Topic: Opel GT - converting parking lights to turn lights

[Arabas]

i know Ophidia has been working with success to do the same mod, however his approach is too complicated for a less skilled person like myself.
furthermore there is one more thing. The GT, being a European car uses the turn signal ONLY when you push down or up the lever behind the steering wheel to turn and NOT as daytime running lights. one more thing is that the side markers do NOT work as side markers but only as side turn lights, at the same frequency as the bumber turn signal. if this is not clear to somebody, pls let me know and i will make a short video demonstrating it.

now, where does this leave us? i checked Toyota Yaris and Chevrolet Spark and both of them have only 2 wires going to the front turn signal (3157 lamp). the GT has 3. i believe that in Opel GT one of these 3 cables is inactive. the 3rd wire must have something to do with the DRL of the Sky but is there in GT coz both cars use the same parts.



The side marker (side turn signal in GT) must be a small led light (maybe 194 lamp) and you can not just replace the bulb. One has to be replaced  the whole thing. So this means that a small lamp, like 194 can perform the on-off of the turn signal. All cars use 3157 I suppose coz it is brighter.

So let’s unplug the parking light (not twist and pull out, just pull off). It leaves us with this



Notice the 2 pins on the socket left ON the headlight
Now let’s go on the front side of the fender where the turn signal wiring is.
Unplug it using a screw driver



and leaves us with this



right one (female) goes towards the side marker (as said side turn signal in the GT). Actually this is one part with the side marker if it needs replacement. Left one is the male, each have 2 wires.
In order to test my theory, the first step is to hack up (I mean to informally connect) a wire from the male socket of the side turn signal (holding it in my fingers) to the male socket of the the parking lights (this part is ON the headlight



If this works, it means that all we need is to correctly connect a wire to the side turn signal (4th picture) and run it up to the male socket ON the headlight (2nd picture) and tape them against moisture and water.

So, first thing is to see if it works this way.
If it works, I will post the next step of what I am trying to find and trying to do.

Question: what kind of wire should I test this with? Any 12V wire will do or should I seek some specific wire?
P.S. sorry for the long post, I tried to make it as small and explanatory I could.
I have some more things to post after this

[ophidia31]

That makes alot more sense since in Europe you NEED a side flashing signal and forward signal unlike in the US which would explain our lack of flash with our side marker.

What colors are at the plug in the headlight and the plug at the sidemarker? I cant tell from the pictures. But the bulb in the foglight housing has the same colors as the US. Those colors are Black = Ground, Blue = Turn signal and Brown = Parking light.

It seems that your side marker version may be tied into the turn signal wire that is at the light in the foglight housing. Since the smaller side marker bulb is such a small resistance, it doesnt cause load issues and can be added to the normal turn signal. This is just thinking so I cant be too sure until I see what those colors are.

[ophidia31]

Also, pictures and/or video of the headlights/parking lights on, just parking lights on, hazards on with the headlights and hazards on with the headlights off.

[Arabas]

thx a lot for your help Ophidia, i appreciate this!! 

picture 3 with the screwdriver (driver's fender). on the left there are brown and blue wires, after the adapter, on the right i have a black and white wire (????) -it is kind of diificult to distinguish, so i will take a better look on day light (sorry, leaving for the weekend).

here is a video of how the GT lights work (parking light, then parking lights with low beam, then prk lights with low beam and hazard lights, then only hazard lights on, then turn lights). don't get confused with the amber light on top of the headlight (parking light). it is still a parking light, i have just fitted an amber 194 bulb. it still works as parking light

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW3CqeOfDRE[/youtube]

[ophidia31]

Totally different than what I was picturing. You can do the "side marker mod" others have done to make that headlight bulb flash, but, you would also need to have your parking lights on all the time so that it would still act as your forward signal when you used your turn signal.

Im sure there is some way to use relays, or even build a circuit, that would cause the light to flash during the day when using the turn signal without needing to keep your parking lights on, but then at night reverse its duty to cut the power to that light in essentially what the side marker mod does for us US guys.

But that is getting into a whole other ball game so you may see what tomatosoup might say. Hes a little more skilled than I since he can build actual circuits. Because if there is a way to build a circuit to do what a dual filament bulb would do but with a single filament, then I just wasted a whole lot of time on my lights. 

