Surreptitious.....

[oldeskewltoy]

First off.... kudos to Delphi(Kenny - admin over @ hr.net). His post in my "WTD" thread helped in sourcing the socket assemblies.



My problem: My AE71 "normally" has 2 separate amber lens up front, one set for directional signals, the other set for parking lamps. In my car the 2nd amber lamps assemblies are being eliminated, so the problem is how to use one amber lens for two purposes.



I did a bit of studying... and found there was enough room on the lamp and the headlamp door to mount a 2nd light in the housing.



note the black marker mark.



The person I know with aftermarket lighting expereince is shadowless_nite (Justin - also hr.net member). I called him, and then brought the lights over to him. He worked on it for me a bit, and came up with a LED


The concept was right...but the LED wasn't bright enough. I felt some incandesent type bulb was necessary, but all the "normal" bulbs used as markers were much too large to mount in the lamp. I did some searches online for small 12V bulbs... doll house bulbs are what I found first, the problem with dollhouse bulbs is the same as LED... just not bright enough(50mA, or about 5% of a watt)

I then had the idea of using a Mag light bulb... but there are no 12V Mag light bulbs I found.... I went out to the garage to look around... and I was picking through a parts box when the socket was just there.... Micro bulbs are either 1.2, or 1.5 watts(much brighter than LED)




It was almost the right size... the barbs had to be removed and once I did I was able to twist the socket into the light (tight pressure fit)




Now that I had the solution, I just needed to find another socket. I looked online...... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA good luck with that.
I then went to Discount Import Auto(Euro auto parts supplier), they had spare bulbs... but nothing like the socket I needed....

So... I post in the HR classifieds.......
Delphi responds to my post that the sockets look a lot like the sockets behind the lights and wiper switches....


That they ARE!!!! Again, TY Kenny!

So, I know have a pair of sockets... and here they are fitted





And here they are in operation!!!!!!!



If you look carefully you can see the OEM bulbs inside the lights, NOT lit. I believe the 1.2 watt micro bulbs to be plenty bright enough as parking lamps. Problem solved.