POPULAR SOARER MOD: Changing Tail Lights

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          

            Series 1, 1991-1993                          Series 2, 1994-1996                          Series 3, 1996-2000                              "eBay lights"

 

 

A popular mod for Soarer owners is to change tail lights. This is typically those owning Series 1 Soarers (1991-1993) changing their tail lights to Series 2 (1994-1996) or Series 3 (1996-2000) lights. Whereas in the USA the Series 3 tail lights are the more popular choice, here in Australia the Series 2 lights appear to be more popular. In any case if you change your tail lights there are 3 important and essential things you need to know and do to make this mod work. It is not just simply a matter of swapping light assemblies and plugging in the looms.

 

In each case you need to use the looms that came with the light assemblies. None of the looms are interchangeable. All looms have the same connector to plug into the body harness.

 

 

Fitting Series 2 or Series 3 tail lights to a Series 1 Soarer:

 

1. Note: without doing this you will get "hyper blink", ie. super fast flashing of your turn signals. Firstly: remove the brown coloured flasher unit located in the block junction in the driver's footwell. It sits s bit further back from where the fuses are. Use a torch to see. Push the clip at the bottom with your thumb and gently pull it out. Once out, take it apart (very easy) and replace the blue timing capacitor on the circuit board to a 6u8 50V capacitor. These are not available through JayCar - don't bother. It's an unusual voltage. You need to get one from a radio/TV/car audio repairer. Once the capacitor has been changed, reinstall. This fixes the hyper-flash. There is no other way to fix this.

 

2. Series 2 tail lights will fit straight into a Series 1 car. Just unscrew the 4 nuts holding the lights in place, disconnect the loom and pull out. (You might want to loosen the boot key lock mechanism for the RHS lens assembly if it is being difficult to come out.) Series 3 tail lights will not go straight in. The inner pin holes are not in the same place as the Series 1 and Series 2 assemblies. You have to take a pair of cutters and cut the inner holes in the body of the car about 4-5mm horizontally to make the holes wider for the different pin positions of the Series 3 light assembly. Once you have done that you can fit the Series 3 assembly to both Series 1 and Series 2 cars.

 

3. Because there are different numbers of bulbs in all series of tail light assemblies you will get the "lamp out" error message on your dash and "bong" sound when you put your foot on the brake or when you turn your headlights on. This is because the Lamp Failure Module is different for every light assembly. However, using a 1997 lamp failure module with a set of 1997 tails fitted to a 1991 car will still not stop the error message from coming up. Same if you fit 1994 lights to a 1991 and use the correct 1994 module. The easiest way to fix this is to disable the lamp fail warning completely. This is achieved by simply disabling a resistor in the module that powers that function. The module is located in the boot of the car near the RHS rear boot lid strut. It clips to the body. Removal is simple. Unclip it from the body of the car and use a flathead screwdriver to unplug from the harness. Take the module apart. Identify the 6.8 ohm resistor and snip both ends and remove it completely. If you ever want to go back to stock tails just simply buy another 1991-1993 lamp failure module. They are easy to get second hand and are cheap. Once you have removed the resistor reassemble the module and refit. Magic! No more light out message and annoying "bong" sound.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fitting Series 3 or Series 1 tail lights to a Series 2 Soarer:

 

1. You do not need to modify the flasher unit.

 

2. Series 1 and Series 2 lens assemblies are interchangeable. Series 3, as described above have different inner pin positions and you will need to widen the inside pin holes of the body of the car to allow the Series 3 assembly to fit.

 

3. You will need the correct lamp failure module for the corresponding tail light assemblies. Simply replace the module with the module that goes with the lights you have just put in and you will have a fully working set of lights with a working lamp failure module!

If you are installing Series 1 lights you will need module 89373-24100 (red one) if you have a spoiler or module 89373-24070 (grey one) for a non spoiler car.

If you are installing Series 3 lights you will need module 89373-24150 (brown one) with spoiler or module 89373-24160 without spoiler (pink one.)

 

 

Fitting Series 1 or Series 2 tail lights to a Series 3 Soarer:  

 

1. You do not need to modify the flasher unit.

 

2. Because of the bigger holes in the body of the car for the the inner pins of the lens assembly the earlier model lights will fit in easier. You may not even need to loosen the boot lock mechanism.

 

3. Replace your existing lamp failure module with the corresponding module of the lights you are putting in.

 

 

Fitting aftermarket "altezza" lights to any Series Soarer:

 

If you want to fit aftermarket "altezza" lights, ie the Supra style "eBay lights" to a Series 1 Soarer you will have to do exactly the same as if you are changing to other OEM lights, as desribed herein. If you want to fit them to a Series 2 or Series 3 Soarer you only need to fit a Series 3 lamp failure module to elliminate warnings. Therefore a Series 2 Soarer requires a Series 3 lamp failure module and a Series 3 Soarer requires no modifications at all.