Euro tails wiring (now with pics and no red X's)

[Smurf]

Okay, I just recently wired up my euro tails, and when I tried to follow the directions in the sticky it left me pretty confused, and with all the pictures having turned to , it left me working hard to find the wires I needed and get it all done. I figured it out, and thought I'd help out the others that may go through the exact same thing.

Lets get a few things out of the way first. You'll need:

• Euro tails, duh!
• I used 18 gauge wire, and it is better to have 2-3 different colours
• Test light or Voltmeter
• Wire quicksplices/ T's
• Butt connectors (or solder your connections)
• Time. And slurpees....mmm.....slurpees

some cars may have different wire colours or setups, please read through the instructions completely and compare to your car before you do any cutting!! And as always, confirm sources of electric signal with the test light or voltmeter before you cut and splice. I'm not responsible if you do not do this correctly, but I will try to help you out if I can.

Anyways, lets begin. I had a bit of the hard work already done due to the fact that my car is gutted already, so I did not have to remove any panels or anything. You will more than likely need to, and some of your wiring locations may be different from mine. As long as the end result is the same, who cares? Also, I will discuss the reverse wire at the end for those that feel they need to run it.

1. With the taillights off the vehicle, find the blue (one side is blue, other blue w/red stripe) wires coming out of the top bulb sockets. cut them with enough room to connect more wire to them later. Go ahead and cap the wire not connected to the socket, as it will no longer be used.

2. At the junction units on the driver side quarterpanel, coming out of the grey junction box towards the front of the car is a green wire w/yellow stripe. This will be your new brake wire (please confirm with test light/voltmeter as always). Put 2 wire splices/T's on ths wire, and run one wire to the left tail light, and one to the right tail light.

Solder/connect them to the open blue wire coming out of the bulb holders on each side. You should now have just brakes on the top, and no turn signals. They should also be on when your lights are on, just like they used to be.

(I know the wire looks greenish in that picture, but mine is actually blue. So )

3. Back up at the taillights, cut the green reverse wires (bottom bulb) on both sides. Go ahead and cap off the part not connected to the light socket, you will no longer be using this portion of the wiring.

4. At the junction units on the driver side quarterpanel, coming out of the blue junction box is the same colour green/black as you just cut from up near the lights. Cut this wire before it enters the junction box. Cap the part coming out of the junction box as it will no longer be used. The other part of it is now your reverse light wire, and will be discussed later in this DIY guide. It should look something like this:


5. So now the fun part. most places to get your turn signals from stay on whenever the lights are on, and you do not want that (or at least I didn't and I'm assuming you do not.) All is not lost! The front Grille lights are the answer. The front grill should have 3 wires (much like the top tail socket): 1 is a ground, 1 is the lights on, and the other is the turns. The colours on the wires are similar, so use your test light or voltmeter to determine which one is which.

6. Once you have discovered which one is your turn signals, use more T's/ wire splices to add a wire to each one. These will be your new turn signal wires for your tails, so make sure the wire is long enough to route to the tails!! I'll leave it up to you to find the best way to get the wires from your front grille to your tails, being as that my car was gutted I had it easy.

7. Hope you had fun getting those wires back to teh tails, I know I did. Now you just need to connect/solder these wires into the old green/black wires off of the lower bulb sockets at the tails. This will make it so that you have turn signals and hazards on the lower portion of the lights now instead of the old reverse lights.

8. Run a test of all your wiring. Turn your lights on, use the hazards, and both turn signals to make sure that both sides are now wired up correctly. Your now euro!

9. No, I did not forget those of you worried about being legal and having a reverse light. As the other DIY guide said, you can run the wire we have down under the car (or wherever you want your reverse light really) and connect it to whatever new lightsource you will be using for a reverse light. If you need a handy negative terminal, there is one under the hatch striker and more to the driver side. You may need to bring up more plastic/interior pieces to get to it. Wire the light up correctly, and you should now have a reverse light as well as the euro tail look.

If anyone still needs more pictures or help, I'd be happy to try and help out the best I can.

[Azwethinkweiz]

Awesome...Thanks man, ill replace the old busted one right now

[Silfox]

Just be sure to keep the pictures hosted up. And remember that it seems there are several different versions of harnesses in our Foci that tend to switch wire colors and locations, so there will be questions.

[Smurf]

Yeah, the pics are staying up unless photobucket goes down or they delete my account. They have their own folder. And as for the versions and differences....

some cars may have different wire colours or setups, please read through the instructions completely and compare to your car before you do any cutting!! And as always, confirm sources of electric signal with the test light or voltmeter before you cut and splice. I'm not responsible if you do not do this correctly, but I will try to help you out if I can.

