Installation of Shift Lamp

Smegman. · Postby **Smegman.** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:20 pm

Hey guys,
I'll be getting my MX-5 soon (I'm only 17 at the moment) and it will be an NB and I can't wait!
I was wanting to get one of these: http://pivotjp.com/product/revlamp/img/revlamp_catalog-e.pdf
I was wondering if anyone would be able to tell me if it can be, and how, it wires up.
Any help is appreciated.
THANKS!

Hjt · Postby **Hjt** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 1:55 pm

Best of luck with your NB when it arrives, many people around here can give you tips. My best tip, just short shift at low revs to gain "eco driving", you will be surprised how much fuel you can save by driving softer. I save about 100k's from a tank by driving conservative. Shamefully i am a heavy foot and my car is my "hobby"

greenMachine · Postby **greenMachine** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 10:09 pm

Hjt wrote:Best of luck with your NB when it arrives, many people around here can give you tips. My best tip, just short shift at low revs to gain "eco driving", you will be surprised how much fuel you can save by driving softer. I save about 100k's from a tank by driving conservative. Shamefully i am a heavy foot and my car is my "hobby"

Eco driving :shock:

Short shift :frown:

Blow that! Rev the bugger!!!

MX5s are for spirited driving, not economy runs. They are happy to rev to the redline (maybe not every time, but frequently), and that will reward you with the experience that only a well balanced, rev-happy rear-driver can give

.

Re your question, the big board may be of assistance (miatanet.com). I thought OBD2 was a generic test/output socket, and the NB8Bs have one of those, not sure about the NB8As. Do a search on there and you may find something, or register and ask a question - OBD is a bigger deal over there than it is here, and you are more likely to get good advice on this question from them.

But maybe someone will have an answer here ...

:mrgreen:

Postby **Okibi** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:40 am

Early NB's in Australia didn't have an ODBII plug (I have an adaptor I haven't tried yet)

If you can afford it, aim for the later NB with ODBII plug, 6 speed,bigger brakes,fog lights, better headlights,VVT, stiffer chassis, better interior etc.

Spend your money on driver training before worrying about shiftlights.

bootz · Postby **bootz** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 11:53 pm

2001 NB (including SP) no OBDII :cry:

2002 NB, my car, OBDII :mrgreen:

You can use an iphone app but I dont want to mount and plug in a phone everytime I get in the car. Also not a fan of fiddling with bluetooth either.

Only waiting for someone to integrate the data cable into a head unit touch screen and we can all get real time diagnostics.

I am sure there are one or two resident geniuses, (am I talking SE owners?) who would like to take up the challenge. Come on guys.

devski · Postby **devski** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:04 am

I never understood shift lights.

Black_Penguin · Postby **Black_Penguin** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:36 am

They allow you concentrate on the road/track rather than watching the tacho or listening to the engine. I drove my dads Lotus 7 replica on the track with and without a shift light. Without it I found I was changing up at 6000 RPM a full 2000 RPM before redline/max power, meaning I had to keep an eye on the tacho make sure I was making full use of the availble power with out hitting the limiter. With it I was able to concentrate more on the track and simply shift when the lights flashed (we have it setup to light up in sequence from 5000 then flash at 7500).
This is the one we have used Shift-i

ShadyDeals · Postby **ShadyDeals** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:24 pm

After i get my 5 back from the workshop i want to put a shift light in also. Check out the speco one, it's pretty cheap and it has a dial on the back so you can adjust it on the fly. I looked at the wiring instructions on it and it seems simple. you have to tap into yout tacho wire and earth. Sounds easy.. but i havn't done it yet..

According to the diagram the tacho wire on my NA comes out of the igniter. hmm

I vote we test it on your car first :lol:

[url][/url]http://www.mediafire.com/?mn1mzmmbknw[url][/url]

deviant · Postby **deviant** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:21 pm

Save your money on the Speco one: http://www.justjap.com/store/product.ph ... at=&page=1

You can probably get cheaper than that on Ebay.

They actually take a bit of dicking around to get them set up. Ones like the above can take their signal from all sorts of places so need a really really good earth and sometimes the numbers don't always match with what you are doing.
It is also not as simple as just setting the light to come on at the point you change gear.....I have one that is wired directly in to my Haltech ECU and it is a 2 stage light. I set the ECU to give me yellow at 6500RPM and Red at 7000RPM to shift but I found on track that I really need to be setting the lights a touch earlier than my ideal shift point so that I am in the sweet spot by the time I have reacted and grabbed the gear. I now have yellow at 6800RPM and just use red at 7500RPM as an overspeed / shift NOW light.

I actually fitted mine because I was OVER revving the engine on track.

Smegman. · Postby **Smegman.** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:58 pm

Thanks for all the suggestions and knowledge guys...
I'm already looking at later models of NBs so hopefully that will happen and make it a bit easier

I'll check out maiatanet.com too, thanks for that :wink:

Peace and love friends.