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hey guys, i've seen a lot of mx5's in america that have their front side lights (the ones that are on the sides of the bumpers) running as well as their parker light and i was wondering how it was done. can i just marry up some wires from the original lights to those lights or would it need a separate button/wiring?

In most American states, they don't have parking lights. But some states require the side reflectors to light up.
You need reflectors that will hold a bulb, the stock ones won't, unless you dremel a hole in the back and buy some rubber bulb holders.
You can double them up or relocate.
I've relocated my parking lights, it's just cut and extend the factory wires. There are pics on my garage thread.

I stuck LED lights into mine and used vampire clips to run them as indicators.

I bought some of these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/120860573769?item=120860573769

And because my side markers are red I used yellow LEDs
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=251133631716

One set of US side markers had a hole to suit the T10 bulb holder and I had to use a dremel to create holes in the other pair.

I would advise sticking with legal lighting and not just modding for the sake of it. A side repeater is a very functional item and it must be on the vehicle. You do not need a side marker - that's why MX5 used reflectors. Trucks use led side markers. Quality small units with proper leds are readily available- check web sites for Narva, Hella etc- just take a look at trucks and trays on the road and see them in action. USA is probably not worth talking about- different lighting regs and they trailed Eu for decades with antiquated lighting systems.

Mr Morlock wrote:I would advise sticking with legal lighting and not just modding for the sake of it. A side repeater is a very functional item and it must be on the vehicle. You do not need a side marker - that's why MX5 used reflectors. Trucks use led side markers. Quality small units with proper leds are readily available- check web sites for Narva, Hella etc- just take a look at trucks and trays on the road and see them in action. USA is probably not worth talking about- different lighting regs and they trailed Eu for decades with antiquated lighting systems.

just noting that i wont be taking removing any of the lights, i just wanted to add an extra light where the reflector is because i think it looks cool

nasfiftyfives wrote:can i just marry up some wires from the original lights to those lights or would it need a separate button/wiring?

It depends on if you want to be able to switch them on and off independently.

Presumably you'll just want them to be on whenever the parkers are on, if that's the case it should be as simple as just piggybacking off the wires already there.

Just remember with the extra pair of lights you're drawing more power, so there's a risk of it blowing the fuse (which is good, because the fuse protects it from instead just catching fire)


I have no idea how to check if the wiring can take the extra draw.

When I wired in my foglamps I used a relay and wired them with their own circuit and fuses. (that's overkill for parkers though)

Running a relay wouldn't be too tricky if you're having them off the parker lights, as I was using mine as indicators I used LEDs so it wouldn't draw much on the original circuit.