What should the side marker lights be wired to, the turn signal or the marker/parking lights? I think it goes to the marker light.

I tried to get fancy and get it to perform both functions however, it did not work out for me. I went to the Daniel Stern site and tried his cross feed wire method, but no luck when I tried it. I don't want to spend $50 on his Daytime running light module just to run side marker lights however, it is tempting.

 

on a 740/940 euro model, the side marker lights are wired across the front turn signals.

let me dig up a late 240 schematic and see.... yeah, same thing, side direction marker lights are wired directly in parallel to the front turn signals. they don't come on with the parking lights.

 

if you wanna get cute, jam a bright yellow wide angle LED in each one, wired for 12V and hook THAT up to the front parking lights.

or, I suppose you could wire them to a relay, with the relay coil wired between the parking light and the turn signal. if the turn signal is on, that would power the relay coil, turn the side light on. if the parking light is on, that would power the coil, and the side light would be on. if BOTH lights are on, that would UNpower the coil, the side light would go off.

the 'ground' current for the coil would be going through the 'other bulb', but as long as this relay is a high impedance relay, it shouldn't be enough current to make the other bulb more than dim.

one slightly weird effect, when you have the parking lights on and use the blinkers, the front turn signal and the side marker would be blinking in opposite phases. I don't see this as a problem, just an oddity.

[i'm an electronics geek, I'm pretty sure this will work fine, but I haven't tried it]

 

Thanks Pierce, I like your LED idea. No relays and the light will always be in sync with the turn signals. I wish I would have asked sooner. I put the fenders back on and wired one side of the side marker light to ground that is on the inner fender so it is not possible to get to it without taking the fender off again.


I also appreciate you looking up whether the side marker light is wired to the turn signal or parking light. So, it will be wired to the turn signal now.


I also found the problem with the why wiring the side marker light from the parking light to the turn signal didn't work as per Daniel Stern, the tail lights were miss wired. I didn't notice until it got dark and I could see the center brake light come on when the 4 way flasher was on. The previous owner tied in a trailer wiring kit and I have a few extra wires. I will have to straighten this up so that it cannot be wired wrong. I may put a 6 pin Molex connector on it like I did with the 240 sedan.

 

re: trailer wiring, I've had quite good luck using Hopkins brand adapters such as Taillight Converter Universal Kit

 

Thanks for the trailer wiring adapter recommendation. I haven't heard of them. They have some nice stuff.