Side Lights & pop ups

Guest · Mar 8, 2004

When turning on the sidelights on my 944S the pods pop up with the headlights dimmed. How do I prevent this from happening? I only want the pods up when the main beam is on.

Fen · Mar 8, 2004

I have never had a car do this, but there IS a procedure to stop it. From memory it's a relay change and some more stuff - There was a how-to on Titanic some months back that I can try to find if nobody else can remember the fix.

Diver944 · Mar 8, 2004

You better get looking then Fen coz I deleted it [

]

My 89' Turbo pops up on sidelights, and my '90 S2 stays down on sidelights. Both manuals describe this as correct (so there was an official change at some point). I tried swapping the headlight relays over as an experiment but it was not that simple, they both refused to do anything at that point.

944Turbo · Mar 8, 2004

I found it, Thanks to Jonathan for posting it originally on titanic. I believe it affects only one or two years 88/89? earlier and later cars have headlights that stay down on sidelights,
Tony

Well I don't know about you, but pods up with sidelights on seemed silly
to me (even if the headlamps were 'dim-dipped') so I thought I would do
something about it! Read the manual, electrical drawings etc and came up
with this solution. This is for cars with the dim-dip facility only, I
claim no knowledge of other variants! (should work anyway but just
clearing myself!)
1) Remove 'relay' G6, this is not actually a relay but a series of
links.
2) Remove the plug from the dim-dip unit. This will be found (in my '88
S anyway) above the accelerator pedal (right hand drive car) and is a
silver box roughly cigarette packet sized. The plug will have wires of
the following colours, Black/yellow, White, Yellow, Brown, and Grey.
3) Tape up the removed plug and tuck it away in the loom. The contacts
whilst shrouded will be live when light are on, so we want to take no
chances.
4) Make up 4 link wires from 1.5mm wire approx. 8 cm end to end
including crimps. Put a male spade type crimp (lucar) on each end.
5) Connect the sockets you removed G6 from as follows,
0 - 4
9 - 2
5 - 7
6 - 8

Your lamps will now remain down on the side light position with only the
side lights lit (you are able to turn fogs on too) and will raise when
you select position 2 for headlamps. They will go down only when the
switch is returned to 'OFF'. Dip/main remains unchanged as does the
operation of the 'parking lights' and the dash indication of sidelights
and main beam is also unaffected.

Incidentally my G6 relay was part number:- 944 610 183 08

Hope this is of help to some people,
Jonathan
944S & 911SSE

Tony

John Sims · Mar 8, 2004

Thanks for that Tony,

I've been thinking about modding mine.

Not only does it look better in dusk conditions (i.e. when the lights are just on so other people can see you) but, it is better for track days in the rain as you can have your fog lights on but still keep the lamp pods out of the way.

Fen · Mar 8, 2004

I use my fogs to be seen by all the time so I don't have to pop the pods up. Not strictly legal I guess, but if it isn't dark enough to need the pods up then there is no danger of dazzling other drivers.

It also saves road grime from being baked onto the headlights so they work better when they are needed.

Diver944 · Mar 9, 2004

Arrrgh [

] I hope you've adjusted your fogs so they point down and don't dazzle people. Just one of my personal bugbears when people leave their front fogs on and they dazzle (mostly youngsters in hot hatches). <getting off soapbox now> [

]

I do know what you mean though, the sidelights are disproportionately dim and pretty ineffective at letting people know you are there at dusk

Paul Smith - Northants (ex Nova and Metro Gti hot hatch owner [:-] )

Guest · Mar 9, 2004

ORIGINAL: Fen

I use my fogs to be seen by all the time so I don't have to pop the pods up. Not strictly legal I guess, but if it isn't dark enough to need the pods up then there is no danger of dazzling other drivers.

It also saves road grime from being baked onto the headlights so they work better when they are needed.

Thats what i do, fogs should never dazzle, they are ment to spread the light wide and low below the fog. I got stopped by the police and they asked why my side lights wernt working. Lols i said they are, there just pish!!!! I have got LEDs to pop in to the side lights once i can fiugure out a way of getting the front light units out!! I wish Porsche would learn to use grease!!! Pesky rusty screws!!!![

]

Fen · Mar 9, 2004

ORIGINAL: Diver944

Arrrgh [] I hope you've adjusted your fogs so they point down and don't dazzle people. Just one of my personal bugbears when people leave their front fogs on and they dazzle (mostly youngsters in hot hatches). <getting off soapbox now> []

I do know what you mean though, the sidelights are disproportionately dim and pretty ineffective at letting people know you are there at dusk

Paul Smith - Northants (ex Nova and Metro Gti hot hatch owner [:-] )

I only ever use them in poor daylight visibility - rain or spray etc. when they're on purely to be seen by and hence there's plenty of ambient light that they aren't able to dazzle. I've never been flashed and they get turned off if it starts to get dark and I pop the headlights up.

