I recently replaced my front and rear turn signal bulbs on my 2002.5 Protegé5 with LED bulbs. My primary objective was to get rid of the visibly yellow bulbs inside the clear circle at the rear, so the two circles both appear clear. I also replaced the bulbs at the front while I was at it, but this made only a minor appearance difference when the light is off. It does look really nice when on, though, as the LED's are crisper and more uniform in color than the OEM bulbs were.

I was rewarded with turn signals that flash at double the normal rate. This is the indicator that a bulb is burnt out. The standard fix is apparently to install resistors in the circuit to emulate the load of the original bulbs, but that's a hokey fix. Besides, the resistors are expensive; I'd rather use the original bulbs as resistors, just reinstall them somewhere inside where you can't see them.

The following is a step-by-step description of how to properly get rid of this irritating double-speed flashing.

The first item needed is a suitable flasher unit that lacks such a bulb failure warning feature. I found one at AutoZone, Tridon/Stant no. EL12, about $10. This flasher unit has two terminals. There are similar units with three terminals, those might be useful as well, but the wiring might require some minor adjustments. Note that the EL12 does *not* specify that it is "LED compatible", but it does indicate that it's intended for use with trailers or other extra lighting requirements. It also clarifies that it has no bulb failure warning feature and recommends that you check your bulbs regularly.

The other item needed is a diode. I used cat. no. 276-1114 from Radio Shack, package of 3 for less than $2. These diodes are rated for 1000V and 2.5A. Frankly, the 2.5A is marginal for this application. I wired two of these diodes in parallel for this job, but I'm not sure that's a valid thing to do -- one diode may carry all the current anyway. Ideally, it'd be better to find a diode rated at 5A or more. I know such things exist -- I know where one is used on a Jaguar, but obviously that's not a convenient source -- so if someone can tell us how to find better diodes for this application, that'd be good.

You might also want to get a few of those wire taps, the plastic things that allow you to splice one wire into another without a lot of fuss.

Here's the steps involved.

First you'll need to locate the Mazda flasher unit. It's a white plastic box located directly above the driver's left foot (LHD car), just about as high as you can get under there. It's mounted on a metal bracket, but if you slide the box towards the front of the car it comes loose from the bracket. You can then depress a small latch and unplug the wiring harness from it.

There are seven wires to this flasher unit. Four of these are W/R, W/B, G/W, and G/B.

Disconnect the W/R wire from the flasher unit and splice it into the G/W wire. Note: The G/W wire should remain connected to the Mazda flasher unit.

Disconnect the W/B wire from the flasher unit and splice it into the G/B wire. Note: The G/B wire should remain connected to the Mazda
flasher unit.

To the left of the driver's feet is a fuse box. There is a B/Y wire that goes from this fuse box to the turn signal stalk switch. You need to find this wire. If you remove the plastic doorsill (it just pops off) and then lift the center of a plastic dot to the left of the driver's toes, you can remove the entire cover surrounding the fuse box. There is one connector on the side of the fuse box facing you (at the top) and several connectors around on the other side where they're more difficult to get at. The wire you're looking for is in the uppermost connector around on the hard-to-get-at side. It's just one bolt and one screw to get the entire fusebox loose, if that helps.

Now, unfortunately, there are at least three B/Y wires in this connector, and you need to find the right one. Disconnect the entire connector from the fuse box. If you have an ohmmeter, connect one probe to the W/R wire you were fiddling with up above. Turn on the RH turn signal. Using the other probe, check each of the B/Y wires until you find the one that has continuity. You can turn the right turn signal on and off to confirm.

If you don't have an ohmmeter, I can tell you that the correct B/Y wire is the one that's on the same side of the connector as the latch, and there's an empty terminal slot next to it. With a very tiny screwdriver, you can pop this terminal out of the connector, plug the connector back into the fuse box, then turn on the ignition and confirm that you've killed power to the turn signals. When powered the turn signals wouldn't actually flash thanks to the splices you made above, but they would light up.

