Auto Lamp Conversion (thanks steve)

July 25, 2005, 10:20:17 PM

Thanks to Steve who I met at Cat Jam I now have Auto Lamp in my car. This was a completely plug and play ordeal. All of my parts came from an 86 Elan and my car is an 88 so you can easily find a donar. Well here goes, this was my adventure.

85-88 body style.

All parts are easily obtained from a donar car. Your parts will have to come from an 85 to 88 car.

Parts list
Part 1. Mirror assy. from an Auto Lamp car and the oncoming car headlight sensor. The whole mirror will have to be replaced as the windshield mount is differn't. There is a place for the sensor to mount to.

Part 2. In the center of the dash there is a rectangular plate that covers the sun light sensor. On a non Auto Lamp car there nothing under this. When you pull the sensor from the parts car be sure and get the mounting bracket. You will have to pull the clock out to get this out. Your cover will work as it has the holes in it already.

Part 3 Of course you have to get the dash switch and the plate that covers it.

Part 4. There is a section of harness that runs from the driver kick panel up the pillar and across the front of the headliner. This harness powers the visors and supplys the mirror sensor its power. It intercepts the only connector behind the driver kick panel. Its easy just unplug the connector behind the kickpanel and plug the two ends of the new harness into there corrasponding connectors on the car. Then reinstall the kick panel. You will have to remove both pillar covers and both visors to pull the front of the headliner down. You can do all of this without damaging the headliner but you will have to be creative.

Part 5. There is a harness that runs from behind the headlight panel down to the relay bank and up to the top of the dash. Behind the headlight panel it connects to the auto dim switch of course, but it also has a small orange wire that runs to the headlight switch. Also back in about six inches from the front of the panel there is a connector with a jumper, this new harness will plug into this connector so pull out the jumper. You will have to route it over to the relay bank were it connects to three relays so be sure and snag them. Two green connector relays and one white. There will be a place for them to mount to on your relay bank (plastic thing). From there it goes up and plugs into the sunlight sensor. Removal of the dash trim and clock is necesary.

You can plug all of the harness and sensors in just under the dash and test it out first. This is what I did.

This info may be elseware but I didnt' see it. Thanks to Steve for the info he deserves the credit for this.

Re: Auto Lamp Conversion (thanks steve)

Reply #1 – July 25, 2005, 11:16:09 PM

My 87 V6 has that. Was this a common option?

James

Re: Auto Lamp Conversion (thanks steve)

Reply #2 – July 26, 2005, 12:43:50 AM

*runs out to take parts off of Eric's T-bird before I give it back*

One question... dunno if you know this or not yet. Does the min-max setting on the control the sensetivity of the sensor? Or does it control the timing at which the lights are switched back to low beams?

Re: Auto Lamp Conversion (thanks steve)

Reply #3 – July 26, 2005, 05:08:33 AM

Sensitivity
:canada:

Re: Auto Lamp Conversion (thanks steve)

Reply #4 – July 26, 2005, 07:18:20 PM

CougarSE,
Do you know if the autolight/dimmer could be made to work in an '83? I know it would probably take some creativity, since the dash layouts are totally different. But do you know if the same harnesses are in the same places? Thanks for yours or anybody else's input.

Fordman3

Re: Auto Lamp Conversion (thanks steve)

Reply #5 – July 26, 2005, 09:12:09 PM

83 an 84 model cars had a differn't version of the Auto Lamp. The controls were all on the mirror. And I dont think it had the auto dim I've seen very few of them I believe it to be a very rare option on those cars.

I can get pictures of this system for you tomorrow.

Re: Auto Lamp Conversion (thanks steve)

Reply #6 – July 27, 2005, 09:09:45 AM

i beleive i have everything for this mod if any one wants it.
$40.00 for everything mentioned

Re: Auto Lamp Conversion (thanks steve)

Reply #7 – August 01, 2005, 02:55:04 AM

Fordman3 I was incorrect in saying the controlls were on the mirror. Apperently there was an option for an autodimming mirror from 83 to 86 but as far as I can tell it went away for 87 and 88 then came back in 89. If anyone knows if the auto mirror came in a 87 or 88 please chime in.