[Arabas]

I GOT IT!!!!
it works and is 100% reversible!
and MAYBE it could work on the Sky too.

Here is a video of how it looks like
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4BQQhcDQjA[/youtube]

however, if we remove the 3157 bulb, the new 194 and side turn lights will flash more rapidly (i don't know if this called hyperflash and i don't know if this is bad or not)

for the Sky Owners, here is what you could try (of someone wnats to try this pls DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK-I am in no way a certified electrician)
after you do Joe's conversion of side markers to turn lights, you can hook two wires to each wire going to the ex side marker and run them up to the headlight. connect them to the socket of the 194 and you SHOULD be good to go..


attached the fotos of the wire i run (haven't properly hooked the wires)

[DeepBlueGXP]

Cool, good job, will it work as a parking light anymore?

[Arabas]

No, it will not work as parking light with this particular set up, but it's 100% reversiblee.
BUT, we have the female sockets of the parking lights just hanging there (u can see it hanging in the 2nd picture attached)...
SOooooo, here's an idea:
someone can buy 2 pcs of  24 (or 36) led dome light and hook them up to the parking light socket.
like this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/24SMD-5050-T10-Car-interior-Dome-Door-LED-Panel-Light-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem25662b4d81QQitemZ160627903873QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

it comes with a 3M double side tap, so you can put them on the inside of the hood and you have underhood lightning for cool effect when hood is popped up or for having some light if you have to work in the engine bay

[Arabas]

the foglight housing is off now (2 bottom screws are a PITA). however i don't want to leave it like this for two reasons.
the air will probably crack the wheel liner and maybe an opening there could affect the IC and radiator effeiciency for the worst.

any ideas on what to do with the opening? i want to see if i can do something myself before i go to a body shop and ask them to fit a non-opening ABS mesh gril.
someone could use that to direct even more air to the brakes, using a bigger air duct.
one more idea is to fit a hose and direct air towards the intake.

lastly, will a hyperflash cause trouble to the electrics or is it just annoying?

[J_Bond]

I'm doing this right now!!!!  NICE!!!!
I HATE the yellow foglight bulbs, so now I can finally pull them out completely and clean up the look of the front end.  
I think this setup is how it should have been from the factory anyways, now people in the other lane can see if you're signaling. it's much safer.

[kennysabarese]

What to do with the opening? Get something like this:

[attachment=1]

Stick it in there, and connect it to the stock brake duct. Then cover with larger mesh.

That's my plan once I ditch my foglights.

[Arabas]

that was my idea Kenny! i will try and find the right products since there aren't any ready air ducts to fit exactly.
until i have all the parts and figure out how to do it, i am trying something less  functional..
did u find this searching for brake air duct?

[kennysabarese]

Yeah this is on the top off google when i was searching for hoses. there's TONS of stuff like it out there. all different shapes and sizes.   you also might be able to make something out of metal relatively easy.

[Arabas]

just finished driver's side. run out of carbon vinyl to do the other side too.
below are some pics of how it looks and a video. (yeap, that's Barry on the speakers  )

Important notice: NO bulbs were harmed during this mod! 100% reversible within minutes! no need for load resistors

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWwJmzmeiiw[/youtube]

[ophidia31]

Nice! Thats using your head. 

[ophidia31]

Because if there is a way to build a circuit to do what a dual filament bulb would do but with a single filament, then I just wasted a whole lot of time on my lights. 

I've become a grave digger. But with age comes wisdom and I pretty much wasted a whole lot of time/money doing on my last car with what can be accomplished with a couple relays, load resistors and 194 amber bulbs. Ill have a new write up for this method when I have sky in hand.

What happened to arabas anyway? Kind of just disappeared according to his thread posting.

[Critterman]

What happened to arabas anyway? Kind of just disappeared according to his thread posting.

With everything that is going on in Greece he may have other priorities at the moment

[Kelu]

With everything that is going on in Greece he may have other priorities at the moment

Yeah sure, it's summer, over there everybody is at beach or buzukya ...

I think is because of his first new born, inexperienced ...