Amber Foglights

[Maxwell]

Anyone Know of a cheaper source of amber fog lights? All I can find are the $40 Bosch lights. The Sylvania headlights are half the price of the bosches, do they or anyone else make amber foglights?

I afraid the Bosch units are the only obes of their kind. Cibie makes a 5.5 inch light, however, you have to make extensive mods to the housings. Try e-bay, they have people selling old ones all the time for cheap.

[Ken300D]

My suggestion is to pony up the $40 for the new Bosch fog lights. They are now made using all glass.

The original fog lights (like you might see on E-Bay) were a two-piece design. A metal back half with reflective coating, and a glass lens. The seal between the glass and metal goes bad over time, resulting in horrible rust and corrosion. That's why I wouldn't recommend buying used fog lights.

The new ones look great and I'm sure will last longer than OEM, barring rock breakage.

Ken300D

[william rogers]

seens like you would get stopped a lot with four head lights on even though they are low beams it might appear as high beams?
William Rogers......

[Maxwell]

If I went with the clear, would the cheapos from pepboys have a high and low beam like the bosches?

[Maxwell]

Why would rewiring be necessary? the Amber lights I have now are three terminal. The one of them that works has a high and low beam, controlled separately from the headlight high beams by pulling the headlight knob out to the first or second stop. Woud the Sylvania three terminals need a different connector?

[Maxwell]

Ah, you were right, i don't know why i thought there were three terminals. But Interesting find on second look, the non functioning bulb is missing a filament all together! How did that happen i wondered, so i looked at the other, working bulb, guess what i found!

REPLACEABLE PROJECTOR BULB!!!!

Is this normal, Or some weird retrofit?

The Projector Bulb is held in with a spring clip.

It says Osram Germany H3 64151 12V 55W

What's going on?

[Maxwell]

In Looking at the picture on fastlane of the new style amber lights i see i have the new style which i was unaware takes projector bulbs! How easy, $3.50 at PepBoys for the bulb.

I LOVE MY 240D!!! there has been a cheap or free solution to every problem I've had with this car.

I'm glad this subject was posted as I'm having a bit of a problem with mine. All of a sudden I only have the high side. The switch of course is 2 position but what controls the intensity? A fuse or a relay and if the latter, where would it be located?
thanks

[Maxwell]

Now that i have two foglights, they have only low beam, and when the headlight highbeams are turned on, the foglights turn off. Is this Normal? I could swear i had a low and high beam on the foglight before,

Your problem is similiar to the question I posted. At one time I had both hi and lo beams on the fogs controlled by the pull position of the switch. Now, I have what I believe hi beam only and when I hit the hi beam headlites, the fog lites go off. I'm going to assume that this is normal as I have a Ford Explorer that does the same thing

Maxwell,

Your 123 series Mercedes has a headlight system that ONLY ALLOWS the fog or driving lights to function when your primary headlights are in the LOW BEAM mode.

Too bad, as I have a similar vehicle. When switching on the high beams, the fog lamps go OFF.

When driving in thick fog and or rain, the added intensity of the combined light output would actually ENHANCE the GLARE effect.

At least this is my understanding of the FACTORY design. There are some websites out there that can "ENLIGHTEN" you as to HOW to engage ALL of your headlamps AT THE SAME TIME.

As for the clear lens lamps, these would be DRIVING lights and as such would be better in ADDITION to the high beams.

Anyway, when I first needed to replace one of the LENSES of the fog lamps, I was pleasantly surprised to find the REPLACEABLE lamp inside.

When I travel thru the junkyard circut, I try to stock up on replacement lenses. As a result, I now have installed one yellow and the other (passanger side) clear. This is a functional set up.

I would never pay morfe than $20 for a single lens........sometimes the greedy bas-ards want as much as $50 EACH...........Then I walk away.

See 'ya..........Spo.

[Maxwell]

So I did have high and low beam on the one fog? how do i get it back?

[dieseldiehard]

Maxwell,
ALL stock W123 5.75 FOG lamps came with only one filament. therefore you can only have low beam on the fog lights (stock arrangement).
If however it was modified by someone, it would possibly have hi/low beams......
Take a look at the bulb in a fog light. If its a three pin bulb its been modified. Normal fog lights(W123) have a H3 bulb with only one filament, it should have a flex lead that is one terminal the other is the ground. Let us know then we can advise you better Thanks
Dieseldiehard

[dieseldiehard]

Here are two of the mods I made to 300TD's. The burgundy car is an '85 (lousy paint) and the yellow fog lamps are from a Citroen, branded Citronella, made in France but NOT a Marchal. I'll probably never find another set of them. They are completely flat and use H3 lamps but are superior to the Bosch yellow lamps and much brighter with a broad but very even light pattern.
The other car has Hella H4 5.75 in. lamps.
The regular 7 in lights are also Hella, flat face H4s on both cars. Special wiring for the H4 fogs was described previously.
I prefer white fog lights, even if no high beam is available you get better visibility at night.
If you want to get away easy (and cheaper) get some Bosch as used in earlier W123, white fog lites from a 300D non turbo and all 240D before about 82. They are better than the yellow stock lamps, at least IMHO.
Most wrecking yards sell one of the white fogs to ten yellow H3 fogs. Next time I'll get a picture of the 5.75 yellow Carellos, Ahhh yes!
Dieseldiehard
1971 220 (gas) 4-spd manual 102600
1979 300TD w/ ’85 turbo engine 287690
1983 300D 234200
1985 300TD 202,820