with 1-2 months ... and it's illegal in Denmark. OK- that looks very easy ... eventhough it's cold ;-))
Grab a lower corner of the trim panel with your hands and pull the panel off. You may break some of the fasteners if you do this in cold weather. Removing the trim panel is the easy part. The hard part is going to be removing the light socket from the holder. The owner's manual shows which way to rotate the socket, but I found that to be incorrect. I ended up unbolting the license plate light assembly from the hatch, to improve my access to the sockets. Getting the light bulb out of the socket isn't that easy, either. You may need to use pliers with padding on the bulb glass, to remove the bulb.