Once you have found the correct wire, you need to break it and splice in both the diode and the EL12 flasher unit in series. The diode will have a stripe on one end; you need to connect the other end to the wire coming from the fuse box. Connect the end of the diode with the stripe to the terminal marked "X" on the EL12 flasher unit. Connect the other terminal on the EL12 flasher unit to the B/Y wire going to the turn signal stalk switch.

All done! Test everything: Try out the hazard switch, turn on the ignition and try out both turn signals, and try out the remote door locks. Make sure all the lights work as intended in all modes.

I even tried using the turn signals and hazard switch at the same time, an interesting concept since they now use separate flashers. They worked fine -- in fact, it seems the two flashers coordinate themselves and flash in unison.

 

whoa, nice work there!

This is something I need to do. I had LEDs for all my turn signals, but now only have them on the rear. I have resistors installed at each taillight to stop the rapid flashing.

I was under the impression that it was too "computer controlled" to just swap a flasher unit, this is the first I've heard otherwise. Awesome work

 

nice... any pics? *moved thread to how-to section*

 

Pics & videos of these in action would be great. I'd love to see the tail lights Kansei ..

 

Well, it took me a while to find my way back here!

I'd love to provide pics, but the only camera I have is a sorry old 640x480 thing with no flash. The pics wouldn't be worth seeing. I do hope my descriptions are good enough to follow, though. If anyone has any questions, I'll try to get back here quicker and answer.

A couple of years back I posted a description of how to rewire the electric windows so they work with the ignition off. Again, everybody wanted pictures, but several reported they had no problem following my descriptions.

 

Ahhh, I've been rereading my original post and realized that perhaps I didn't make it too clear exactly what this mod achieves. The Protegé5 comes with a single flasher unit that operates the turn signals and the hazard flasher. What this rewiring accomplishes is to remove the turn signal duties from that flasher unit and turn them over to the aftermarket flasher unit lacking bulb failure warning features. The original flasher unit remains in place to operate the hazard flashers, since there's no easy way to operate them without it.

 

Good clarification. So when I was in the past told that we didn't have a flasher unit, would the correct way of saying it been "Our flasher is not a plug-and-play replaceable unit"?

I still need to do this.. I can't wait for finals week to be over, I have a week off from work before I go back to work full time.. I plan on getting a lot of fun little mods done. Anyone know of a specific model flasher that has a nice sound to it? Yes, I am that vain.

 

Exactly. The flasher unit in the Protegé5 is a pretty specialized lookin' thing with a whole bunch of terminals on it, and there is labelling on the outside indicating clearly what light bulbs it's to be used with. A single wire from the hazard switch goes to this unit and all four corners of the car flash. I suppose I could have figured out how to do that with the new relay, but it struck me as easiest just to leave the OEM relay in there for that job.

If I understand the electrical schematics correctly, the sedan uses a different but similar flasher unit, looks exactly the same but has a different number and intended for use with different bulbs. The taillight bulbs on the sedan are different than those on the Protegé5. I think the taillight bulbs on the earlier non-US 5-door are also different. All doesn't matter, this mod will convert any of them to use a flasher that doesn't care what wattage the bulbs are, there won't be any bulb failure warning.

I don't, but I have heard that there are flashers that have a very loud click for those who are hard of hearing.

You could probably hook a chime up to it. Every time the bulb lights up it also makes a little chiming sound. Could even use a different chime on the right turn signal than the left turn signal.

 

yay a chime. I ask because on my truck, when I switched to a flasher that didn't care about bulb wattage (doing LED turn signal conversion), it was crazy quiet.. barely audible when the truck was at rest.

 

The particular flasher unit I installed has an audible click. If anything, it might be a hair louder than the OEM flasher. I would say that it sounds "crisper", but for the most part the change in sound is not particularly noticeable.

You can accomplish a bit by how/where you mount the flasher. You could mount it in the engine compartment, for example, and you'd never hear it. Or you could wrap it with foam to dampen the sound. Then you can install 50W indicator lights on the dash so you cannot possibly forget that they're on.