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Today I accomplished something that I wanted to do ever since i bought my car a week ago. Get rid of the signal lights being on the bottom of the bumper instead of at the marker light where it should be! So I took both the marker lights off and the factory blinkers (fogs) and realized that you can actually swap the connectors right over, they're JUST long enough to make the swap because as it turns out they use the same connectors! So all I did was go to the local WalMart and purchase a pair of clear bulbs just like the orange ones that were already in there, and they swapped right in! So nowww, when I flick the switch on top of the steering column, I get parking/driving lights that are where they're supposed to be, IN THE BUMPER!! And now my turn signals are up beside my headlights, ALSO where they're supposed to be! And it looks awesome when driving at night! Very cool, yet VERY simple mod, I dont think this can be any easier, try it out!!!

Holy crap, that's so frickin' simple that I'm amazed I hadn't thought of it sooner.

Only thing is swapping out the orange lenses in the factory front turn signals with clear ones... doing that in the back was really easy, but that's because the lens assembly had both a clear and orange part. I'm pretty sure that the lens assembly on the front turn signals is one piece...

If I could get clear lenses for the fronts, I'd do this immediately. It's been nagging at me...

my factory turn signals are clear, is this because I have a turbo sedan??? I thought they were all clear! Ok, here's the thing, even though mine are clear already, I made them even more clear by doing another simple mod, and for those of you who have these mysterious orange lenses may be in luck also. Even though my lenses are clear, I discovered that when I took them apart to get at the bulb, there were actually TWO lenses in each unit, one directly behind the other. There is an outer lens, which is the one you always see and can touch, and then inside there is one that is kinda foggy with lines all over it so that a certain pattern of light is used from the bulb when its on. This piece comes off!!! I pried at the gap inside and you hear a "CRACK" sound, you have to pry at the gap between the screw hole and the outer lens and they separate. Now maybe in your lenses that extra inner part is whats actually orange, where both of mine were clear, mine was just using an orange bulb. Now please note that once you do this, as cool as it looks, its permanent, because that inner lens actually breaks off the mounting points and you can never go back!!
Try and see if yours are clear on the outside and orange on the inside.

get turbo parts?


Silvania makes a "silverstar" bulb that I believe fits into our corner lights that glows orange, but has a bluish coating that makes your corners not look orange when the lights are off

Subaru must have some fetish with making two-piece lens assemblies. XD

The link in my sig has a picture of my Legacy's front end so you can see the "mysterious orange lens" for yourself, heh. Here, I thought that all Legacys had orange lenses... you disprove that theory!

I'll check it out sometime next week... Spring Break for me. I'm way too busy this week to do any car stuff...

you know those lights you got on your L sedan are completely different in shape and size, but hopefully they used the same type of assembly method as on the turbos and you'll all still be able to do this simple but very nice mod!

Pre-facelift Legacies have an orange lens applied on the outside of the lens, which if you could successfully remove, would leave a 1.5" X 2"(approx.) hole. Post-facelift cars have fully clear lens that are different shape. Do a search for more differences between the two.

yeah but my car IS pre-facelift is it not? Its a 91 Turbo sedan! The facelift didn't start till 92!

Ok, my bad. I dunno then. Canadian models different? Got any pics?




I must like three worded sentances or something, huh?^ Sorry, it's late.

Actually, rather than a search I did some research. Heh.

Turbo models have different parts for 91-94, including the hood and front bumper. The front bumper on non-turbo models is where the difference is...

So Laurel's suggestion is actually the best. Getting a turbo bumper... or just making a lens... though I'd have no idea how to go about doing that. Well, whatever. Maybe I'll do the wire-swap and turn the front lights into ghetto orange foglamps. XD

Also, Silvania makes those Silverstar bulbs for our rear turn signals... but not the sidemarkers. Good to know for me, though, what with my clear rear turn signals... heh.

The corner lights can't work as turn signals by themselves. The light pattern, intensity, and color isn't right. In many situations they'll be much less visible than the factory front bumper-mounted turn signals.

