Black Knight Posted June 9, 2012 Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 I’ve recently fitted a set of JDM rear light clusters to my UK Gen 6. First thing I discovered was that I now have 4 rear/brake lights, very cool But of course I now have NO rear fog light Simple plan is to put a red bulb into the drivers side reversing light and move the control wire feed in the multiplug over to the fog light feed socket. This should then give me 1 reversing light, passenger side, and 1 rear Fog light, drivers side. The current bulb in the socket is 21w. Went all over town for a red bulb, best anyone could offer was orange!!! Apart from Halfords who wanted to sell me LED clusters at over £12 So ordered appropriate bulb on Amazon for £5 for a pair. Despite being listed as a 21w bulb when its arrived its actually 23w So question is, is this going to be ok or will it fry something??? I’m guessing fuses should not be an issue as originally they would have been running two 21w bulbs = 42w. But will now only be powering one 23w bulb. But what about the cables in the loom? Will they fry with an extra 2w? Surely they must be rated above 21w as a safety margin? Or am I totally wrong on all of this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggy Posted June 9, 2012 Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 Why don't you make it so the inner brake lights become fog lights when they are switched on?you just need 2 diodes ..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted June 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 You mean so the fog light switch works like an override? That would indeed be a more preferable way of doing things, but I’m not confident with electric’s at the best of times, so need to do this in as simple a way as possible. And replacing the reversing light only requires unplugging a wire and plugging it back in somewhere else It might be worth mentioning as well that these are not the late spec JDM’s, just the standard lights. So if it comes to it I could just slot the UK loom back in for MOT. But want to find a legal solution long term as I rather like the quad light look Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Chris_ Posted June 9, 2012 Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 (edited) http://gt4dc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5220&sid=a28b6601a91eceb6b73047d3248d1f4b A few pictures of the modification I did to get the rear fog light into the light cluster...Picture of the original vs the later spec rear light cluster Another picture of the rear lights. Note that the connections into the housing are orientated slighty differently, but the original loom still fits without modification Picture with a small section of the loom wrapping removed to expose the wires... Modify the wiring similar to this - note the fused 12V supply. The rear lamp draws 1.7A. I fused the supply at 5A. This mod means you can run the inner lights as switchable fog lights, whilst keeping all the brake lights and without illuminating the "bulb blown" indication in the dash Kris Edited June 9, 2012 by _Chris_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted June 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 Now that would be really useful if I actually understood it What bulb blown light? That something unique to the GT4? And I can’t see that link dude, not a member of the GT4 club. Ow and they are not late spec lights, just the standards if that makes a difference. See below: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted June 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 Does anyone know the answer to my original question? If I cant use these bulbs then I need to send them back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Chris_ Posted June 9, 2012 Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 (edited) To answer the original post directly, 23W will be fine in place of 21, there will be enough margin for error. could you not just put the uk wiring (and possibly sockets/bulbs) into the JDM light cluster ? Edited June 9, 2012 by _Chris_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
25th Anniversary Posted June 9, 2012 Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 To answer the original post directly, 23W will be fine in place of 21, there will be enough margin for error. could you not just put the uk wiring (and possibly sockets/bulbs) into the JDM light cluster ? The best way is to as you say buy jdm lights and use original bulb cluster.Looks the best also, and i have a few sets in stock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted June 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2012 To answer the original post directly, 23W will be fine in place of 21, there will be enough margin for error. could you not just put the uk wiring (and possibly sockets/bulbs) into the JDM light cluster ? Yes buddy I could, and if I can't generate a rear fog simply then that is what I will do to get it through MOT Like I say though, would just like to find a simple long term solution that means I dont have to keep swapping the looms back and forth! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenc1603 Posted June 11, 2012 Report Share Posted June 11, 2012 OK, I assume yours is a UK car, so you have the proper rear fog switch in the drivers side vent panel? If so, this is what I would do: Firstly, buy one of these: http://www.freakyparts.co.uk/epages/es120337.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es120337_es124285571161/Products/Fog_Kit_01/SubProducts/fog_kit_01-0001 Yes its £15 but it save hassle, so I think its worth it. Now you need to be capable of cutting the correct wires in the cluster looms and joining the wires of the item above to it. If done correctly this will give you 5 brake lights when the fogs are off, or 3 brake lights and 2 fog lights when the fogs are on. Remember when doing this, you want to keep the device and most of the wiring inside the car, not behind the cluster. This means you need to pass a couple of wires through to the driver side cluster and one to the passenger side one. When I did mine I just carefully popped them through the same hole as the cluster looms go through and made sure they weren't damaged in the process. You'll need to unwrap the insulation tape from the cluster looms. We will start with the drivers side cluster only just now, leave the passenger side one until the end! If you look at the wires you should find a green wire with a white stripe on it. This is the brake