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How To: Turn your bumper lights into running lights

30K views 75 replies 28 participants last post by  Baker 
#1 ·
I've posted this a few times when it comes up, I guess it's time to make it more permanent.



If you wanted to turn the bumper light into only a running light, you would tap into the hot wire of the front bulb on the corner lights and run them down to the bumper lights, replacing the factory wiring there. However, I don't recommend this, since people facing you head on won't see your signals, and it's probably not legal.

The way that I did it, the bumper lights will be on when the parking lights are on, and will still function as turn signals.

Basically, you're gonna swap out the factory 1156 bumper light bulbs for 1157 dual-filament bulbs. Get the corner light bulb sockets from a 92-95 Civic, either from the junkyard or from a Honda dealer. These are designed for 1157 bulbs and will hook right up to the CRX bumper light housings, at least for 90/91 cars.

So once you've got the new sockets and a fresh pair of 1157 bulbs from the parts store, you can put them in. There are 3 wires on the 1157 sockets, and you only have two wires on the stock bumper lights. Ground goes to ground, and you're going to tap into the front bulb of the corner socket for the third wire.

An 1157 bulb, for those uninformed, has a "bright" and a "dim" side. The factory bumper light hot wire goes to the bright side of the 1157. You just have to twist the wires together temporary like to see which is which, before finalizing the connections. The wire you pulled down from the corner lights will go to the dim side of the 1157.

In this way the turn signal circuit is unchanged, and will still be visible over the less bright running light circuit you've added.
 
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#54 ·
jtkc said:
yesirthegeneralhf said:
i did this but i juss tapped into the blinker in my corner lights ^_^ works the same
not to re-iterate. So you just spliced in a lead to your bumper lenses from your corner light.?
Yes, it's very simple, as it says in the original posts:
jfrolang said:
There are 3 wires on the 1157 sockets, and you only have two wires on the stock bumper lights. Ground goes to ground, and you're going to tap into the front bulb of the corner socket for the third wire.

An 1157 bulb, for those uninformed, has a "bright" and a "dim" side. The factory bumper light hot wire goes to the bright side of the 1157. You just have to twist the wires together temporary like to see which is which, before finalizing the connections. The wire you pulled down from the corner lights will go to the dim side of the 1157.
 
#59 ·
yesirthegeneralhf said:
these arnt the factory bumper lights i took some from this trailer kit i had lying around so it wouldnt be as bright
That's why I recommend converting to an 1157 bulb to do this; you get the slightly dimmer running light while retaining full brightness with the turn signal. Another minor thing, if all you're doing is relocating or duplicating the rear bulb of the corner lights, you lose that alternating bumper/corner signal when the lights are on.
 
#63 ·
Wow ive been waiting to do this for so long, the one day i actually had time and wanted to do it, i lost one of the pigtails, got many of them now and havent found time to do it!
 
#66 ·
Oooooeee, very simple indeed.

And the bumper light stays on, and when indicating it blinks?

Is there no bad side effects like the bumperlights might not be able to withstand the heat of a bulb being on all the time?

Can't wait to do this, when my bumper light eventually arrives!
 
#67 ·
Greyfin said:
Oooooeee, very simple indeed.

And the bumper light stays on, and when indicating it blinks?
Yes.
You use the running light/turn signal socket from later model Civics ('92 to at least '00), since the turn signal and running light are the same, they use a dual filament bulb. You're just using a different type of bulb socket.
 
#72 ·
ok .. just finished this and wanted to add some info from what i discovered.

First off, if your gonna try to determine which wire is ground with a multi-meter,
forget it .. :shock: lol .. i tried and after getting a ground reading on both connections ( 3 times ) i examined the schematic and found that .. even IF you are on the 12v+ connection for the lamp, that lamp is connected to the next lamps 12v+ ** WHICH in TURN is CONNECTED TO THE GROUND ** .. so .. you'll get a ground reading on every connection unless you take out all your lamps ..

Theoretically, all the lamps could be hooked up backwards.
BUT , since this circuit we are adding "shares" a ground. We have to be sure it's actually connected in the right way.
Here are the wire colors you'll need to pay attention to.
RED/BLK is the 12v+ on the front most corner light ( the one that stays on )
That is the only wire you need to cut / splice in the corner .. i did this last.
The bumper light socket wires are BLK for ground & GRN/BLUE & GRN/Yellow for 12v+.
I connected the bright circuit for the turn signal first and tested that, then
I ran the single wire up to the corner light for the additional filament in the lamp.

Solder and heatshrink everything, properly ground it all .. your good to go .. :)b

ALSO: i wanted to add that .. a relay could be added to each side that would turn the running light off when the blinker was activated.
This way you'd have the best of both worlds .. ;)
 
#73 ·
I did this to one side today (all I had time for before I had to go to work). Upon getting all the wires twisted together I checked to make sure everything worked before finalizing all the connections. I found that everything that I did works fine, but the bulb that I didn't mess with was blown for some reason (rear bulb in the corner lens). This was working before I started. The side I was messing with is blinking rapidly, got some new 194 bulbs, and even then it's not lighting up. When I turn my hazards on both sides blink stock speed. Is there some fuse that goes to just that socket? :?: Want to try and figure this out before i go to the other side and possibly mess it up as well.

Any ideas?
 
#74 ·
Bulb works fine, tried it on the other side. Put my DMM in the socket and turn the blinker on and i get a reading.. no idea what's going on here. Fuses are all fine. All other lights work fine. Disconnected batteries and put back together and nothing "reset". pressed the prongs in the socket together for a tighter fit, nada. Not throwing a code. I'm out of ideas.

Car is on, blinker going the whole time, battery voltage is sitting 14.7
No headlights on reading in the socket is .45
accessory lights on reading jumped up to 4.8 then slowly dropped down to 1.5
turned driving lights on and stayed at 1.5

What could be causing such low power?
 
#76 ·
Vxyooj93 said:
I have a question would this be the same process for the 94-97 accord cd5/cd6 because i also got the 92-95 civic turning light connector with the three pigtail and i connected black to black green to green and red to red and it turns on but doesnt signal.
It should be the same process.
Do you have the correct bulb in?
 
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