For those following my saga of doing a full LED conversion to all the exterior lights on the car, I think I have finally reached the end of that journey with this latest mod.

After installing LED 1157 bulbs in the front parking/turn signal locations, I realized that when the headlights were on, I didn't have sufficient brightness differential between the two functions. When the headlights were switched on, activating the turn signals made the lights flash, but not by enough that people facing the car could really tell.

So I decided to do two things: One, I was to modify the parking/turn signal housing itself. Two, I was to run a different color bulb for the parking lights as opposed to the turn signal lights to give it even more differential.

So first of all, I had to find a couple of spare parking/turn signal housings to experiment on. I managed to get a pair off eBay for about $20, which I considered pretty much a steal.

Then, I had to go about finding what to use for the embedded parking light I intended to install in the housing. I chose a standard 194-style socket, pictured here ($6 at any auto parts store):



Also recall that I wanted to use a different color bulb. Here's what I picked, a set of 194A bulbs (A stands for amber). More on why at the end of this post:





Next up was finding the exact location to install the new socket. Have you ever taken your parking/turn signal housing out of the car? If so, you've seen this lovely thing peering at you from behind the bumper:



That's a metal plate, and it obscures a good bit of the free space you have behind the factory 1157 socket. This becomes an issue if you mount the new parking light socket too far to the edge of your light housing. Fortunately, overall space is pretty much unlimited; the wiring harness that serves the factor socket can be pushed back into the body of the car through an oversized grommet that offers you a couple of inches of slack to work with once you remove the entire light chassis.

Knowing I didn't want to have to worry about this steel plate, I chose to mount the new light as close as possible to the old one, like so:



The next thing to do was sketch off the part of the light housing I needed to drill/cut. This pencil is actually designed to write on the surface of plastic bowling ***** while sketching out layouts:



Next up, you'll need some tools. In the first picture, there's a long cylinder hand file from my late father's old woodworking kit (like the pencil in the above shot, I also now use this tool to work on bowling ***** to customize thumb holes). You'll also need a Dremel router bit for customizing the shape of the new socket hole to accept the socket locks:



In the next picture is a standard 1/4" drill bit, and a 1/2" countersink. I miscalculated the size countersink I'd need; I probably needed a 3/4" or even a full 1-inch bit. Countersinking itself isn't necessary, but a countersink on this plastic light housing works a lot more smoothly than trying to use an actual hole saw. You can see the resulting holes (1/4" pilot plus 1/2" countersink):



Finally, here's what it looks like all put together:



I was pretty happy with the way that came out. It took a little bit of elbow grease but it's otherwise a simple modification. Now, finally, here's what I got when I put these in the car:




On the left side of this picture (passenger's side of the car), is the old light setup, a single 1157 bulb operating in parking light configuration. Blinkers are not on. On the right side of the picture (facing the driver's side of the car) is the new 194A bulb. Notice the color difference, and the visible difference in this picture in regards to intensity. The 1157 bulb on the left is a clear white bulb shooting through the amber lens; the 194A bulb on the right is an amber bulb shooting through an amber lens.

Now, when I activate my turn signals, the brighter 1157 white bulb overdrives the lesser-intensity amber 194A. This creates a distinct change in appearance, and the intensity difference is quite noticeable. The 1157 bulbs no longer light up with the parking light feature, and the new 194As do not light up with the turn signal feature.

This fixed my issue of unnoticeable turn signals completely. There is still the matter of my green arrow lights on the dash not functioning anymore, but I'm going to give this a rest for awhile before I come back looking for a solution to that problem. Combined with the changes I made to the headlights (LED conversion), tails and side markers, I now feel like this car has as modern a light setup as any vehicle on the road today.

Jess

 

Hey Jess,
Keep in touch regarding the inoperative green arrows. Mine no longer work either and the relevant section of the S57 wiring diagram makes no sense to me. Ian

 

To clarify, this occurred after your mods? Or was it pre-existing?

Cheers
DD

 

This basically started after my last of my original mods -- replacing the front turn signal/parking lights with 1157 LEDs. It didn't happen when I replaced the rear turn signals, which I did first. It happened only after replacement of the front 1157s.

I guess I could try installing resistors, or putting a dummy fixture in, installing some regular bulbs and hiding them behind the bumper somewhere. That's the step I had to take earlier this year with a 1988 Mitsubishi Starion. The resistors didn't work, but a dummy fixture did. I just hid the bulb somewhere it wouldn't be visible.

Also, my bulb-out amber light now shines whenever I turn on the headlights, or step on the brakes. I actually like that, because with the lack of a warning buzzer, I sometimes get out of the car around sunset and inadvertently leave the lights on. Having that amber light shining on the dash alerts me to the need to turn the lights off.

Jess

 

Hmmm.

I can understand why the bulb failure system would react to the LED bulbs.

I can't imagine that the dashboard arrows would know or care, though

Mulling required.

Cheers
DD

 

The only thing I can think of is it's related to changing the flasher module over from a thermal to an electronic flasher, but the layout of what I used is the same as factory. I would have gladly left the thermal unit in, but it made my flashers flash at approximately one blink every three seconds or so. Way too slow.

Jess

 

Great info. My green dash turn signal indicators are so dim I can't see them in the daylight. They are working since I can see them at night. If you come up with a brighter solution (pun), be sure to let us know. You are the master of lighting upgrades.