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By Howard. Please feel free to send any comments or corrections.
Having a Shoebox sized Black car with Black
interior, means that other drivers sometimes just don't
see you!
I like to drive with
a set of lights on - the popups are well, large, and
the parking lights on a standard MX5 just don't cut it
(NZ, UK and other MX5 models have a large indicator
section, and small park light unit on the outside. See
pic on the right). There is also the fact that the large
orange bit inside the indicator lenses looks a bit ugly.
US & Canadian Miatas don't have this problem, as they
have a dual bulb in the large part of the indicator unit,
and nothing in the small bit (it is empty). Their lights
also don't have a large orange lens inside.
Keith Tanner, in Ottawa Canada has replaced his indicator bulbs with larger wattage white bulbs, and I decided it might be a challenge to do something similar. Because of the differences between the Miata and MX5s indicator housings, some parts are more difficult, but the wiring changes I made were definately simpler. The most obvious difference was removing the orange lens. Anyway, on to the technical bits...
- What you will probably need...
- A heat gun, or possibly a decent hairdrier.
- Four wire crimp joiners, or Solder, Soldering iron and Heat shrink insulation.
- A little bit of duct tape, or other heat resistant tape.
- Round file, reamer, or dremel tool.
- Two 21W blade type bulbs. Same type as used for MX5 high stop taillight (I used Narva Brand 12V 21CP T-15mm part no 47526-1 from Repco)
- Two 15mm Amber Silicon Sleeves for bulb (sometimes referred to as bulb condom. I used a Pack of 5 Narva brand part no 49990BL from Repco)
- The 21W indicator bulbs are reused for the driving light, but a larger wattage bulb could be used.
- The bulbs and sleeves could be exchanged for an amber coated blade type bulb if one can be found - I could only find a 5W type which was not bright enough for my tastes.
1. Remove the lamp housings
The first thing you need to do is remove the
indicator/part lamp housings. This is easy - there are two decent
sized Phillips head (Cross-head) screws on the front of
each one. You don't have to take them all the way out,
just enough so that the light housing is freed, but you will need to remove them fully to get
the clear lens off anyway.
may just fall out, or they may require a bit
of coaxing around the edges with a screwdriver or
similar. You will need to take the two bulb holders from
out of the back - they twist anti-clockwise about a
quarter turn, and come out. Don't lose the black rubber
seals that are mounted between each of the bulb holders
and the light housing. The removed light housing is shown
on the right.
Once removed, the next step requires a lot of patience
and a reasonable amount of time if you want to be careful
not to damage your light housings.
2. Remove the clear lens cover
The clear lens on top of
the housing is glued on with a grey coloured rubbery
sealing compound. Fortunately you can soften this glue by applying plenty of
heat. Lay the lenses on a concrete floor, or heat proof
surface, and slowly go around the glued edges with your
heat gun. Work the edges of the housing with a flat blade
such as a screwdriver.
Be very careful, and proceed slowly. There
are six plastic clips, two on each side of the lens (Just
raised bits of plastic), and you will need to prise these
free as you go. They can be a little bit hidden by the
glue in some cases.
There are also a few problems to contend with...
a) That heat gun burns! If you have leather, or heat
proof gloves, it may be sensible to wear them.
b) The heat gun is really good at melting plastic! Go
slowly, but keep the heat moving. You don't want to melt,
or crack your clear lens!
c) The glue cools down quickly and hardens again. Go
around and around, bit by bit, prising the plastic as you
go. It may take a bit of practice and time. You can see
the grey goop in the picture on the right, and it also
shows one of the clips.
It is probably no big deal if any
of the clips break, as there is plenty of goop to hold
the covers on tight.
Once you have removed the clear cover, you should be able to see the orange lens inside. The picture on the right show what the removed clear lens looks like, with plenty of grey goop still attached. Also, you can see what the inside on the housing should look like.
3. Remove the orange lens
The next step is to remove the orange lens,
which is pretty easy. Once again, two Phillips head
screws hold it in place.
It also holds in place a metal reflector that sits behind the bulb, so once you remove the lens,
screw the screws back in place to hold the reflector in.
If you are using the 15mm 21W bulb, you will need to enlarge the hole for the new indicator bulb (was the small 5W park light). Use a file, dremel or similar, but enlarge slowly, and only so it is a tight fit. There is a cutout on each side of the hole so that the bulb holder sits in when fitted and turned slightly. If you take it slowly, you can enlarge to such a state that the bulb goes through the hole, and holder still fits in nicely. If you enlarge the hole too much, the bulb holder won't stay in place.
This may be a good opportunity to clean up
the inside of the light housing if necessary, mine was a
bit water spotted, and the metal reflector had a few rust
spots. Most of the inside of the housing is plastic
however, including the top and bottom mirror reflectors.
Put the orange lenses away, just in case you ever want to put them back the way they were on day.
4. Reassemble the lamp housings
If you are happy that the bulbs fit
in nicely, and the metal reflector is screwed back in
tightly, you can put the clear lens back on. Use the heat
gun again, and press the clips in place as you go. Try
and get the grey goo all the way around to seal it up
nicely again - but don't burn yourself with the gun, or
hot goo! Reassembling is thankfully much easier than removing the cover.
5. Swap over the wiring
Now you'll need to get on to the wiring. On
the left you can see the two bulb holders, the larger of
which was originally for the indicator. Cut the red and
the green wires and either solder & heat shrink, or
use crimp type wire joiners to join them back up to the
opposite wires (i.e. red to green and vice versa) It
couldn't be simpler!
6. Fit the lamps in place
You'll then need to move the housing
back to the car, and fit the bulbs
in place. I reused the existing 21W indicator bulb for
the driving light. I originally tried using an amber
coated 5W bulb for the new indicator, but didn't find it
very bright. If you do this, you obviously won't need to
enlarge the hole as shown previously.
Fit one of the silicon bulb sleeves over the
21W blade bulb, and push it in place in the holder (the
one that was originally the park light). Covering the
base of the bulb with a thin strip of duct tape or
similar may be a good idea, as the amber cover doesn't
cover the entire bulb length. This will stop the
remaining white light from 'leaking'
You can see the two bulbs I originally used and the new bulb with 'condom' on it on the right. Fit the other 21W bulb if it isn't already, and place the bulb holders back into the housing. Ensure you reuse the black washers that were on there originally, as they help keep the moisture out. Place the housing back on the car again, and test the lights before you screw it down. Obviously the outside bulbs should come on when you indicate, and the new driving light bulbs (that were originally the indicator bulbs) should come on when the light stalk is switched to park.
 The new indicator.. ummm... indicating.  The new 'orange reduced' housing!  The New Driving Lights in Action! |
And that should be it! Using this silicon
cover means that the indicator isn't as 'Amber' as the
original, but it is pretty good. It is slightly more pink than the original.
The driving lights are great though, and I switch them on most of the time. You can even use them for inner city driving, but obviously they are NOT good headlights, and are NOT correctly focussed. That's what your popups are for. They are dull enough not to annoy anyone however.
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