What you could do is stick amber bulbs in the corners and wire them as auxiliary turn signals, keeping the factory ones. You can even do it so they flash alternately with the corners, so they still function as parking lights. You can search for older threads on how to do that. Then you'll have turn signals that are clearly more visible.

Parking lights and driving lights are completely different things.

Nomake Wan wrote:Only thing is swapping out the orange lenses in the factory front turn signals with clear ones... doing that in the back was really easy, but that's because the lens assembly had both a clear and orange part.

Is it that easy Nomake Wan? I've been thinking about doing that for a while. Do you just rip the taillight apart and take out the orange piece?

Yeah, there's just an orange piece that pops out.. V says it's a bad idea, though.. something about the optics designed into it.

Nomake/02SIXT: The pre-facelifted turbos have the clears.. I first noticed this on Jake15s car when we met at an auto-x. They look completely different than regular (read: non-turbo) pre-face fronts. Good mod, though.. not many people figure that one out. I just wish that the corner lenses were designed from the factory to be parking/turn signals.. It doesn't make sense that your only blinkers are on the direct front and direct back of your vehicle...

91legacy_sleeper wrote:
Nomake/02SIXT: The pre-facelifted turbos have the clears.. I first noticed this on Jake15s car when we met at an auto-x. They look completely different than regular (read: non-turbo) pre-face fronts. Good mod, though.. not many people figure that one out. I just wish that the corner lenses were designed from the factory to be parking/turn signals.. It doesn't make sense that your only blinkers are on the direct front and direct back of your vehicle...

Are you talking about corners or the bumper signals? The corners are exactly identical on all 91s. The bumper ones are clear and a different shape too.

The turbo ones are the exact same shape, but all clear.

The turbo bumper has nothing to do with turn signals. It has to do with a dress-up on the bottom. The hood as well, except there's a hood scoop. All pre and post facelift lighting can be swapped between all cars with respect to years.

The main reason I started this thread was because I didn't realize that only the turbo models have the clear lenses on the bottom of the bumper. But you can all do the same mod anyways and swap the connectors, that way at least people can see you signalling from the side of your car also. Also the cool thing about what I was talking about with the turbo bumper is that you can now use your lower bumper lights as auxiliary driving lights, you just need to purchase high intensity bulbs and place them in the sockets that used to be the turn signals, so that when you flick the switch above the steering column, you'll have driving lights instead of parking lights, and your turn signals become your old marker lights beside the headlights. Also what I think is cool, and others may not, is that it makes the flashers go at twice the speed, so your signals flash faster as a result of this simple mod, just by swapping the connectors over. Looks awesome!

Is the faster flashing speed the same as if a turn signal bulb is disconnected?

I did this to my old SS about 2 years ago... If they flash twice as fast, you messed something up because they shouldn't.

It flashes twice as fast because it's a much lower wattage bulb.

I did that earlier, but switched it back later. The fast blinking was pissing me off.

I wish that you could fit slightly larger bulbs into the corner lamp assembly, or that they made a higher wattage bulb of the correct size.

subyluvr2212 wrote:Is it that easy Nomake Wan? I've been thinking about doing that for a while. Do you just rip the taillight apart and take out the orange piece?

Hella easy. Only thing you really need is brute force... I used an assortment of vicegrips to put the power on 'em.

First ya open the light assembly as if you were going to replace the bulbs. Put the bulb-holder half aside, the work you'll be doing is on the lens assembly.

There's a clip that holds one side of the orange piece onto the lens assembly... ya knock that out with a screwdriver. Then it's just a matter of yanking the orange lens through the hole. There's some epoxy holding the other side on... but if ya pull hard enough, it comes right off... and I haven't noticed any epoxy left on the assembly from the outside, so it doesn't seem to matter.

Clears rock.

Yes, the blinking is the same as when you have a bulb shorted out or missing, and I like it, but some may hate it. Alllll about personal preference here! But nevertheless, the reason it flashes is because of the lower wattage bulb that you're now using as your blinker. Unfortunately you can't get a larger bulb like the ones found in the bumper lights to fit in there, so until they make a higher wattage bulb in that size, the fast blinker is cool with me!

That's strange, neither or my 91s had the twice as fast thing going.