Retrofitting amber fog lights to regular Ecodes
 

I missed the amber fogs that were on my original Gen 2 W126 DOT lights. I took the DOT lights apart and found that the amber beam is created by a yellow glass dome that is fitted over the H1 lamp. Today I moved that piece into my Ecode lights.

With the fog reflector removed you have to bend up these tabs to remove the assembly that holds the glass dome. The one on the white fog lights is different and has to be exchanged. I've circled the tabs in red.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1247365610

Installed:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1247365716

The glass dome clips into the bulb holder piece, it just pops in and out.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1247366422

While I had the fixture apart I painted the trim piece inside:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1247365813


All done:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1247365840

-J

Looks great on the car:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1247365933

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1247365919

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1247366036

I also painted the grille the same flat gray color... I think it looks great! (And yes, I know the hood star is crooked...)

-Jason

cool beans. I personally like the clear in my euros, and I had removed the yellow deals from my old usa headlights. I am much too lazy to take apart the headlight anyway. I love the look of euros on a w126, and am trying to convince my brother to get rid of the sealed beams on his 300sd.

I'm VERY curious to know if this works on a W123 fog light reflector (if the mounting bracket is transferrable from a w201/w124/w126 to the w123 housing). I have many of those amber plastic domes ready :D

Did you paint the plastic surround from gray to black, or from black to gray?

Interesting, I too prefer the yellow fogs for foul weather. I was just about to order some yellow H1 bulbs too.

J, that's kind of neat. What about installing a yellow bulb as an alternate?

Is this sort of a Joey mod?

Ecodes should be mandatory on the W126!

Ya, it's a sort of Joey mod, but I didn't want to go so far as painting the unused areas of the reflector. Except for the paint this mod was basically free, so now I don't have to track down expensive selective yellow H1 lamps. Plus, you can kind of see the yellow filter when you look at the headlamp when it is off, which I like. Not as good as a true amber euro fog where the whole reflector is yellow... but it's better then nothing.

I painted the plastic piece from faded light gray to dark gray. It is darker then it was from the factory.

The other ecode light I have pictured is from a Gen1 car, and its fog lamp lens is different. The piece that holds the lamp / shield isn't just held in with little tabs like the Gen2's fixture. I didn't take it apart because I didn't want to break it. I've never had a W123 ecode fixture apart so I don't know if this is possible, but you could easily tell looking at the back through the lamp change door... see if you see the little tabs of the reflector bent over holding the piece that holds the bulb.

I'll have to post some pictures of how I combined the euro and us headlamp wiper motor to create something that still wipes most of the lens yet works with the stock trim piece and bracket ;) (Notice the arm is on backwards...)

-J

A small update: You probably know that the US headlamp wiper arms, motors, and motor brackets are different then the euro ones. The holes in the trim strips below the headlamps are different too.

I bought a set of euro wiper motors, only to find they were totally rusty inside and totally dead. However, after taking the euro and US wiper motors apart I found that the only differences were the shaft coming out of the front (US is longer) and the gear which drives a small rack to spin the shaft (US has a shorter sweep). I was able to install the euro gears into my US motors, creating a hybrid that allows me to use the US brackets and trim strips, but still have the correct sweep. The wiper arms off of a late W124 complete the package.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1265674735

Much better looking, and functional :cool:

-J

Awesome! I like it....:D

The amber fog in any of the older cars makes a difference IMO...

Not trying to hijack, but the amber filter mod works on w123 euros too ;)