This is a duscussion I've seen on other fora and I have to say front fog lamps really don't bother me at all. The only time there is approaching a problem for me is during full darkness when the sheer amount of light coming from headlamps and foglamps can be a bit overpowering, or if a foglamp is so badly adjusted that it shines into oncoming traffic. As Slim says they are designed to spread a low scatter of light that should never get high enough to dazzle when properly adjusted.

All that said I have never used th ones on my Golf, I use the 944 ones purely to avoid having the pods up.

NorthernBloke · Mar 9, 2004

Ditto to all of you comments Fen.

and again, I always make so to turn the fogs off when I pop the pods so I don't look like a t**t [

]

Guest · Mar 9, 2004

Thanks for the advice, looks at bit complicated though as I'm not very electrically minded. Managed to give myself a nasty shock once just changing a light in my kitchen but at least theres not as much voltage to worry about this time!

wedgepilot · Mar 9, 2004

ORIGINAL: slim_boy_fat
I have got LEDs to pop in to the side lights once i can fiugure out a way of getting the front light units out!!

Slim, where did you get these from if you don't mind me asking? I could do with some of these on my XR2 (and my 944 sidelights now you mention it!)

Guest · Mar 10, 2004

I have had then sitting in a box for about 5 months now, i think i got them from Demon Tweeks they were about £20 a pair. I got them for a previous car that had HIDs in it, and the LED sidelights match up with the HIDs perfectly.

wedgepilot · Mar 11, 2004

ORIGINAL: 944Turbo
I found it, Thanks to Jonathan for posting it originally on titanic.

...and thanks Tony for digging it out. I tried this mod tonight on my car, and it worked a treat [

] One thing worth mentioning is that the pods no longer pop up with the ignition off - my 2-year old will be most displeased, as that was his favourite toy!

944Turbo · Mar 12, 2004

Your welcome glad it worked - for the benefit of others, was it difficult? or is it less complicated than it sounds and how long did it take?
Tony

wedgepilot · Mar 12, 2004

I have to say the instructions were excellent, although my car is an 1988 S, the same as Jon's.

Fairly straightforward to do, total time was about 30 mins, which included making up the 'jumper cables' and checking everything worked afterwards. The hardest bit was pulling the plug out from the dim-dip unit under the dash as mine was pretty stiff.

The links are all clearly numbered in the fusebox, so the re-wiring bit was dead easy. I used Halford's male spade connectors, btw.

Fen · Aug 25, 2005

ORIGINAL: John Sims

Thanks for that Tony,

I've been thinking about modding mine.

Not only does it look better in dusk conditions (i.e. when the lights are just on so other people can see you) but, it is better for track days in the rain as you can have your fog lights on but still keep the lamp pods out of the way.

John, your pop-up modding project is taking even longer than my track slag project. Got a year in mind to do it yet? [

]

John Sims · Aug 25, 2005

ORIGINAL: Fen

ORIGINAL: John Sims

Thanks for that Tony,

I've been thinking about modding mine.

Not only does it look better in dusk conditions (i.e. when the lights are just on so other people can see you) but, it is better for track days in the rain as you can have your fog lights on but still keep the lamp pods out of the way.

Click to expand...

John, your pop-up modding project is taking even longer than my track slag project. Got a year in mind to do it yet? []

[

][

]

Yet another blast from the past brought forward to haunt me. I'll get me coat.

The daft thing is, as conversions go, it would cost next to nothing. Perhaps that's why I haven't done it yet. [

]

Fen · Aug 25, 2005

ORIGINAL: John Sims
The daft thing is, as conversions go, it would cost next to nothing. Perhaps that's why I haven't done it yet. []

And apparently it is known to work already; there's no fun not being on the bleeding edge of 944 modding, is there? [FONT=verdana,geneva"]

Guest · Aug 25, 2005

Had problems with my headlights for the last 2 weeks. Pop up OK but O/S only goes down three quarters of the way. Looks real stupid. Has anyone else had this problem?

All my electrics are giving me greif. Windows, sunroof, heated rear screen, now lights. Think will get 'a man' to sort it. Had problem with lights on 924 and had to wind down manually - following week light switch caught fire - coincedence? Going to get professionally sorted.