Hi all. I did some searching for past tail light articles and after reading them all I'm still a little confused. When did the W124 change to the smoked/red tail light and the clear/red taillight. Any year info. would be greatly appreciated as I am going to install them on my 87 300e. Oh..also...how hard is the installation of these tail lights. Thanks so much.

Brian

i don't recall there being factory smoked tail lamps, but the change from amber turn indicators to clear was around '94.

swapping the lenses is pretty straightforward. just remover the electrical component with the bulbs and unbolt the lens from the inside of the trunk.

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'94 W124.036 249/040 leder; 8.25x17 EvoIIs
'93 W124.036 199/040 leder; 8.25x17 EvoIIs, up in flames...LITERALLY!
'93 W124.036 481/040 leder; euro delivery; 8.25x17 EvoIIs
'88 R107.048 441/409 leder; Euro lights
'87 W201.034 199/040 leder; Euro lights; EvoII brakes; 8x16 EvoIs - soon: 500E rear brakes
'70 R113.044 050/526; factory alloys; Euro lights

Thanks Yen-Hsen Liem. Would the car below be considered smoked/red or clear/red? This is somebody's car that is on the board but I can't remember!!! Anyways if anyboyd else has any information regarding my question I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

They changed the lights to the smoked red for 1994. The tail light is actually in two pieces, you can buy just the outer lense (colored part) to make yours look like the 94-95 E class.

CJ - the 94 124's have a two piece taillight? Was this unique to the 94's on because my 87 taillight is one solid piece. Thanks.

Brian

Brian:
on my 87, the lens comes off. I removed the bulb holder inside the trunk, undid all the little nuts, and pulled off the lens. It had been on there so long that it seemed as if it was glued on, but it did come off.

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John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

Ok heres the deal...

In 1994-1995 they changed to red on the bottom, slightly smoked on the top indicators.

You do not need to change the bulb holder, you can use an 1157 american bulb just fine, it will go in, I just put red ones in mine, 1157 bulbs, looks really cool.

The tail lights split apart by removing six nuts on the inside.

The red/clear are not factory. the red/red are not, the all smoked black are not, and the all clear are not.

Look at my site, you will see the difference between the pre 94-95 to the 94-95.

On another note, I color matched my rear star to the car. Looks sweet ass!!!

Alon

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'92 300CE - Sold
2004 C240 - 744 - C7 Wheels - Android Radio
2002 C320 - 816 - Sport Wagon

Ashman - the man with the answers! Thanks for clarifying this for me. I was looking at your site and noticed the difference. The smoked/red look really good on your car. I think that they will look pretty good on a white car as I have seen them on sombody's white 300e on this board. I am going to try to find them used to save some cash but do you have any suggestions to buy the OEM cheap. Thanks again.

Brian

Actually the taillights of the (European) W124 were changed in 1993...when the W124 became the E-class with the changed hood and integrated grill.

There is no easier mod as changing the taillight lenses and as Ashman wrote, you don't need to change the inner parts of the taillights (although MB will say that you do have to change that).
I changed the complete taillight units of my 1993 300CE, but that is just me...

good luck & greetingz,

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1990 300SL-24
1993 C250D with a minor 600+k kilometer
www.MBenzNL.com(the Netherlands)

Ashman,
Your car looks GREAT!!!!!
Is that a new grill or did you add some extra strips?? That is really a cool look.

Thanks everybody for the help. I now know what I need to look for at the local junk yard! Thanks so much.

Brian

OK...sorry to bother everybody again but I have one more dumb question. Would the 94-95 corners of a 124 fit my 87 300E?? If so how hard would that installation be? thanks again.

Brian

Fronts should be interchangeable between all W124 models, so 94-95 ones should work nicely. Why not go for the all clear bosch fronts, like Dsingger has, they are also a bit greyer than the taiwan ones which I have, and look very nice.

No matter what, the taillights and clear corners looks great on all 124's.

94-95 rear lights will fit any w124 except the wagon.

try the fastlane here for the lenses, I found mine at another place for like $73.00 each side.

I got mine from www.europarts-sd.com I believe.

My grill had extra chrome, some door edge moulding I bought from pepboys that came in a 25 foot roll. It is plastic but has a chrome look to it, and has some sticky goo on the inside. It was like $8.99. I cut it to fit, and put it on. It looked good for about 3 months, then it started to look bad, so I took it off, and repainted the grille semi gloss black, and put the factory stirps on, it looks great now, but I miss that extra chrome, it was a good look. I would do it again, but I'd rather buy the factory strips and affix them on it.

I just recently switched out my rear orange bulbs for red ones, looks cool, and I like it so far. who knows, I'll probably revert back to orange anyway. hehe

I painted my bulbs lightly by dabbing some silver paint on them to hide them during the day without reducing light output by much.

I also recently, like yesterday, painted my rear trunk star gloss black, it looks bad ass now, I am going to paint the chrome surround on the grille next, but I am going to leave that raised part around the insert chrome, I think it will look cool, and somewhat more updated like the 94-95 style hood, but without actually being it. I might add those eyebrow things, who knows, with euro lights, and those eyebrows and the grille surround color matched, it might give almost the entire appearance of the 94-95 hood.

Alon

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'92 300CE - Sold
2004 C240 - 744 - C7 Wheels - Android Radio
2002 C320 - 816 - Sport Wagon

The smoke/red are the single best upgrade to an older W124. Just my 2 cents