Topic: Brown, the new black? (turn signal mod mix-up)

[Sly Bob]

Let me say off the top that since the turn signal mod came out last year, I planned on doing it. I have read every thread on all the boards and a few weeks ago I was reviewing Joe's thread here in Joe's garage.

I am laid off from work at the moment for a few weeks and my wife has a nasty cold. She is off work with the cold and she NEVER misses work. I was looking for something to do, something free was just the ticket.

I got the wire cutters, wire strippers, soldering iron and electrical tape out, and went to work. Carefully I unwrapped the harness in the vicinity of the connector that goes down to the front fog lights. Here is what the right side looked like before I started. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]
After unwrapping the harness I clipped off the brown wire as close to the main harness as I could. Clipping it close to the main harness gives you more wire to work with when you tie it too the blue wire.

That would be great if it was the brown wire that you should cut! It isn't... If I had been paying more attention I would have known that. I thought i was doing well. Had lots of brown to work with and when I tested it before soldering I thought it was rather funny that the side marker light and the front turn signal light flashed in sync. Soldered it up, taped it up and all was well, or so I thought. It looked great, just like stock and then I had second thoughts. Why weren't the lights flashing alternately like others that have done the mod? Are the 2008s wired differently? When the lights are on without turn signals the side markers are off! 

Maybe I should investigate further. Go to the board and look at Joe's thread again. It was the BLACK wire that was supposed to be cut!   Fortunately I was able to get enough of the brown to solder it together and put on a piece of heat shrinkable tubing to put it back the way it should be and so I could cut the RIGHT wire, the BLACK wire.

I cut the black as I had cut the brown earlier, soldered it and taped it up and it now looks as though it was stock all along. It works well. The marker flashes alternately as it does on videos that have been posted. When the lights are on, the side markers are as well. Free is good, not reading or not paying attention to instructions is not.

I got lucky, I could have been doing a major project and my mistake could have been an expensive one. As it turned out it was easy to fix.

If you are doing mods to your car, with instructions here or anywhere for that matter, read and understand them first. 

The final results speak for themselves. All's well that ends well. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Critterman]

brown, black, what ever, just snip and check later

[Sly Bob]

brown, black, what ever, just snip and check later

It was dark, who could tell? 

[DeepBlueGXP]

That wouldn't work for ChuckDoc, snip snip and no workie, ouchhh

[G8TR]

That wouldn't work for ChuckDoc, snip snip and no workie, ouchhh

Now that's funny!

[Morfious]

brown, black, what ever, just snip and check later

Isn't that the motto of the Bomb Squad?

[Sol Asylum]

Just be glade it wasn't on an airplane, the instructions would have read cut the white wire and 99% of the wires would have been white.

[Smiling Clint]

That wouldn't work for ChuckDoc, snip snip and no workie, ouchhh

Now that would depend what Chuck was snipping!