Over the years, every single exterior light and reflector on Mustard has received some sort of update if not a full replacement. The headlights and taillights were replaced, the fog lights were tinted (yellow), the third brake light was fitted with a flasher, and the original rear reflectors were lightly tinted before being replaced with ST pieces when the new rear valance came along. The only components that still sit exactly as they did on day one are the mirrors’ turn signals – they don’t even have stealth bulbs in them!
Despite it barely featuring in this post, I’m opening today by mentioning Mustard because my wanting to finally get around to those last two remaining lights ultimately led to Arabis receiving the parts you will see here. Let me explain.
Last year Mario ordered in a set of sequential LED turn signals for Selsun, and at the time I passed on the opportunity to get in on the order myself (something about some old Nissan needing paint…). As soon as they arrived though, I knew that I had to get a set for myself at some point because the upgrade they offered over the original lights – both in terms of visibility and cosmetics – was substantial.
If we’re being brutally honest, lighting was always one area that Mk3s were generally a bit behind the competition in. Halogen headlights (in most models) were the big complaint, but the tail lights were also similarly lacking and while most examples did feature signals in the mirrors they only had one dinky little bulb in charge of lighting up the entire housing. Happily, the aftermarket came to the rescue here.
For a fairly low cost (when we ordered this year the exchange rate at the time brought them to just over $130 CAD per set, shipped) and very little effort in terms of the install, these new units provide a major upgrade in terms of looks and also perform significantly better when it comes to grabbing one’s attention, which is of course the entire point of these signals in the first place.
So yes, Selsun received these fancy new signals last year (Sriracha did too, but they were a different set since Fiestas have different mirrors) but they weren’t properly shown on the site because – as mentioned in the new video – there may have been some technical difficulties with the original footage. So, the photos which I do have were set aside in wait for more sets of these signals to arrive. And they now have.
With that Nissan now long since painted and the itch coming back to make a few updates to Mustard at long last, I decided that for this season I’d order in a set of these signals and finally replace those last two original lights on the yellow sedan. However, why should Mustard have all the cool stuff?
To actually be serious for a moment, I decided that it’d be a bit silly to put the new signals on Mustard alone because with Arabis being the daily driver, I shouldn’t turn down the opportunity to fit signals that are brighter and more attention-grabbing than the originals for the obvious safety aspect. As such, a second set was ordered (along with a third for Dijon and fourth for Pepper after I put the word out that I was having some shipped over) and recently fit to the hatch. Mustard’s set will be installed a little later this year, once it has come home from storage.
For this install I spent my time filming everything instead of photographing a step-by-step, and the new video is now live on the YouTube channel (it’s linked at the end of this post). This really is a straight-forward procedure however, with these new housings basically being a plug-and-play operation. As shown in the video I did use some heatshrink to tidy up the unused “show mode” wiring as well as reinforce the connection at the socket, but otherwise it was just a matter of pulling out the original bulb and plugging these in.
Happily, on a relatively stock Mk3 these don’t look out of place but they equally serve as a brilliant finishing touch for the more elaborate builds.
The more pronounced shape also allows for better rearward visibility, with dedicated LEDs positioned in the end of the lights as you can see here; compare the original housing on Arabis (silver) to the new piece on Selsun (blue).
The final important note of the day before getting to the install video is that of where we purchased these. There are plenty of cheap sets online (though not all will fit North American mirrors, so read any listings carefully) but all of ours came from a fellow enthusiast overseas, via his Instagram @au13_lee. These are the ones you want – DM Lee to purchase some for your own Mk3!
And so, there’s the proper look at the signals that Selsun received as well as a full walk-through of their install on Arabis in video form. At this time Dijon has its set in and hopefully before long we can fit Mustard’s and Pepper’s as well. Like I mentioned in the video I ordered these for my two Mk3s for two different reasons, but either way it’s an upgrade over what the factory installed. Better at getting your attention and they look cooler too – how can you not like sequentials?
-Bill