light feed. This wire should go to 2 bulbs in the cluster. You need to snip the wire that goes to the inner one (nearest the number plate) of the 2 bulbs. Snip it with enough length attached to the bulb holder so that you can put a connector on it. If you look at the little device you have purchased you will see it has 3 wires on it. The instructions will tell you which wire is which but looking at the picture, I would say the blue wire is the output. You need to connect this wire to the wire we just cut, connecting to the end that attaches to the bulb holder. Read the instructions and find out which wire on the device is for the brake feed. Connect this to the other end of the wire we just snipped. Now we need to sort out the fog connection. If you remove the rear inner boot plastic you should see the connecting plugs where the looms from the car join to the cluster looms. Look in this for a red wire. This is the fog light feed. You'll need to snip this wire and join it to the last wire on the device. Before we connect up the passenger side loom, go ahead and test. Brakes should have both brake bulbs come on, fog, only the inner one. If that's all working we need to sort the passenger side. Again unwrap the cluster loom to expose the wires. Find the green/white wire that connects to the inner bulb. Snip this wire, however this time, the end that connects to the loom just needs to be insulated with a bit of tape and can them be wrapped back up. From the end that connects to the bulb holder, connect up a bit of wire and join this to the blue wire from the device. This will mean the output of the device is sent to both inner bulbs. Wrap the loom back up and install the cluster, tidy up and jobs done. Hope that helps. Just for reference, the wiring in the cluster looms should be: Ground - white/black Brake - green/white Reverse - red/white LH Indicator - green/black RH Indicator - green/yellow Fog - red Tail - Green Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted June 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2012 Mate that is an AWSOME little guide. Even I can understand that I will definatley get me one of those soon as I have some spare cash, (which might be a while as I'm about to shell out for an engine block replacement. The Oil burning curse of the 7A-FE ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
25th Anniversary Posted June 11, 2012 Report Share Posted June 11, 2012 Mate that is an AWSOME little guide. Even I can understand that I will definatley get me one of those soon as I have some spare cash, (which might be a while as I'm about to shell out for an engine block replacement. The Oil burning curse of the 7A-FE ) Same happened to mine, twice! Unless you get a new/reconditioned engine it may happen again as i found out. gonna do a beams conversion now so will stop that from happening again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted June 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2012 (edited) Same happened to mine, twice! Unless you get a new/reconditioned engine it may happen again as i found out. gonna do a beams conversion now so will stop that from happening again! I'm guessing you just had the existing engine re-built then with new Piston rings, seals etc? Fensport are taking the short block from a 7A-FE engine out of a V reg… Avensis I think, to be mated to my top section. Thereby completely replacing my rubbish old style 4-hole pistons with the later improved 8 hole pistons that don’t burn oil. Had the word straight from Toyota that its all to do with the number of Oil drain back holes in the pistons that cause this problem. So short of those pistons failing at a later date that should be problem solved for good... Costing me an arm and a leg but still cheaper than buying a reconditioned block or getting Toyota themselves to do the work! Edited June 11, 2012 by Black Knight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
25th Anniversary Posted June 11, 2012 Report Share Posted June 11, 2012 I'm guessing you just had the existing engine re-built then with new Piston rings, seals etc? Fensport are taking the short block from a 7A-FE engine out of a V reg… Avensis I think, to be mated to my top section. Thereby completely replacing my rubbish old style 4-hole pistons with the later improved 8 hole pistons that don’t burn oil. Had the word straight from Toyota that its all to do with the number of Oil drain back holes in the pistons that cause this problem. So short of those pistons failing at a later date that should be problem solved for good... Costing me an arm and a leg but still cheaper than buying a reconditioned block or getting Toyota themselves to do the work! Nah i just bought another (reconditioned) 7afe with low mileage but developed the same problems after a few years.Goodluck with the new engine, i figured instead of shelling out on another 7afe engine, may as well do the full hog and beams it hehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted June 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2012 Yea I crunched a lot of numbers thinking about going for a complete 2L conversion, but on paper the extra Insurance/running costs where going to cost me more after a couple years than sticking with the 1.8. And as its never been about horses for me makes more sense to spend a bit extra now to stick with it. Not to mention the hassle of getting the car re-registered with DVLA!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetheforce Posted June 14, 2012 Report Share Posted June 14, 2012 There is a guide in the wiki JDM_Rear_Light_Conversion it is for jdm conversion but if you only read the bit about wiring it should help (apologies if this is repeating advice). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted June 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2012 (edited) Does anyone know how to remove wires from these multiplugs? I want to relocate the red reversing light signal wire into the spare fog light socket. I thought they must just pull out but seems not, guessing there is a trick to it??? Edited June 25, 2012 by Black Knight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted June 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2012 Sorted A bent over paperclip sloted nicely in the back to release the clasp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenc1603 Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 Yup, normally a really thin screw driver or paperclip will do it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts