Got the 04 tails for my 02...questions (UPDATED! PICS)

oh, and I'm not spending the money for the different harness because I'm eventually selling my 04 and I want to put the 04 tails back in. So I'm leaving it ghetto rigged for now.

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[SQCivic]

Let me know what sockets, connectors, etc. you need and I can send them to you from my 2001 harness. The harness itself is in pieces now but I still have all the parts.

don.mullen@millsaps.edu

I e-mailed you

[Rufus]

OK heres the deal. This post can finally end. The sockets are proprietary for the 04's. The sockets themselves cannot be purchased. Only the entire harness can be purchased. It connects to the main harness in the passenger side quarter panel. It costs approx 100 retail or 56 employee cost. If your willing to modify the light to fit in a light, substitute an LED cluster from superbrightleds.com rather than a cheesy stock bulb. I've gone without turn signals for over a month with my 04 tails on my 03. There you go, no more advice, no more complaining, you have your answer. Now I have to go poop so I'm outta here.

[SQCivic]

Sorry, but you are wrong. The sockets can be purchased from Honda. I know because I got them along with the harness from Dezod. Each socket inside it's own little Genuine Honda Parts plastic bag.

What is the deal here fellas? YOU CAN GET THE HARNESS & THE SOCKETS FROM HONDA!

PM or e-mail DEZOD. He can get you all the necessary parts just like he did for me.

[Rufus]

Ha. You rule. You must have someone thats more intelligent than the average parts employee. I've been to 3 dealerships and every $hithead told me the same thing. I'll PM him.

[are6]

Okay, seeing as how this is getting WAY out of hand, I decided that I will post what pics I have and what I did to do this conversion. I still don’t understand the mentality of buying an entire wire harness for who knows how much, when all you have to do is buy the sockets (yes, you CAN buy these by themselves….below are the pics to prove it) and use a little wire, some connectors, some basic hand tools and a little bit of patience AND make it look right. Yes, it MAY be a little unorthodox and maybe not “factory direct” (I am ALSO one who prefers to spend the extra cash to get an OEM part when I have to), but for the amount of savings…..well, I’ll let the pics speak for themselves. I think I may have spent, oh…$15 (not including the taillight assembly) and about 20 minutes of my time. Unfortunately, I was not clear on the dremel part. What I was attempting to accomplish was, to have the visual effect of the bottom bulb being the brake light (as it is on the 01-03) instead of on the top (as it is on the 04). You can completely disregard that if you wish to maintain the 04 setup and have it be a “plug-n-play” operation.. I am still debating on whether or not to do this, but when I do, I will post those pics as well….to show you how easy it is. This is SO easy and inexpensive to do that I will even recreate the connectors even though I have them already installed on the car. I never said that connecting a new wire harness would be hard, but what I meant was, for the amount of work you have to do, it’s not worth the trouble. Gotta work smarter, not harder…this way, I can always switch it back to stock in about 2 minutes….Anyway, here are some of the tools/parts you’re gonna need: (all prices are from www.hondaautomotiveparts.com)

Taillight Assembly, Left
P/N: 33501-S5P-A11
Price: $85.27

Taillight Assembly, Right
P/N: 33551-S5P-A11
Price: $85.27

T20 Signal Bulb Socket
P/N: 33304-S30-003
Price: $3.38 (you’ll need 2 of these)

A pair of 7440 bulbs (I got from Advance Auto for about $5)

Tools/Materials (substitute as needed):

Wire Strippers
Wire Crimpers
Trusty ‘ol Leatherman
Some small gauge wire


4 spade terminal connectors
4 1/8” terminals


Take all INSULATION off the terminals. I used my leatherman for this one, but you can use whatever you have to, they will look like this:


Then, take the open terminal and cut one of the “legs” off, it will look like this:


Cut a wire about 3-4 inches long and finally crimp one of each type of terminal on each end of the wire you just cut. The final product will look like this:


Now, repeat that 3 more times to have 4 of them total. Now, to really make this a nice install, you can use heat shrink tubing on it to seal it off. You will notice on the connector side of the seocket that there are 2 small prongs for the factory harness, well, we’re just gonna plug up are small 1/8” terminals into the socket and the other end with the cut “leg” into the existing factory harness. NOTICE!!! You will have to use either heat shrink tubing or electrical tape (as I did, because I ran out of my heat shrink) around at least one end of the terminals that plugs into the socket. This is to make sure the 2 terminals don’t touch inside the socket and cause a short.

Viola…that’s it….to me…that seemed simple enough and it really isn’t all that ghetto….can I get any second opinions? Keep in mind that there are probably a million ways to do this, but this was my way and it saved me an ass-load of money from buying a whole freakin wire harness. Now, for some pics of my “ghetto” work.

Comparing the new 7440 socket to the old 3156 one


This is the packaging for the sockets from Honda


Here are the lights side by side


And from the rear


The 04 tails with the 02 foam, doesn’t match exactly, but it’ll do what it’s supposed to…


Some pics of the connections itself




Comparing the 2 types on the car


And some of the final install


Oh, BTW, I work on generators for a living (basically I’m an electrician/diesel engine mechanic) to include transfer switches, switchgear, working with AC and DC voltage, blah, blah, blah….what I’m trying to say is…there really isn’t too much in the way of wiring or engine troubleshooting/maintenance that gives me a hard time…just to clear THAT up…

[Rufus]

YOU SOLVED IT! Great post too. I have the same NBP Coupe as you but have blave ADR DEMONYA'a on it. SI wing on yours? Looks good.

[Rufus]

I used the same Honda Product ID and had to call 4 dealerships, but I got them and installed them in minutes. To think I went about 2 months without blinkers geesh..

[are6]

Glad to hear it worked out for you. Did you get a new harness too or did you just make some connectors?

Anyway, thanks for the compliments, the wing is actually an OEM knock-off I got from Spoilerdepot.com. I am very pleased with it. It came colormatched and it was spot on. Not to mention it was really inexpensive. I wanted a Honda wing from the dealership, but I just couldn't bring myself to part with almost $400 for an OEM wing. I've actually got quite a bit done to the Civ...can't really tell in my pics I posted, but there are a few more things I want to do to it before I "unveil" it to the world....LOL!

[Rufus]

I made my own harness. Blinkers rule!!!

Here's the older tails on my 04

[Rufus]

Your car resembles a white box with red "x"'s in the middle.

[SQCivic]

Last word from me on this only because of the "mentality" remark. Nothing has gotten out of hand and I never said there was not another way to make the tail lights work. Kudos to you for coming up with another solution. If someone doesn't want to spend the money for the factory parts then they can do it another way. I was just trying to get the point across since there are so many "how do you do it" threads on these lights that all of the factory parts are available from Honda to make the switch and they do not cost an "ass-load" of money. Good for you on your DIY method but don't downplay my straight factory install just because you didn't want to spend the money or because you think it is too much trouble. It's all good.

[Rufus]

I think by now the point is across. There should be a sticky in lighting about this.