Sidelight wiring

[John]

Has anybody noticed strange wiring on their sidelights?

Whilst playing with some LED's (fed up with apparent six-month life of modern bulbs) I found that the driver's side was wired centre negative i.e. the case of the bulb holder is positive. This caused a few sparks when testing bulbs with the holder removed! :shocked:

Anyway, I modified the LEDs to suit but (can you guess?) when fitting the battery side one I found it wired the other way round.:angry: So had to crack the bleeding LED housing again and re-rewire.

Anybody know if this is standard Galant wiring or have I got a quality control issue??

[I-S]

I've found that the Galant chews sidelights also, but I think I know why. It's because it's right next to the main bulb, and the main bulb runs much hotter. This causes the sidelight to run too hot and expire prematurely.

You may find that the LEDs get killed by the heat of the main bulb too.

Afraid I don't know about the "correct" wiring, but I would be very surprised at the bulb body being more positive than the pin.

[Rikki]

I've found that the Galant chews sidelights also, but I think I know why. It's because it's right next to the main bulb, and the main bulb runs much hotter. This causes the sidelight to run too hot and expire prematurely.

You may find that the LEDs get killed by the heat of the main bulb too.

Afraid I don't know about the "correct" wiring, but I would be very surprised at the bulb body being more positive than the pin.

sidelights are a pain to get into too. the heat kills the colour of the bulb (if they are coloured) as i bought some blue sidelights, and they now glow yellow/green. quite strange looking really. not much you can do about it though.

as for the wiring, when i replaced the bulbs i didnt notice anything wrong - sorry.

[pezza]

Has anybody noticed strange wiring on their sidelights?

....

Anybody know if this is standard Galant wiring or have I got a quality control issue??


Yep I went thru and thought exactly the same thing a few months ago.... /Grrr

Unfortunately, I too started working on the wrong side amd stupidly assumed the other side (passenger I think) was the same :thinking: switching round the polarity was fairly easy though, I just cut and swapped the cable to the bulb instead of opening up the bulb...

It does not matter which way round the standard filament bulbs are, they will work either way.. so its not a problem reverting to them...

What I have found is that the LED bulbs suffer the same fate as the filament bulbs and blow farily regularly.. The LEDs though have this cool flashing/blinking routine when on their way out, looks pretty cool unless you drive by the cops /help

With the indicators its the same story.... the polarity the wrong way for LEDS..

[John]

Thanks for the feedback - quick as always (what do we do all day??).:2thumbsup

Thanks Pezza for having already modified the wiring too. My concern was that with all the metalwork inside the off-side headlight being positive I might upset the headlamp levelling circuit if swapped. Now where are those wire cutters....

I Wonder if I wire the headlamp washers to the intermittent wiper circuit it will keep the sidelamps cool? :jester:

Incidentally my MOT tester failed the car due to my ultra-white LEDs: he insisted they were blue.:bobby2:

[pezza]

..

Thanks Pezza for having already modified the wiring too. My concern was that with all the metalwork inside the off-side headlight being positive I might upset the headlamp levelling circuit if swapped. Now where are those wire cutters....

..


Incidentally my MOT tester failed the car due to my ultra-white LEDs: he insisted they were blue.:bobby2:

I probably have the same headlamps as you, but have not wired up the levelling circuitry as yet... so not sure if that would be affected? Cant think how it could be tho :thinking:

Bugger about your MOT... I am gonna take my car to *recommended* test stations from now on! /Grrr It was a right farce this year. But I did replace my LEDs and ice blue headlamps with standard bulbs beforehand just in case! /yes