Hi, I'm a rookie here so please bear with me...

I am interested in replacing the cornering or clearance lights on my '99, either by buying brighter bulbs or modifying stock ones. I am getting mixed info as to what behavior the bulbs are supposed to act: are they supposed to brighten as you turn on your signals or not? According to the Nissan manual, the bulb that is OEM in the cornering light is size 1157, which has dual wattage. But when I try signaling on my car, there is no difference in brightness. I even went so far as going to the dealer and asking the service guys and three of them told me that the brightness does not change regardless of whether you are signaling or not. I also tried removing the corners myself and DAMN, it's near impossible!!! Can I get some advice on how to take those corners out without damaging the car? Thanks.

 

When you said that you couldn't get the corner light off, I'm assuming your talking about the clearance lense (the one beside the headlight) because I too had a hard time. If you open the hood there is a screw on the top of the lense. Then use a screw driver of something flat and wrap a cloth over it. Then start prying the lense outwards like the owner manual says. Then you will be able to see a ball and socket joint behind the lense. Spray some wd40 on the joint and let it sit for a while. Removing it shouldn't be so hard now. I actually got the bulb in the clearance lense without taking off the lense. There is enough spare in the engine bay to fit your hand and the bulb in there. Hope this helps

 

Open the hood (duh) on top there will be a little phillips screw...take that out and as you can read in the manual there is a little round thingy holding the housing into the car...take a screw driver carefully behind the light and carefully pry the light out...it will want to break but just get the screw driver right to the source and pry it slowly...and for lighting up the turn...mine does when im turing...

 

The key thing to get the clearance lense out is to put a flat-head screwdriving into that ball-and-socket device. Then just twist the screwdriver and the ball-and-socket will pop out. It's actually easy if you do it that way.

It took me 3 days to figure that out.

 

So your clearance light does light up when you signal? What the heck is wrong with my car then? I will take everyone's advice on removing the lense. Thanks!

 

The early 4th gens did brighten when you put on the turn signal; I know mine does. IIRC, they dropped the feature in '97.

 

 

The Light assembly is stubborn but I ended up ripping it from the car and it was OK. A tip I picked up her to make the bulb brighter without rewiring your harness is to file or grab a pair of pliars and rip off the highest stub on the bulb and flip it the other way when you put it in. This should light up the 27 watt side instead of the 8 watt.

 

For the 95 and 96 the cornering light does go brighter when you turn the singel light but after 96, Nissan stop the function however, you can rewire the light and make it go on brighter as long as the light is on!!

 

Just go to www.Maximadriver.com....there is everything there that you need and there will be other things there to tempt you to do more than just make the corners bright, next thing you will know you will have rewired blinkers and fog lights. It is a really good site and well put together with simple instructions on how to do the mod. Just click on "how tos" on the left margin. I have done just about all of the rewires and they have been safe so far...just follow the instructions closely.

 

Just tried this mod now and it's awesome. I shorted the two pins together and now the clearance lights are so much brighter. It's the way it should have been built!

Took me a while to figure out where to put the flat screwdriver, but geez, this is the best FREE mod I've done.

thanks,
rob

 

or you can put in a 1156 size bulb in the corners by taking off one of the nibbles... thats what i did and it has been working fine...

 

I thought of this too, but the bulb seemes awfully hot and I worried about the lense melting on the inside. Has this happened to you at all?

 

went to show the wife the new, now brighter, clearance lights tonight, but guess what? they won't turn on. After an embarassing 10 minutes looking for the fuse, I found the darn 7.5 watt one and replaced it with a spare 20 watt. Will let you guys/gals know should I melt my housing next... 8^)

 

I wouldn't recommend that you use a 20 watt fuse I would just go up to a 10watt. That is what I have in mine and I actually just had to re-solder the wire from my harness back to the connector in the bulb plug. I finally just rewired the corners and they have been working fine for the last month. All in all...just use a 10 watt fuse.