Front Side Marker Light (disconnect or re-wire?)

I was searching but didn't find anything specific to this topic. And before adding aftermarket side marker lights (like HERE) I was wondering if anyone had considered doing this mod. I actually just did this for my friend's II this past weekend, and plan on doing it to my V after I get it (boat lands tomorrow at the port... yay).

In the owner's manual on page 478, the front side marker wedge bulbs use a standard wedge 2-way plug. It would be easy enough to disconnect the bulb if you don't want it lit up at night, but that kind of defeats the purpose of the light. The other option is to re-route the positive wire down to the turn signal, thus turning off the bulb at night when your lights are on, but still blinking when you turn on the signal in conjunction with your front & rear blinkers. Therefore, you can then have functioning side markers that flash when you hit the signal. I did this for my friend's car and now it looks pretty good at night with only the headlights & parking light bulbs on (H11 4300K HIDs and white 194 LED matches perfectly). When he turns on the signal, both the front bumper and the front side marker amber bulbs light up at the same time, at the same speed (no fast blinkers). From the side of the car, or even in the blind spot of the car, the flashing front side marker is very noticable and I think more of a good safety feature to have. The hardest part is just routing the wire and hiding it so it's done clean & unnoticed. The next time my friend comes over, I'll shoot some video of it at night.

I figured since it's too expensive to source some JDM mirrors with the blinkers already in them, and rather than drilling holes into the fender for some aftermarket side markers, this was the next best thing. Has anyone else done this mod? For some cars, this may be called the 'euro lights' mod, but it's something I've done on other cars.

 

Yes, it's better to tie into the turn signal than to leave it unplugged.

If you want to have the side marker bulbs light up and blink at the same time, the correct way to accomplish that is to run a relay (this is what I did on my truck, since the corner light is a single filament bulb). Otherwise, if you left the postive wire on the side marker connected to the parking lights, and wire the negative side to the turn signal positive wire (basically forcing the side marker bulb to become a 'negative' circuit when the signal is activated), then you can make the bulb blink but you'll most likely get a fast blinker because of the load on the circuit.

 

That will NOT work correctly, and it's also nothing new. I did this 15 years ago on my previous cars when I was modding them, and sure it will stay lit but it wil also give you a fast blinker. It's basically reversing the circuit flow on the wedge bulb so you give it 2 positives to equal a negative (bulb off) when the turn signal is lit... the 'ghetto' blinker mod we used to call it back in the day. Even on the Prius, as I tested it out for 5 seconds to see the result and got a fast blinker. But I didn't bother to post it up since it's something none of us would want to do if it gave you fast blinkers.

If the guy was "extremely" knowledgeable, then he would know the correct way is to run a relay - 2 relays, 1 spdt and 1 spst in series and it will work. I've done this on my friend's Prius so I know it works and allows the blinkers to flash at normal speed.

 

You don't need to remove the coolant tank. I just removed the 2 x 10mm bolts that hold it in place and pushed the tank back towards the firewall. You'll want to remove the air intake hose & box from the car. It's 2 x 10mm bolts that hold the box in place and just unsnap the wireharness from it. Then pull the tube out as it just slides into the other tube in the front of the car. If I had a picture of the engine bay, I would circle the parts for you as it's very easy and takes a minute to do.

Once the air intake tube/box is taken out, you can literally put your entire arm in there with tons of room... even more room than on the driver side.

I have a couple of the CF18-8 relays since they sent me an extra one. However I don't really care for the brightness of the current LEDs out there now (even the brighter SMD LEDs) for my blinkers. I also don't like the fact that they don't light up the blinkers when you lock & unlock the car, so I'm just using the Philips Silver Vision bulbs in there.