2008 GT Tail Light Wiring Question

[TheBuzzard]

Hi all,

I have a 2008 GT which was imported to New Zealand from the states around 13 years ago. It's a lovely low mileage car in tip top condition apart from one thing... a previous owner either here or in the US has fitted LED indicator bulbs and butchered the harness to install a device (see pics) which I can only assume is an external ballast for the bulbs. The device contains a relay and four small bulbs which flash when the indicators or hazzards are activated.

I initially thought I'd disconnect the device and re-attach the factory wires to the appropriate coloured wires so I could either run a standard bulb or a modern LED which does not require an external ballast. However when I went to do this I discovered that there is more to it and am now feeling a bit out of my depth. I discovered that there are two wires coming from somewhere in the front of the car supplying always on power to the relay. When I unplug them the indicators still work but the brake lights don't!

I'm hoping someone here may have seen this before and can help before I throw myself on the mercy of and auto electrician who may take hours to sort it out. Any help or thoughts will be very much appreciated.

 

[Forty61]

Looks messy for sure, looks like there's also at least one wire tap in there.

Can you have the factory style wiring and lights in NZ or do you need the amber lenses and stuff like Australia?

 

[bambam 06]

Looks like a cook wanted to become an electrician.

 

[GriffX]

Compared to the Europe conversion it is clean. I have two waste bulbs dangling behind the tail lights.

 

[TheBuzzard]

Looks messy for sure, looks like there's also at least one wire tap in there.

Can you have the factory style wiring and lights in NZ or do you need the amber lenses and stuff like Australia?

We're allowed to run them in their natural form here. In Australia I'm pretty sure they had to be converted to RHD as well. According to Govt data there are 635 S197s in NZ at the moment.

I got momentarily excited when this one came up at a local wrecking yard. I thought I'd grab all the wiring going into the trunk and replace mine from the nearest connector, but when I saw it from the back it turned out to be non standard, featuring orange indicators! It is LHD though, so probably not an Aussie car...

Incidentally the wire tap is for a trigger wire for a reversing cam connected to a Pioneer head unit. I'm about to make that a tidy insulated solder joint.

 

[TheBuzzard]

Compared to the Europe conversion it is clean. I have two waste bulbs dangling behind the tail lights.

I'm tempted to tidy it all up and not think about it any more, but I feel like I'll be screwed if one of the weird indicator bulbs fail. God only knows where I could get a replacement. Also, it's the beginning of summer here in NZ, I don't want to brick the thing right now.

 

[Yinkus]

This is very very messy to say the least

 

[Kev555]

It looks like an IVA type reconfigure so we have lights like UK and Ireland? There might be 3 wires coming from the front? One to each front indicator/turn signal and a power one to run the relays. do you have to have orange turn signals/indicators in NZ? I will post up what I have in paperwork and photos which will be similar and give your auto spark or yourself a chance to work it out.

 

[Kev555]

 

[Kev555]

Wiring schematic's for factory mustang

 

[Kev555]

https://forum.mocgb.net/forum/technical-questions/-05-to-14-s197/14932-05-on-sjb-safe-sva-modifications

This is the method I followed to make my rear lights compliant in Ireland here. It will probably be different but might give you some insight into the wiring. At least you have the original schematics above now to figure it out

 

[TheBuzzard]

Hi Kev555,

Thank you so much and apologies for not replying sooner. I watched the thread for a few weeks and it seemed to have gone dead, I must’ve missed a notification.

That does look very similar. I have wires coming from the front also, but the brake lights go out when I remove the inline fuse. This is what scared me into stopping investigations.

I’m not sure why it was done to my car as there are no specific requirements for lighting on American cars in NZ that I know of. There are plenty S197s in my local club, most with red lenses but a few from Japan with separate orange indicators embedded in the rear bumper itself.

I’m not sure why mine was modded in this way or where/when it was done (US or NZ). I got it with LED rear indicator bulbs fitted (in the outer red lenses) so I assumed it was maybe a ballast of some sort.

I’ll share your most helpful info and the schematic with my sparky and see if we can figure it out. Of course I could leave it in place as everything works fine but I don’t like messy wiring on an otherwise mint car. Thanks again!

https://forum.mocgb.net/forum/technical-questions/-05-to-14-s197/14932-05-on-sjb-safe-sva-modifications

This is the method I followed to make my rear lights compliant in Ireland here. It will probably be different but might give you some insight into the wiring. At least you have the original schematics above now to figure it out

 

[Kev555]

If your car came directly from USA to NZ, I cant see why it would be wired to the setup I have. (sorry I wrote that when I was tired and maybe didn't absorb all the info you posted) What are those white connections on the alloy trunking? are they bulbs?

 

[TheBuzzard]

Hi Kev, yes there are 4 bulbs under the aluminium bracket that flash with the indicators/hazzards. The car came into NZ from the US around 15 years ago. It had 2 NZ owners prior to me.

It looks likely the mods were done here by the first owner, there would be no point doing it in the US. Not sure if there was any point doing it here either though as my rear lights behave exactly the same as US models - inner 2 tail light panels show red stop/tail and the outer panel is the turn indicator. The indicator panels are slightly orange due to orange LEDs but the lenses are still the standard red.

Excuse my ignorance but I can’t figure out what the mod intended to achieve exactly?