rash of w124 turn signal lens thefts
 

Well to me at least, two in the past 6 weeks in very public places. My passenger side lens was lifted at the airport main parking garage under security cam... except the cams were out of service, dang.

My drivers side was lifted today from a public parking lot, in broad daylight and well traveled. backed into the spot leaving my front end exposed and visible to the rest of the lot for 1 hour, and whammo, drivers side lens swiped. 4pm :eek:

WTF!!! Is there a worldwide shortage of MB W124/201 Turn signal lenses?

Has this happened to anyone else?

So I try to figure out how they are getting swiped and with a little trial and error, I can now get these things out in a breeze, it's almost too easy. Not willing to loose any more lenses to greedy hands, I'm interested in securing these as close to but not quite gluing them in place :P

Any ideas on how to better secure these things?
TIA

Wha? I didn't realize there was even a market...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seems like a bonehead move so little gained for so much risked.
Not sure what the legal consequences are but
I hope not to catch someone in the process :mad:

Certain Freightliner trucks use the W124 turn signals.

http://www.trucksaleguide.com/images...le-picture.jpg
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pi...ent_frtlnr.jpg

wow
 

I'll be damned.

Wow.

It's rare that a junkyard car will have the front TS in undamaged condition and new ones from the dealer are mucho bucks. So yes, I suppose there's a market and it wouldn't take more than a few seconds to pry one loose. Interesting comment on the use in trucks, I'll have to watch.

Freightliner Trucks is an American truck manufacturer, a division of Daimler Trucks North America LLC, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Daimler AG.[1] The division is known mainly for the heavy duty class 8 diesel trucks it offers, as well as classes 5-7 trucks.


Now you know.


Charlie

Well wadda ya know. I looked into the Freightliner lenses, and sure enough, same ones, also unfortunately about the same price as MB $62 per lens :(

Freightliner FLD Front Signal Lamp: Big Rig Chrome Shop

I'm working on a solution this afternoon, if any good comes of it, I'll share with the rest of you.
Best

I guess there's some advantages to being part of a rare crowd of cars around here. :eek:

... I've got a lot of 124 lenses...

I always wondered on the turn signal lenses on these trucks that they look exactly like W124 turn signals, but I didnt pay much heed to them that they would be the same part.

Ahem.... old information! (OK, I'm just hogging some credit here....)

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/open-discussion/118568-w124-corner-lights-same-some-semi-tractors.html

But about the thefts, that's just odd.

Rgds,
Chris W.
'95 E300D, 422K

A solution I hope...
 

So here's the deal, by design, this turn signal lens is awful at actually firmly attaching to the vehicle. The tangs or tabs, ears if you will that slide into the headlight side of the mounting assembly are too short. This is what makes them so easy to pry off.

If you grab the lower leading edge and and bottommost corner of the TS assembly closest to the headlamps and pull forward while simultaneously pushing the side of the TS assembly where the Locking tab is, and the lens pops out. This is caused by the fact the the pair of tangs closest to the headlights are too short and, essentially give way allowing the entire TS assembly to be tilted inwards to the chassis from the Locking Tab side, thus releasing the locking tab and TS assembly. :eek:

Anyhow, the weakness is the short length of the tangs which are effectively only about a 1/4 in. long, it's the little notches that actually do the holding.
So my attempt is to solve this by lengthening these tabs by 1 inch.

With some spare sheet metal a vice, pliers or sheet metal tools you can quickly make a set of longer tangs that attach onto the OE ones and extend the tabs to 1 inch. The sheet metal size per tab extension is 0.75 v 1 folded over so that you aligned the fold down the centerline. Although the clamping pressure of the bent tabs does a great job at holding onto the OR plastic, you can also add some crazy glue as well.

After installing the newly modified assemblies, I attempted to pry them off via the thief method and it looks like problem solved. Unless you are willing to break the tangs off completely, the longer tangs prevent the assembly from being rocked out. At the same time the longer tangs do not impeded removal or installation of the TS assembly as needed for bulb changed etc.

You can also choose to stiffen the spring action for the locking tang to apply more outward pressure. I hope the combination will keep prying hands off of my lenses either by defeating the ease to which they can be removed or by leaving the assailant with a broken assembly as a reward. Hope this is the last of it.

Some pics below of the modification and tools used
[IMG]http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0192-edits.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...00193edits.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0630-00191.jpg[/IMG]