L542 Spida lights

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agnoraan
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L542 Spida lights

Post by agnoraan »

I've had a set of the early Spida L542 tail lights for some time, and finally thinking of fitting them. At the moment the car has Lucas style round indicators and stop and tail lights, what's involved in fitted the Spidas? I'm sure I read that some people had difficulties with the early ones re wiring or getting them to flash properly. If I dont use them then they'll be for sale, as strangely I do like the small round lights that are on there now
Cheers Nige
KevinW
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Re: L542 Spida lights

Post by KevinW »

I've got an early set fitted.
You'll almost certainly need to change the flasher relay to one that has an earth.
Th other thing is to change both sides (rear left and rear right) at the same time, else you'll get funny earthing effects due to the mismatch in resistance between the LEDs and the original filament bulbs.....in case you fancied comparing the 2 sets of lights side-by-side (tried that didn't work).
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kdavies3
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Re: L542 Spida lights

Post by kdavies3 »

You may also need need to put a resistor in line with them.
Nothing too problematic.
I think they look great and give a good light.
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peterc
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Re: L542 Spida lights

Post by peterc »

Depends what you class as any early edition. Mine was one of the first batch offering a discount on the price. The only issue I had was a slight cross contamination of indicator affecting the rear lights. However that was definitely down to poor earthing of the scuttle frame affecting ALL the electrics. It was resolved by a dedicated Earth lead from battery to scuttle.
I was told I needed a new flasher unit that would work on the low powered LED’ s but I think continued with the original.
Definitely worth fitting if you like the original style rectangular lamps as they are so so much brighter and thus a good safety aspect.
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IainS
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Re: L542 Spida lights

Post by IainS »

Like Peter I bought the early versions, I think they’re excellent. I was told by Spida that our old Chairman was taking a cut from each sale so not sure how much Spida made from the early discounted offer. I fitted them post IVA after filling the old twin brake/indicator holes before paint. I already had a dual load flasher which was about £10 off eBay as I had LED side repeaters for the IVA test.

Look great and never had any problems.

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agnoraan
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Re: L542 Spida lights

Post by agnoraan »

If the flasher unit needs to be changed, which one do you fit? Where would be the best place to get a resistor and what am I asking for?? Sorry for the dumb questions, but I hate electrics.
Cheers Nige
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peterc
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Re: L542 Spida lights

Post by peterc »

Nige, I suggest you contact Spyida who can not only advise but probably supply the correct parts.
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Re: L542 Spida lights

Post by nikbj68 »

I fitted the Spiyda-supplied relay when I did a trial fit of my set, and I was told when I bought them at the NEC in November that I shouldn't need any resistors.
I did seem to have an issue with 'strobing' in time with the fuel pump, so suspect I will have to run a better earth, but as the car lives with Mum, I can't go and play during lockdown... Although, I did take it to do her essential shopping on Saturday!
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KevinW
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Re: L542 Spida lights

Post by KevinW »

Fitting the relay is easy - there are loads on ebay e.g.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/12011058826?ii ... gKIKvD_BwE

You may need to add an earth wire into the relay holder and then earth it. You then just need to work out which is the 'In' and which is the 'out' on the original relay and make sure the relay you buy has them the same way round - there are several variants available with different leg configurations.

Assuming you have a single green flasher on your dash to tell you your indicator is on, then you will need to fit a couple of diodes like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Inline-Autom ... SwmLlX7SYh

attach one diode to the left hand indicator feed, and one to the right hand feed, then join both diode outputs together and feed to green dash lamp. The other side of your lamp then needs to be earthed. If one side doesn't work, its because you fitted the diode the wrong way round.

When I first fitted my Spyda LED lamps I didn't have diodes fitted and found that only the left hand side flashed at the dash, although all 4 external indicators worked perfectly on the car.
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