DIY - 2010/11 Camaro AAC LED Side Markers Install with Turn Signals

[GearHeadPeter]

Hi All,

We all know that our side markers do not blink with our turn signals.

I worked with Jonathan from AAC in getting their LED front amber and rear red side markers. Jonathan also hooked me up with their dual intensity harness that will allow you to install the new LED side markers, but also make them blink with your Camaro's turn signals.

This what the LED side marker looks like in the car:



AAC will now install for $75 all the dual-intensity circuits for each LED side marker.

Front:

To get to the front side markers turn the steering wheel so that you can get access to the three Torx screws on the inner fender liner along the side of the side marker. Remove the three Torx screws starting from the bottom and working your way up. Gently pry back the inner fender shield to get your hand in there. You will need just a bit of clearance to get you hand by the side marker. Using a 6" flat bladed screw driver to push on the tab through a small slot facing the passenger firewall. The side marker will come out, but be careful not to scratch the paint. There is a small tab on the plug that locks the wiring harness to the side marker. Using a small jewelers flat bladed screw driver gently pry up on the tab and pull the harness off the side marker.

Before you install the new modified LED side markers you will need to connect a 4 foot 16 ga. black wire to the Red wire that is coming out of the housing of the new marker.

I chose black wire so that it blends in more in the engine compartment. You can do this in one of three ways. Solder the wires together and use 1/8" shrink tubing over the soldered connections, use a butt-connector to crimp the two wires together, or in my case I wanted to be able to disconnect the wire from the new marker in case I needed to take off the front fascia so I used a solder type single contact molded male/female connector that is water tight. If you want to go this route PM me and I can give you the part numbers and place I bought mine from.

The reason I had you take off the three Torx screws was so that you can fish the wire from the AAC LED side marker through the inner fender shield into the engine compartment. Install the new side AAC LED side marker and make sure that the wire coming from the new modified side marker clears the opening that the marker will go into. Take the end of the wire that is lose and find an opening to the engine compartment to put the wire through. This is a bit of trial and error, but will not take too long.

You need to disconnect the turn signal bulb. On the driver’s side it is a bit interesting as you need to move the air scoop from the stock air box to get to the turn signal bulb. To do this it is easiest if you open the air box, remove the filter and you will see the air scoop sitting towards the front of the air box. Press in on either side to release the tabs that hold it in place and gently push the air scoop into the air box as far as it can go. You will now have access to the turn signal bulb on the driver’s side.

Once the bulb is out there is a plastic black wiring wrap around the wires. This wrap has a slit in it to put the wires for the turn signal through. You will want to put the new wire into that wiring wrap if possible of if you want to do it down and dirty just ty-wrap the wire to the outside. Again I was going for a factory look. About 4" from the turn signal bulb peel back the wrap that houses the wires for the turn signal. The wire you want is the Blue/White wire. For this I used a splice-connector. The Blue/White wire goes towards the outside while the black wire goes towards the inner side where there is a stop for it. Using a pair of pliers you will compress the metal tab into the wires. Once that is done you can close the splice-connector.

Try out your new modified AAC LED side markers and turn signals. A bonus from all of this is now when you set your car alarm not only will the turn signals blink, but also the new LED side markers.

Pull out the air scoop so that it locks back in place again, and install the air filter and close up the box. Now if you have a CAI installed your directions to get to the driver's bulb might be different, and I will leave you to figure out how do that to you. Now go do the other side and enjoy the new modified AAC LED side markers and your new turn indicators.

Rear:

Before you install the new modified rear AAC LED side markers you will need to connect a 4 foot 16 ga. black wire to the Red wire that is coming out of the housing of the new marker.

Getting to the rear side markers. Where the bumper meets the body above the rear wheel there is a 9 or 10 MM bolt, remove it.

Next remove the three Torx screws that are holding the inner fender well to the bumper. Gently, and I mean gently, pull the bumper cover back from where the bumper cover meets the body. As you gently pull back the bumper cover slide your hand in between the body and bumper cover. There are three tabs that hold the cover to the body. With the hand that is behind the bumper cover push the cover gently towards you as you gently pull the cover.

The trick to is get the cover to unhinge from each tab one at a time. If you try to yank the cover off too fast you will break the tab holder on the cover, and Yes I broke one, but it was close to the side marker.

There is a wiring harness that runs from the tail lights through the body inside the trunk. In this harness is where you use the splice connector to tap into the right/left rear turn signal wires.

To see the trap doors and wiring harness open the trunk. Unscrew all the weird tie down hooks, six of them, and take out the plastic piece. Moving the each sides trunk insulation will allow you to see the trap doors and wiring harness more clearly. The is one push in snap in the top of the felt sound deadening. Feel around in the back up towards the top of the trunk area. You will need to take that out w/o breaking it. You can now move the covering out of the way and see the trap doors and the taillight wiring harness. The trap doors are covered by a rubber membrane against a plastic housing. This lets the pressure out of the trunk when you close it. You route the wire that you attached the 4 foot black wire to from each rear LED side marker through there and using a wire splice tap into the turn signal harness that runs to the tail lights.

Rear Drivers side wire is Yellow/Black on main wiring harness from body to turn signal lights.

Rear Passenger side wire is Green/White on main wiring harness from body to turn signal lights.

The rear side markers will now blink with each rear turn signal. On a side note, because the turn signal and brake light are dual purpose filament bulbs when the brake pedal is depressed the rear side markers will also light up with the rear brake lights.

The brake portion lights up both filaments, whereas the turn signal only lights up one. When braking and turning at the same time the rear side maker will continue to blink. The only time the rear side markers are brighter than the normal running lights are when braking or turning.

When reinstalling the bumper cover start by the rear marker and gently push the cover back over each tab. When you get to the last tab, above the wheel you will need to use your hand that is behind the cover to move the bumper cover tabs that are closest to the wheel over the hard plastic honey-comb to get the last tab to snap into place. Reinstall all the screws and your are done.