If anyone has already, or is thinking of installing LED DRL/Indicator Switchbackbulbs, a word of caution. I have had a couple of the lenses detach themselves recently and on investigation it looks like they are glued in, but not very well. Had to remove one of the rear lamp units (bright rear indicators and reversing lights) to remove the lens and superglue it back on. The other one was fine, so as a precaution I ran a very thin bead of superglue around the edge, which should prevent it coming loose. One of the fronts has done the same, but the lens has vanished, thankfully. The thought of detaching the bumper to remove the headlight just to get a small plastic lens out does not fill me with joy. Both front ones (a couple of the LEDs have failed on the intact one) will be replaced with the addition of superglue prior to installation.
Nice job with the Switchbacks. I have the same bulbs as you but I cannot get the rubber on the bulb to pass the plastic castellations on the indicator socket in the headlamp unit. Made both thumbs very sore this morning and still cant get the bulbs in. Even tried a little silicone spray and that didn’t work. Any ideas?
I have spent the morning trying to fit these bulbs and have tried some silicone but cannot get the rubber past the indicator socket. Is there a trick to it? Any advise gratefully welcome.
Hi, just for info, I gave up with these particualar Switchback LED’s. The moulding had far too much rubber to allow it into the holder. Ordered some Black unit and when they arrive the cone of the rubber was much smaller and popped straight in the headlight unit without spit or Fairy Liquid. Managed to wire them up, although the Wiring diagram on the On/Off Relay controller said to connect direct to the battery I found they were constantly on. Tapped a live feed at ignition and hey presto, all happy. Only down side is that they dont go out when the low beams are on, despite having a piggy back fuse connected as per @Mac5’s post. Getting there slowly. Thanks for you insightful wisdom.
Hi, Thanks for coming back to me previously. I have taken your advise and have purchased a change over relay. Currently with the DRL relay box I bought I have taken a switched feed from the black and yellow wire leaving the multiplug in the Fuse Box. White wire to the Piggy back fuse on one of the headlamps and then the black to ground and the red to the DRL’s via their inline fuse. Based on this can you advise how to wire the relay. I know terminal 30 is the power and 85/86 are ground with 87 /87a on and off. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Jeff,
Would you mind if I asked your advice. I’ve read through your posts here and on MX5 Driver about fitting switch-back DRLs to my NC 3.75 (25th Anniversary Edition), and I’m a bit puzzled by the wiring on the relay I’ve got. The DRLs look the same as yours, and I’ve tested them and they work as expected. I’ve (hopefully) attached a photo of the relay I got (actually there were 2 in the pack). It has red, black and yellow wire inputs, and also red, black and yellow outputs which are wired into a plastic socket. I’ve tested the red and black input and output wires with the DRLs and again, they are fine. I tried connecting the yellow input wire to a piggyback on one of the dipped headlamp fuses, but that didn’t dim the DRL when the headlight came on - I assume that no current was going through that wire so that’s why it wasn’t triggering the relay. Therefore I need to connect that to one of the wires to the dipped headlamp - so my first question - how do I identify which wire to tap into?
The second question is - have you any idea why there’s a yellow wire on the output side of the relay, and where should I connect that to? Other relays I’ve seen for sale don’t have a yellow output wire.
Many thanks,
Chris! 20200923_155112|225x500
If you have fitted switchback bulbs then, to the best of my knowledge they are not designed to dim. The purpose of the relay is to illuminate them when the ignition is turned on and automatically go off when the ignition is turned off, approx 15 seconds later as the battery voltage drops.
The dimming bit is aimed at external Led light bars (for want of a better expression) which use an extra wire that dims them when they get a feed from the dipped beam.
I will do some further research on what I did (it was a couple of years ago) and revert.
Jeff
EDIT
Looking at a couple of photos, I didn’t connect the yellow wire I just tucked it away down the side of the fuse block, per my pic on MX5Driver and didn’t bother about dimming.
I also fitted them in the rear so that they came on with the reversing light to get some brighter illumination, obviously no relay needed
for that config as the power supply is the normal reverse light.
. Thanks for getting back to me. Much appreciated.
Sir, many thanks indeed. I was along the right lines nice to get a second opinion.
