Some fun new options for tail lights are showing up in AZon.
I have been playing around/testing this neat tail light option. It fits like it was made for the Gen2 spat (with the tail light on the spat). Not a direct plug and go since I had to do some creative wiring.
3 way includes running, sequential turn, and brake lights in their own elements.
Running light also has a white license plate light on the inboard side.
The only things missing would be a nice bright backup light for reverse and a side marker light on the outboard side.
@AssyRequired If you want, i can put you in touch with a guy who knows all about electricity, l mean ALL about it. He knows so much about it, I’m sure he could even tell you a better way to do whatever you are doing with these lights. And, get this, he’s totally not afraid of it either.
You could learn so much from him. Lmk if i should put you in touch…
i can put you in touch with a guy who knows all about electricity, l mean ALL about it.
Hmmm… Edison? Tesla? Thor?
No, you must be talking about Craig.
Wiring was not that difficult. The disclaimer was put in to discourage complaints and make people think about it. All this needs is one new wire from front to back. Totally reversible, but not sure why you’d need to. Mainly because of my aversion to hacking up factory wire harnesses. While I had the spat off, I ran some extra wires for the reverse lights (coming soon).
lol. No, Craig is one of the good guys, even if we were so rushed last time after reprogramming the controller and doing a test drive to check if the regen issue was solved that we never did get the photo of electronics Jedi master Quai Gon Craig and Jar Jar …
Not sure what got chopped out of your hoopie before you got it, but check the DOT & NHTSA regs on NEVs, you have to have brake lights if it’s on road. Off-road, no one cares,
I think you are missing it completely.
Yep - Factory Gem cars are wired up for
Running lights → check
Turn signals → check
Brakes → check
It is common practice for turn and brake to get mixed on the same high/brigh filament in a 2 way bulb. For Gem cars, Driver inputs get fed into the PSDM and it magically figures out what lights on what corners need to go on and/or flash as needed.
On my 3 way light, I needed to peel out one of the power wires going to the light so they were not mixed. I first thought it was going to be a complex/messy config, then figured out it could be done with one new wire.
While I was under the spat stringing new wires, I also added a couple for some reverse lights.
Funny you mention backup light. Have had family in town for the last 2 weeks and have let them use the 2008 GEM while tooling around town(local beach town in San Diego). A number of times we’ve taken the GEM out at night and backing out of the driveway feels like driving by braille and waiting to hear someone walking behind us yelling at us or worst. Even tried shining a light out the back window but that just blinded everyone in the car who was looking back because of the reflection. Our 2008 e4 has doors and back window.
I need to add an LED reverse light system(relay and tie-in to the Reverse switch or PSDM reverse buzzer circuit. hmm, a blinking white reverse light might not be ideal. LOL
@dougl - a few years back @AssyRequired noticed on the schematics that back-up light relay and wiring may already be there for the later years, which should iinclude the 2008 vehicles. Look for an unconnected Dark Blue / Yellow wire in the harness around the rear tail lights. On my 2010 eL truck IIRC the disconnected end was already dangling out of the harness. All I had to do was add back up lights, extend the wire at the back where it exited the harness and connect it to the lights. If you read the posts in the thread below, ignore my comments about not seeing voltage on that wire, I think I may have had an issue with the test or meter or leads because I don’t recall having to do anything at the PSDM for the back up lights.
@JarJarJava that’s awesome! I just looked and found both wires 11 and 12 under the seat which makes adding an LED reverse light much easier. Much appreciated!
I have a 2010 Gem e6. I’m working on installing backup lights but my Dark Blue / Yellow is constant on with the key and remains on for 30 seconds after the key is off. Any idea what would cause this? I doubled checked the wire lands and the J6 D pin. The reverse functions normally otherwise such as backup alarm beeps and parking brake alarm. Could there be a stuck relay in the PSDM some where? The leds slightly flicker switching out of reverse.
I checked the ground on the frame and the ground in the rear harness from the PSDM it bolts to the frame under the dash. Yes, I used a digital multimeter and was getting 13 volts at the harness under the rear seat. Unplugged the harness and get 13 volts at pin on the PSDM too.
(Apologies for delayed response, I was AFK)
YES!
Reverse light wire is right there under the rear seat.
It exits out of the rear light harness right next to the 2x2 molex connector heading back to the rear tail lights.
The wire is DB/Y and terminates with a female .250 spade connector.
Use Black or ChassGND for 12vNeg.
