Euro taillight wiring

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Asylum
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Euro taillight wiring

Post by Asylum »

I know this was posted somewhere in the past, but for the life of me (OK bad joke) I can't find it.

I recall that it involves cutting a wire under the dash (white I think), and then running the brake lights off the spoiler, and that some items involving the flasher is required. (I have LED spoiler light, if that matters.)

FWIW it's my '91 GTZ. They have been in for over a year and still are not wired up correctly.

Thanx folks.

:beer:


Eric

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'91 California Quad (Gone with just a bit of "Seller's Remorse".)
'92 3500 GT gone and not really missed. It was fun. Documented 13.47 N/A.
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Re: Euro taillight wiring

Post by Asylum »

No one!!

I found a thread that mentions the brown wire to the tails, but it is not all that specific for an "Old
Guy!"

It is not the end of the world, but it would be nice to get them working correctly.

Either that or I am going to take them out, wrap them in 100 yards of bubble wrap and they go into the closet.

:wink:









:beer:


Eric

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"Where we're not happy 'til YOU'RE not happy!






'91 California Quad (Gone with just a bit of "Seller's Remorse".)
'92 3500 GT gone and not really missed. It was fun. Documented 13.47 N/A.
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Re: Euro taillight wiring

Post by 3X00-Modified »

Hold on... I have it somewhere.

My old write up I found. This was done on a 95, 96 I know is different regarding the blinker style and location but older may be the same as 95. The pin location for the white wire is missing.... I never got that info. I'll check tonight since mine is all torn apart right now.
Euro tails wiring: The Correct Way.

First things first, understand what you’re starting with. Factory Beretta contains 2 circuits at the tail lights for turning, parking light and braking function, Circuit 1 is a low level parking light circuit, it is exactly what it sounds like and only that. Circuit 2 is a brake and turn bright level function, It illuminates the tail light solid or blinking depending on if you’re using just the brakes or blinker. Obviously the blinker function dominates here so if the brakes are on and you turn signal is also on, one of your lights WILL be blinking for the turn direction. OK now that I’ve all made you feel like I think you’re dumb, it’s on to the complex part ;)

You need to create 3 circuits back there to make this work,
Circuit 1, Parking lights.
Circuit 2, Brake lights.
Circuit 3, Turn signals

Obviously 1 and 2 exist, but 2 are paired up with 3, so you need to separate that into individual functions.

Step 1, REMOVE brake light function to rear tails.
Going under your dash on the driver’s side, remove the lower panel and the panel right below the steering column. Find the flat wide connector coming down the column from you blinker switch, you need to snip one wire OR you can pull the pin and cover it if you wish to not cut wires. The wire is a White wire and should be at pin location ____. This is the “brake input” to the blinker switch. Once that’s removed your tails should now only function as blinker lights.

Step 2, isolate which bulbs perform what function on the tails.
Ok now this is personal preference and can differ from setup to setup… Factory Euro setups have this setup, Upper bulb (amber section) Only blinks and does not come on with parking lights, Lower bulb (Red Section) functions as a parking light and brake light.
To get this setup three things need to be done, remove the parking light wires going to the top bulb, remove the turn light function from the lower bulb, and re-create the brake light only circuit for the lower bulbs.
For the top two bulbs, you need to cut the brown wires going to the sockets, this removes the parking light function, If you want you can leave them there, but I’ve never seen a euro application with the turns lit up as parking lights too. Now when cutting these if either one of the sockets is a dual wire you need to take the wires on the harness side and connect the two back together since that wire was originally using the socket as a junction point, Leaving them separate will break the connection to where it was going (possibly the lower socket, or other side)
For the lower two bulbs, you need to cut the high level inputs, or the “turn signal input”, This will be a Yellow (R) and Green (L) wires, if they are dual wires you need to do the same as above and connect the harness side together to keep circuits complete. Leave enough wire off the socket for the next step.
Test it… You should have top bulbs acting as blinkers only, not parking, not brake, and the lower bulbs will be functioning as parking only right now.
Ok, well you need a brake light circuit right? Guess where that’s coming from, that’s right the good Ole third brake light. The third brake light is a dedicated circuit directly from the brake pedal; it works regardless of what direction you’re tuning so it’s just what we need. You need to splice into the wire going to the third brake light, (Blue) and then send that out the bulkhead that’s in the left rear quarter area, this goes out to right behind the left corner of the bumper, once you run that wire through that bulk head you are going to run it to both lower tail light bulbs, connecting the two together, so run a wire to the left bulb, and then junction another one there to go to the right bulb, you will be connecting the yellow and green “circuits” together and that’s perfectly fine, since you want both bulbs to function the same.

Now the hard part Step 3, Find and replace your blinker with an Electronic or HD one.
Factory blinkers require a min of 3 bulbs on the circuit to blink, you now only have 2, so you need to replace that thermal POS blinker for a HD electronic one, the will blink with as little as 2 bulbs, and max of 12 or 24 on the circuit… SO if you burn out a blinker you should STILL be notified by the good ole solid blinker syndrome… I have yet to have that happen to me to prove its right though.
On the pre 96 cars the blinker is NOT on the courtesy module, it’s on a standalone tail that’s clipped up under the dash, you need to dig for it, Picture below of the electronic one installed on the tail, The 96’s cars have it right on the courtesy module, Now I’m not sure but I believe you still need the HD one but it’s a slightly different part number, since it’s a 3 pin flasher and not a 2 pin one. I’ll post Part numbers when I find them, but that flasher is much easier to find and replace.

Once again Test all your lights and make sure your brake lights work and the blinkers also work.

Good luck!
Images to go with it...

Flat connector coming from blinker switch
Image

Example of what I mean if you have to cut a dual wire going to the socket... Reconnect those dual wires on the other side that you cut.
Image

Image

Tapped onto third brake light wire
Image

bulkhead in trunk
Image

New wires going to lower bulbs. Junction here to go to other side as well
Image

Image

Image

And my approximate 95 flasher location, its just on a tail and clipped under the dash it's not on the courtesy module.
Image


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Re: Euro taillight wiring

Post by Asylum »

Thanx Jon. Now I have something to do this weekend.


Eric

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'92 3500 GT gone and not really missed. It was fun. Documented 13.47 N/A.
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Re: Euro taillight wiring

Post by 3X00-Modified »

Posting this made me realize I'm right there doing under dash stuff, whats adding one more wire to the rear of Pinky... I think it's time to Euro it.


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Re: Euro taillight wiring

Post by Asylum »

So I assume as there is only one function for the signal light, the bulb should be changed to a single element unit.

Or does that require a different socket?
Last edited by Asylum on Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:24 am, edited 1 time in total.


Eric

Asylum Motorsports
"Where we're not happy 'til YOU'RE not happy!






'91 California Quad (Gone with just a bit of "Seller's Remorse".)
'92 3500 GT gone and not really missed. It was fun. Documented 13.47 N/A.
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Re: Euro taillight wiring

Post by 3X00-Modified »

Only if you have a single element socket that would fit that turn lock... and I don't think you do, so in order for the light to make proper contact you need to unfortunately leave a dual filament bulb in there.


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Re: Euro taillight wiring

Post by GT_Indy »

I know its an older thread but I had an idea.

Because you still use a dual filament bulb in the turn signal socket, why not wire both filaments in 1 bulb to be the turn signal lamp? Then the factory flasher would still function as designed because the rear will look like it still has 2 filaments to flash.

Edit: I just tried it, it doesn't work. lol fail. HD Flash is needed.

Here is my short thread with the info I found and a part number for a flasher relay that can work:
http://www.beretta.net/forum/viewtopic. ... 95#p146595


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