Right at the top. I just hope people do read through it and test light/ voltmeter stuff before they just jump in cutting.

[Silfox]

Great!!

[vad]

02 Smurf, great article!!!
BTW, what year is your car?

[Smurf]

Mine's an 02.

[Peterbilt]

Originally Posted by 02_smurf

6. Once you have discovered which one is your turn signals, use more T's/ wire splices to add a wire to each one. These will be your new turn signal wires for your tails, so make sure the wire is long enough to route to the tails!! I'll leave it up to you to find the best way to get the wires from your front grille to your tails, being as that my car was gutted I had it easy.

Ha! Running the wires all the way from the front to the rear may be a no-brainer, but it surely is the PITA. I wanted to do just that, but then I decided to do some research, and it actually paid off. I did not have to run the wires through the engine bay or the interior, having only had to use some 30 cm wire to connect the high mount stop signal to the side rear stops.

Anyhow, if someone wants to check out my way of doing that, here is the link:
http://olmikul.home.comcast.net/taillights.htm

Having the reverse lights perform as the indicators in the US stock rears is an interesting idea, but I abandoned it soon after I found out that there were no 18W amber bulbs in a proper size. Thus, I have the stock Euro rears now

[Smurf]

So wait, you got turn signals from the high mount stopper? Or that's where you got your brake signal from? Your wording kind of confused me.

[OmniFocus]

The 2000 MY cars don't have GEM like that. All of the lighting logic is actually handled by the hazard switch module on the dash.

I did my own research as well using the 2000 Wiring diagrams, So the brake light splice can occur in my dash, but I'll still have to run turn signal wires from the dash to the rear.

[Silfox]

Its really hard to make a how to for this that will work across all years and trim since it seams that almost every year the wiring colors or logic changes.

[Peterbilt]

Originally Posted by 02_smurf

So wait, you got turn signals from the high mount stopper? Or that's where you got your brake signal from? Your wording kind of confused me.

I got the brake signal from the high mount light, so now all three brake lights are in the same loop. In the rear, I did exactly the same modifications as you, but I did not run the wires through the entire car.

By the way, for people with earlier versions, the modification is even easier. I don't have a link now, but I remember that they have to take out the emergency flasher unit from the dash and cut the wire from the 7th slot. It will automatically disable the brake signal from the side stop lights. And then, they do the same stuff in the rear as me or you.

[Darth_Focus]

What do you use to actually use as a "plug" to plug into the Euro Sockets??? Or are you guys using the US Spec sockets??? Thats the only part im corn-fused about...

[StilzvileSVT]

Originally Posted by Peterbilt

Ha! Running the wires all the way from the front to the rear may be a no-brainer, but it surely is the PITA. I wanted to do just that, but then I decided to do some research, and it actually paid off. I did not have to run the wires through the engine bay or the interior, having only had to use some 30 cm wire to connect the high mount stop signal to the side rear stops.

Anyhow, if someone wants to check out my way of doing that, here is the link:
http://olmikul.home.comcast.net/taillights.htm

Having the reverse lights perform as the indicators in the US stock rears is an interesting idea, but I abandoned it soon after I found out that there were no 18W amber bulbs in a proper size. Thus, I have the stock Euro rears now

Both the thread and this link were very helpful... I got my euros in and they work great now... THANKS GUYS!!!

[jrgtrain]

Very nice write up. I am getting my Euros in a couple of weeks.

[jrgtrain]

Great Write up. I get my Euros in a couple of weeks.

[focuzzn]

When Hookedagain and I installed ours, All we had to do is run a wire from the brake switch to the rear.

[ScreamingYellowZX3]

I did this today on my 06 using Peterbuilt's write up and all the colors are the same and it works great, but the only thing is before I would step on the brakes with key off and they would light up, but now they only do it with key on?? Not a big deal, but just wondering if anyone else has noticed that??

[hEaT]

My brake lights don't come on with the key off and they are stock. Maybe they changed that in the 05-07 cars.

[glowboi87]

mine dont either!!! i have a 2001 zx3. and my headights wont turn on unless the key is foward.

[o2_designs]

Thats wierd its different now.

But all my Foci' I've owned have worked like that...00,01, and 02.

[sanzx360]

http://olmikul.home.comcast.net/taillights.htm

Just used this how-to and all I have to say is thankyou Peterbilt!!! Now I has more euro than you....

[faster_than_u]

none of the links worked sadface

[spudo]

Thanks for Info. Sorting out Lighting on old F2 , blue hornets, RS focus

[blackoutSVT]

did u do the fogs to? i got the tails and ill have the fogs in a few weeks...