Tail Light Retrofit- AMBER turn signal

One thing I've always hated about my 3 was how they use the Brake light as the turn signal. I'm a big believer in a dedicated color(amber) for turn signal. Unfortunately a lot of manufactures are going away from that in favor for the brake/turn combo. Maybe it's cost savings.IDK, but I am out to change that.

I started looking into just purchasing the European model 3 Tail lights which have an amber turn signal factory(its required by law over seas to have a orange signal). The problem I ran into was the US spec cars are programmed to use the brake AS the turn signal. Which means than even if I got a European lamp, i would still need to find a way to change the computer system to flash a dedicated output for the turn signal.

So I purchased a set of stock tail lights and cut them apart. While inside I painted the chrome black which gave i a much cleaner look. Then I retrofitted a 3" Diode dynamics HD amber LED strip where the OEM reverse was. For the reverse, I retrofitted a 3" white LED strip right next to it(inner). The wiring was a bit tricky as I had to tap off the 3rd brake light for dedicated "BRAKE" then the front camera side markers for a dedicated "TURN" signal. Overall worked pretty well!

In the trunk, pass side there's a harness. Blue wire is 3rd brake light which is where I tapped off.

Running the turn wires through the trunk boot. fun stuff

here's a video showing the functions. They might look dim, but its out in direct sunlight. I assure you they are bright
Also you may notice they are hyperflashing because the car isn't seeing any load(i disconnected the stock brake/turn wire) I left them as is, but if it get annoying I will throw a resistor in there.

Also Decided to do blackout headlight, and AMBER DRL mod

 

[Lloyd]

Is there any retrofit tail lights for a 2024 S Plaid?

 

[fholbert]

Since seeing this thread I've noticed most, but not all, MY's and M3's have amber turn signals in the rear. In SoCal you can't throw a rock without hitting a Tesla. What year did they change to amber?

 

[terranx]

Since seeing this thread I've noticed most, but not all, MY's and M3's have amber turn signals in the rear. In SoCal you can't throw a rock without hitting a Tesla. What year did they change to amber?

Model Y’s were a while ago. A few months after introduction basically. For model 3, M3Ps got them early MY2023, the rest got them in the middle of the year. Not sure if there’s a precise cutoff

 

[toof]

Model Y’s were a while ago. A few months after introduction basically. For model 3, M3Ps got them early MY2023, the rest got them in the middle of the year. Not sure if there’s a precise cutoff

I took delivery of my ‘23 M3 RWD this year in May and It came with the red turn signal tail lights. My brother took delivery of his ‘23 M3 RWD in June of this year and his received the amber turn signal tail lights. Looks like we can assume starting in June 2023 they switched the RWD M3 to the ambers.

 

[Recce93]

My 3LR, 2023 model year, came with red directionals. Just got done with the conversion with the MY alpharex lights. Needed to make adapters for the interior lights as the Y is 4 pin and the 3 is 3, though both have just 3 wires. This forum helped with the parts for building the adapters. The project cost more than I would like but I love the white tail lights (when they are off) on the white car and wanted the amber too.

 

[gnardog]

So just to update on this, the body side connector does have the rear fog pins wired up. After adding two wires to trunk harness and having someone change the gateway config to enable the rear fogs, they light up.

Cars that have the global taillamps from the factory should already have the wiring in place, in which case it's a config change that's needed to enable them.

View attachment 944219


View attachment 944218

Circling back to this as I was unable to find it in your other posts, or maybe I'm just oblivious, what model year is your M3P? I have the global inners from when I grabbed the set of Model Y tails for my 21' M3P and would love to enable this.

 

[fholbert]

I took delivery of my ‘23 M3 RWD this year in May and It came with the red turn signal tail lights. My brother took delivery of his ‘23 M3 RWD in June of this year and his received the amber turn signal tail lights. Looks like we can assume starting in June 2023 they switched the RWD M3 to the ambers.

FWIW my MY, an April 2023 Austin build has amber turn signals.

Pretty sure the MY and M3 use interchangeable parts on the tail lights. Assume Austin got them before Fremont?

 

[terranx]

Circling back to this as I was unable to find it in your other posts, or maybe I'm just oblivious, what model year is your M3P? I have the global inners from when I grabbed the set of Model Y tails for my 21' M3P and would love to enable this.

Mine was a MY22. I think it should be doable on a 21 as well

 

[E90alex]

FWIW my MY, an April 2023 Austin build has amber turn signals.

Pretty sure the MY and M3 use interchangeable parts on the tail lights. Assume Austin got them before Fremont?

Model Y has had the amber rear turn signals since late 2020 production

 

[fholbert]

Model Y has had the amber rear turn signals since late 2020 production

Then I‘m wrong...

This always confuses me. I drive a lot of miles on SoCal freeways and most, maybe 7 out of 10, M3 and MY have amber turn signals.

 

[gnardog]

Mine was a MY22. I think it should be doable on a 21 as well

Much appreciated!

 

[Dysan911]

My 3LR, 2023 model year, came with red directionals. Just got done with the conversion with the MY alpharex lights. Needed to make adapters for the interior lights as the Y is 4 pin and the 3 is 3, though both have just 3 wires. This forum helped with the parts for building the adapters. The project cost more than I would like but I love the white tail lights (when they are off) on the white car and wanted the amber too.

