FocusCanada Forums

Ok, so I was thinking of buying some euro tails for my ZX3, all the while not knowing that with some of them you NEED to have the euro 98-up bumper and lights in order to make the factory Ford tailights to work. Is this true? Or can you make them work like the US spec ones. I've never taken them apart to look at them or haven't had to change a bulb yet...I thought that the Euro tails are exactly the same, they just have a amber lense instead of white....maybe this would make them illegal? Hmmm, maybe then I'd have to look into something different if I wanna retain the stock bumper...

Thing is, a lot of replacement lights for the H/B's from APC or TYC are definately NOT the look I am going for. I wanted to either get something that looks different, but works the same and is black, or just go and nightshade the tailight. I'd preffer to have a light cluster with a black housing, but no tint on the outside lense as to not reduce the candlepower of the tails...

Kinda like these:



I also like these too:



I'm thinking that I could make either of these designs work with some mior wiring creativity. I think the 2nd choice would be a matter of putting the OE bulbs and sockets into the housings and that's it...mind you, don't know how dark they would be if these don't have reflectors behind them, its a funny angle and glare in the picture, so it's hard to tell what's black and what isn't. I think that I could make the other lights work like US ones too with the extra wires and sockets, etc etc...I've seen one of the cars from FJ that was in FF magazine with these lights, and they looked ok, and might even look better on a black car...

I dunno what to do...might not bother with the idea of changing the tails at all if it proves a pain, or I have to butcher the car to swap them...

Thoughts/suggestions?

can't really see the pics there.

the stock OE Euro lights look awesome on a black car, but your going to need the right bulb holders to make everything work right, along with a euro rear with the bumper lights.

I tried to re-post the pics of the tailights I'm looking at again, but still shows as a broken image...stupid pics...

Anyways, if it's true that you need the Euro bumper and fogs to make the factory ford tailights work, then I won't bother. That's just too much hassle for me.

Ok, and now the pictures decided to work again...I've got some serious issues with this website lately...it keeps on logging me in all the time, and I have to refresh almost every page or link...wonder if the problem is at my end...lol

Anyways, if you CAN see the pics, let me know what you think...

Drivesthebeast,Sep 24 2005, 08:12 PM Wrote:Ok, and now the pictures decided to work again...I've got some serious issues with this website lately...it keeps on logging me in all the time, and I have to refresh almost every page or link...wonder if the problem is at my end...lol

Anyways, if you CAN see the pics, let me know what you think...
[right][snapback]144531[/snapback][/right]

Maybe just me I like the first ones better, they just look more interesting.

I've got the second set of tails, might consider selling, PM me if interested. (smoked European Inpro's)

As far as I've seen, they're the only set in North America.

yes you do need the full euro conversion for them to work 100% as designed... otherwise you'll be driving arround with no reverse lights, which is illegal.

You technically dont need the euro bumper to make the euro taillights work, but you'll lose your white reverse lights. If you wire the tails up the european way, you wont have any reverse lights (you'll have red tail/brake light, amber signal light). You can keep them wired up the stock way (you'll have red tail/brake/signal light, and amber reverse light).. but that's pretty lame.

You should be able to use those aftermarket european tails wired the north american way, since you could put a white bulb in the "signal" slot to function as your reverse light.. only thing is the bulb sockets and wiring harnesses may be different.

keep in mind you don't have to have Euro Fogs in north america, you can order two back up lights and just move the back up light down to the bumper when you get them.


Best way to wire up the lights in a euro rear clone hatchback or wagon is to go to a scrap yard and look for a focus sedan with the 3 stage tail lights, and ripe out all the wiring with the box and the wiring leading into it in the trunk from the front of the car.

Since the signels are apart from the brake light it saves you a but load of time, when doing this, all you have to do is extend the wires down to where the back up lights are, and put them in place. Of course you'll have to do a bit of re-wiring and extending, and the change over to the euro speck holders, and your done.

You'll need the following things to do this on a hatch:

Euro rear bumper, crash foam, and either a set of white back up lights, or one, and one fog light ( more or less it's your choice to put the fog there at all ) Keep in mind if you want the rear fog to work you'll need to do more wiring.

or the easy way.... drill 2 holes in the back of your bumper and install some pontiac Grand AM reverse lights into there.

before you start, go and get some 1/8" female spade connectors and various colours of 18ga wire(6 colours should be more than enough) and make sure you have atleast 15ft of atleast2 colours! you will also need a small tube of RTV silicone and a roll of electical tape. i suggest the use of Solder and heat shrink but if you are ghetto, but-connectors will work, please buy the ones that have heat-shrink on them rather than the plain-jane ones. also a good test-light is suggested for error free work! ;)

well to wire them up propperly you can do the 3stage option from the sedan OR for cheaper and faster...
pull apart the drive side foot well and locate the green wire with red stripe(i'll have to double check that) that has signal from the brake switch. cut that wire and run 2 wires to the back of the car. the extra wire needs to be long enough upo front to tap into the fog-light wire off the headlight switch... this allows you to run a reverse fog on a euro bumper if you ever decide to go that way, if not, then don't worry about it.

once the wire(s) are run to the rear you will need to locate the reverse lamp wire cut and contect the wire from the brake signal to that wire on the inside of the car. next pull the tail light off and expose all of the wires as much as possible, you are going to need to cut and re-route all of them to make this work....

cut the bulb holders off and have a test light handy with a nice long jumper wire to the + side of the battery for testing ground.
strip all wires and lengthen them by 12". try and keep colour coding similar or write down what whire is what on a piece of paper to keep it simple.

the wire you ran from the front that is now hooked to the reverse lamp wire running to the tail lamps on the inside of the car, this needs to get connected to the "major" terminal on the euro bulb holder.
locate the parking/running lamp wire and hook it to the "Minor" terminal on the euro bulb holder. add ground to this holder and check function of the park/running lights and brake light when depressed. once you have verified functionality, make sure the spade connectors are on tight to the terminals. load up the ends of the bulb holders at the terminals with the RTV silicone, this seals out water and pretty much eliminates any chance of shorting from loose connectors on the terminals. fill the bulb holders till over flowing and quickly wrap the holder down to the wire trying to make as clean a seal as possible.


the left over wires are the now seperated turn signal wire and reverse ground, hook these into the other euro bulb holder and test functionality. once working complete the same sealing steps as above and you should be good to go onto the other side.

again, test everything a few times before you seal it together.... it's not perminant but is ucks having to pull everything apart because you made a little mistake.

i'll try and get pics of this up when i have time to do so.

Thanks for all the help and advice everybody...I appreciate it. I am considering the InPro tails (bottom picture) since they look the same as a factory light, just that they are black, almost reversed...I think that with some simple Macgyvering, I could utilize the stock bulb sockets, and use a double contact red bulb for park/brake/turn, and a clear bulb for reverse...this might be ok since I found out they utilize reflectors behind the bulbs....essentially they are like ST170's for the rear...

I don't wanna buy a whole bumper just to have different tails tha work, and I also want the car to still appear generally plain too...

you don't have to buy a whole bumper to mail the euro tails work... you can get some nice aftermarket reverse lamps and mount them under the bumper or mount them into the bumper if you are creative! :)

just remember that if you butcher the euro tails, if you ever sell them you probably wont get anything for them.

good luck with either route.