| Is it legal to use one of the rear reverse lights as fog light? Mine is like that but I was wondering about the height of the light.(12/99) |
| No, because the reversing lights are too close to the brake lights on a Mk 1 - you have to have at least 100mm between the brake light and fog light lenses. You can convert the high level brake light to a fog light, or I like this solution - fix a fog light into the panel where the Eunos badge is. I can't remember the max height for a rear red fog light, but I think it's 900mm - it's above the level of a '5's boot deck anyway. (12/99) |
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I recently checked this with the MOT, and the answer given to me was: "reversing lights are not included in the MOT test, so the vehicle would not fail" qualified by the following statement: "However, an MOT pass is not the same as Road Legal" (Not a good answer to your question, I realise.) Didn't someone recently post extracts from the lighting regulations, and didn't they say that a Fog light had to be at least 10cm from a Brake light? In the rest of Europe, don't MX5's have only one Reversing light, the other being a Fog light? It occurs to me that the rear light cluster on European MX5's might be different to UK. Can anyone please confirm? (12/99) |
| Ah, I thought I'd seen a photo of a Swiss Mk 1 with a different rear light cluster: it appeared not to have the white circle (Reversing light) on the inner edge of the cluster. Instead, it had an orange circle (Indicator) in the centre of the cluster. But perhaps it was a Mk 2. (12/99) |
| He probably had a red/orange sticker glued over the white light. not so uncommon and not too difficult either. Just a bit of rewiring to do. (12/99) |
| This is true. My for light, is on the left as seeing from the back of the car, the same one that is used as reversing light one the right hand side. 10 cm? I don't think that the light of my MK2 is that big to get this distance right. (12/99) |
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Mk 2's have one reversing light (on the left) and a red fog light (on the right) in Europe (including the UK). In Japan, they have two reversing lights and no fog light. That is one reason for the redesign of the rear lights - the Mk1 rear light clusters cannot be adapted in this way because of the reg that fog lights have to be 100mm from brake lights. The original lights did not conform to European regs in this way because the MX5 was not originally destined for Europe. Mazda Europe said they didn't want it. Remember that in the mid-eighties no-one bought open two seater sports cars, and companies here seem to be much shorter-sighted than Japan and the US. Probably that's unfair to a lot of continental European companies, but I think the UK is by far the biggest Mazda market in Europe - you certainly see far more here than elsewhere. (12/99) |
| I am currently getting my fog lights redone. The car came with a reverse light conversion as the fog light, but I later found the wiring was incorrectly done (utilised power for heated rear screen). I was also concerned about the fog light being illegal (not 10cms from the brake light) The car is currently in a garage who have converted the fog light back to a reverse light and have fitted two tacky foglights underneath. However they now tell me that I need to replace the light cluster as they can not remove the red tape over the inside of the reverse light. Is there any way to open up the light cluster to get access to the red tape over the reverse light? (3/00) |
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Yep - it can be opened. You need a hot air blower, and use it VERY CAREFULLY to soften the hot melt glue which holds the lenses together. Blow hot air onto the outside of the lens in the area of the one you want to remove (the reversing light white lens) and push from the inside with a wooden rod (hammer handle, etc), gradually increasing the temperature. The lens will eventually push out. If you are lucky, the hot melt can be reused, and you can glue it back with a bit of heat. If not, you'll need new glue/sealant. Float the reassembled light unit in water to check for leaks. NB this works on front sidelights too, if you should need to take them apart - although you may find it hard to obtain replacement lenses anyway. You can get individual rear light lens components in Japan, I understand. (3/00) |
| The Mazda manual talks about using a hot air gun to melt the glue to remove the lense .. and then repeating it to stick it back on .. but be careful as you do not want to distort the lense .. and you need to test it in a sink full of water for leaks afterwards. (3/00) |
| A Mazda 323 fog light will fit... |
| The fog light part number is BS 0666480A. I understand (but have not seen) an alternative is BS 8866480 which has a warning light built in. Don't know what it is out of though and whether it even fits, so check it first! Don't put up with the "Roadster is totally different car - can't supply" cr@p. Just ask for the part for an MX5. If they don't like Roadsters, ask what their parts sales target is for the month and point out how much easier it would be to hit if they were Roadster-friendly! (1/01) |
| The fog switch you Desiree with a warning lamp built in is most certainly out of a 323 with a bg chassis code (plenty of these in breakers yards) They are also a perfect fit with the right color illumination and identical to oe switch. (1/01) |
| BS8866480, rear fog lamp switch with warning light, is ISTR from a 323 of unknown vintage. It costs around 18GBP from your friendly Mazda dealer (?) ;-). It is exactly the same fitment as the other rectangular rocker switches on your dash and therefore goes straight in. The indicator is recessed and a bit hard to see when turned on - it's probably mounted more in line of sight in the 323 - but fulfils the MOT requirement. (1/01) |