I really like those black and white-looking Alpharex Lights. Just to clarify would the ones with the Amber require our model year to support Amber oem wiring or would my 2018 with Red only work? I'm assuming probably not.

 

[DocHolliday]

Then I‘m wrong...

This always confuses me. I drive a lot of miles on SoCal freeways and most, maybe 7 out of 10, M3 and MY have amber turn signals.

Interesting, I'm in a tesla-heavy area of SoCal and only the newest 3s have amber signals. 90% of the Ys do of course. Funny story, I was in the bay area over the holidays and saw an older 3 that had done the amber tail swap but not reprogrammed, so the turn signals came on with the brake lights.

 

[Durzel]

I've got a 2020 American made M3P here in the UK, and I'm going to be retrofitting the front matrix headlights soon.

I have a few questions if anyone can help

• Does coding the "global" rears require the same or greater level of access as will be required for the matrix lights (i.e. not configurable with the consumer accessible Toolbox 3 access)
  
  
• I'm assuming based on skim reading the past few pages that my 2020 car lights will all be 3 pin. In the UK we've always had amber turn signals, and at least one rear fog light, but on my earlier car there is only one reversing light, and one fog light. I believe fitting the inners will fix that. Because my car is EU - I assume I won't have to run any extra cables to anywhere?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Durzel]

I've got a 2020 American made M3P here in the UK, and I'm going to be retrofitting the front matrix headlights soon.

I have a few questions if anyone can help

• Does coding the "global" rears require the same or greater level of access as will be required for the matrix lights (i.e. not configurable with the consumer accessible Toolbox 3 access)
  
  
• I'm assuming based on skim reading the past few pages that my 2020 car lights will all be 3 pin. In the UK we've always had amber turn signals, and at least one rear fog light, but on my earlier car there is only one reversing light, and one fog light. I believe fitting the inners will fix that. Because my car is EU - I assume I won't have to run any extra cables to anywhere?

Thanks in advance!

Answered myself by reading the thread a bit more thoroughly. It's a bit difficult to parse the info because a lot of it is based on US lights that never had rear foglights, etc.

In the EPC I can see the following:

Looking at eBay - 1077404-00-C (inner, RHS of vehicle) is 3 pin, and looks like it is a part for 2021 cars. 1502089-00-B is a 4 pin light.

Likewise, 1077401-00-G (inner, LHS of vehicle) is three pin and 1502088-00-B is 4 pin.

Since my car is 2020, I presume my inners & loom are 3 pin. I have only one rear foglight and one rear reversing light (in the RHS inner lamp).

Interestingly, both 1077399-00-D (outer, LHS) and 1502086-99-D (outer, LHS, global) look like they are both 4 pin, with the same pins populated. I would guess that the 1077399-00-D light is also the latest revision part for 2021 and earlier Euro cars. I guess it would be safe to assume this wouldn't be the C-style brake lights?

Based on the above, it looks like I need to buy the following:

• 1502086-99-D (outer, LHS, global)
• 1502087-99-D (outer, RHS, global)
• 1502088-00-B (inner, LHS)
• 1502089-00-B (inner, RHS)
• 2 x 3-pin to 4-pin adapters for the inners
• "Global" coding to turn on rear foglight/reverse light on LHS inner?

Does that sound right? I saw a video posted by a guy with a 2022 Model 3 who ended up with non C-style brakes and single reverse/fog, and he just needed the lights and the adapters and no coding.

 

[E90alex]

The outers should be plug and play for you. You should not need any tail light coding because your car already has amber turn signals and therefore is already set to “global”, it just has the old design.

I’m not 100% sure, but if you want dual reverse and dual rear fog on the inners then you will need to splice the reverse signal and run a wire from one side to the other and same for the rear fog wire from the other side to populate the 4th pins on each side.

 

[Ender42]

The outers should be plug and play for you. You should not need any tail light coding because your car already has amber turn signals and therefore is already set to “global”, it just has the old design.

I’m not 100% sure, but if you want dual reverse and dual rear fog on the inners then you will need to splice the reverse signal and run a wire from one side to the other and same for the rear fog wire from the other side to populate the 4th pins on each side.

There's actually a separate setting for ECE vs global, but the outers should work either way. I'm not 100% sure how the inners are wired up from the factory between each combo, but wiring it up the way you recommended would work without requiring any coding. Main difference is you won't be able to individually control left and right with diagnostic tools, light show, etc.

 

[Durzel]

I thought I'd have to run a wire, but from speaking to someone here in the UK with a 2022 Model 3LR, they replaced all 4 lights and the reversing light/foglight on the left hand side of the car just worked without any coding. I checked and he said that he had to use 2 adapters for the inners, so the harness was 3 wires from the car end - which would be the same as mine.

Being a 2022 car, I have no idea if it's coded differently to mine (e.g. ECE vs Global). Is there an easy way to pull my vehicle config with all of the current settings?

I found this photo of 1502088-00-B online, and the casing describes 3 wires having voltage settings - TAIL, REV, R FOG. There are 4 pins, though. I guess it all depends on whether the software/config will utilise those three wires that way?

Also just remembered I have a reverse light on the left and a fog light on the right, not both in one fixture.

 

[unhyphy]

Anyone know what type of hardware/software is involved for coding changes?

I'm curious because I have made changes like this before on other vehicles.

 

[thebestiam1]

Anyone with the S3XY buttons able to turn on the rear fog lights for Model Y/3?