First mod of the year, whoooo! Time to kick off the silly season and get to moddin’. Today’s addition is a simple one, but one I’ve wanted to do for a little while – a set of JDM side marker lights. This is a really common mod among enthusiasts and for good reason. It’s cheap, easy to install, easy to get, and sets the car apart from your everyday stock BRZ/GR86. Ironically, owners on the other side of the pond in Japan are doing the same thing, except they’re installing the USDM marker lights on their cars for the same reason. If you think about it, you could be totally authentic JDM by simply leaving the OEM U.S. markers on and doing nothing, but nah, it’s more fun to mod, so I say go for it.
Typically, you can pick up a set of these lights from most parts vendors for about $175 USD or so, but actually it’s cheaper to buy them direct from Japan via an importer like Japanparts.com, which is who I used. The reason it’s cheaper is because of the currently high exchange rate for Japanese Yen, which at the time I placed my order dropped the price to about $20-25 off of the typical U.S. retail price. Ordering was simple, and the lights showed up in about a week or so. If you don’t mind waiting a bit longer than typical, then you can save some bucks and smile knowing yo ‘da man.
As far as installation goes, it’s pretty straightforward. Turn your front wheels to give you space to access the front inner wheel well liner. Then there’s thee clips you pop out and remove which in turn allows you to pull the liner back to gain access to the back of the lights. You unbolt the nut that secures the light in place, then press the tabs which will allow the light to be popped out from the bumper, then you simply unplug the light from the wiring harness and you’re good to go. Pop the new light back into place, plug in the wiring harness, and then tighten up the nut to secure it all. I also put a dab of Loctite on the nut to make it extra secure. Lastly, re-clip the liner back into place and call it a day. This is the quick summary, but if you hop on YouTube there’s a bunch of install vids, so I would check those out. For me, it took all of 15 minutes to complete.
There you have it. Here’s some close up pics of the lights installed and in operation. First impression is that they seem a bit less brilliant than the USDM lights, but the reason is that the USDM ones have the LED set back into the light, so the panel itself illuminates a bit more completely whereas the JDM lights have the LED in a raised bump, so when they light it really is only the bump itself that lights and the panel stays mostly dim. Pretty sure the LED is the same brightness, but the way it’s integrated into the light is what makes the difference. Looks cool and still gets the job done, so I’m good. Take care for tonight, I’ll be back with another mod in the not too distant future.
