In the year or so I've been aware of this board I've been amazed at the number of posts regarding Euro lights and how bad US spec lights are. So can anyone er, enlighten me as to why you have such bad headlight design for the US market and indeed why there is a difference to start with.

Given the emphisis on product safety over there I'd have thought there would be high standards to meet regarding headlights.

Mike.

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1990 Euro 190e 2.0l Petrol Now Sold Maybe a w116 280se next

Very good question. If I may rephrase your question:

Why are Euro spec headlight not approved by DOT?

I mean after you change over from DOT, is someone going to pull you over or fail you during inspection?

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2010 ML350 Bluetec
2012 Mustang Convertible

I don't know what the fuss is about -- they're fine during the day!

Are you really surprised that government regulations stifle innovation? That a government agency could make stupid decisions and stick with them in the face of all logic?
Certainly NOT the DOT!

Where would I start...

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1986 300E 5-Speed 240k mi.

They're downright dangerous.

On dark, winding country roads, it's very difficult to see on the periphery. Turning on the yellow fogs seems to help. Now that I think of it, my 35 year old Cadillac lights up the road better!

I have never had a problem with the state inspection.
You are unlikely to get pulled over because E-codes produce LESS glare for oncoming traffic.

Still have not upgraded my 300E. Perhaps when the weather turns...

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1986 300E 5-Speed 240k mi.

Maybe Joan Claybrook or William Haddon can answer the question. They were running DOT 30 years ago. All they cared about was their personal agenda, which was airbags.

Sealed beam technology was the hot setup back in the 30s and became one of the few federal vehicle regulatory requirements.

The Europeans began to develop and phase in better optics in the fifties, but we remained stuck in the 30s until the late eighties.

Look at the tire fiasco. US minimum performance standards for tires haven't changed since the late sixties. Take marginal standards, add poor manufacturing, and you have tread separations.

US and European lighting codes still have different beam pattern requirements. Both need to get together and come up with a common standard, but don't expect regulatory requirements to make sense or keep up with technology when you have lawyers running the regulatory agencies.

Duke

Airbags are a fun topic.
What do you mean short folks and children ride in cars? We didn't think to test for THAT.
Then the manufacturers are afraid to disable them, or provide on/off switches due to liability on the other end. Better to kill a few than go outside of regulations.
Then there is ABS. Known to be far worse in the snow, but we can't put a switch on that either.

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1986 300E 5-Speed 240k mi.

it's all in the beam pattern.

the Euro beam has a sharp horizontal cutoff. While this dramatically reduces the glare to oncoming traffic (assuming it is properly aimed), it creates a sudden shift from light to darkness for the driver of the car, giving little warning to the driver as an oncoming object moves from the dark portion into the illuminated portion of the road ahead.

this is one reason why it is easy to over-drive Euro-beams, and why there is a vacuum-operated beam adjustment on the OEM brands (i would go for driving lamps to augment my Euro-beams).

the US beam on the other hand, is designed with a gradual fade of illumination towards the top of the beam. This gives more reaction time to the driver as an oncoming object approaches, gradually moving into the illuminated portion of the road. The downside is that it also glares oncoming drivers.

the big discernible difference between the Euro and US lowbeams is how the main portion of the beam is shaped. The Euro-beam produces a more uniform scatter immediately ahead of the car, and this alone is worth the upgrade (the bonus you get is the more sophisticated look of the car).

a lot of what has been passed off on the public as safety legislation, especially during the Carter administration, was really a form of trade barrier to protect UAW jobs by making it more expensive for foreign automakers to certify a model for the USA market. Lighting systems are the most obvious example -- General Electric, especially, regularly proclaimed that the obsolete USA lights were superior, but backed that up by pointing out to the local congressman that their sealed beam plant in our area would be likely to close if those evil aerodynamic European lights were allowed in.

But then, the German TÜV and the Swedish equivalent have a number of similar chauvanist quirks aimed at cars produced in North America.

This is certainly true - at the moment my back-end is slightly low (new springs on the way) and I've noticed
with the beams on "lowest" setting just how short the viewable distance is and how sharp the cut-off is.


Yeah but Amercian cars are crap! :p

Mike.

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1990 Euro 190e 2.0l Petrol Now Sold Maybe a w116 280se next

A big thing I remember about those European patterns not being approved by the DOT in the 80 is that they were not compatible with the quick aiming mechanism at inspection that they use to check the aiming real quick. DOT approved lights had those little glass nipples on them that allowed them to be aligned with the machine.

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Ali Al-Chalabi

2001 CLK55
1999 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Diesel
2002 Harley-Davidson Fatboy
Merlin Extralight w/ Campy Record

Hi everybody.
Howcome noone talks about XENON headlamps??
I have them on my 1999 E-220 CDI, and I love them. Lately I have seen kits for aftermounting xenon lamps in the original H1 H3 H4 and H7 lamp holders. I am considering to replace the high beam lamps with Xenon lamps in my car.
I know that in Europe (I live in Norway) you have to have automatic levelling of he headlamps and automatic levelling of the rear axle to use Xenon lamps. But that is not neccessary for high beam.
Do you have the Xenon option in the US??

Steinar

for state inspections, we are supposed to use (rarely do they actually take time to check anything other than that they light) an optical alignment machine which has had the beam patterns for Euro lights built in for at least four decades because the manufacturer also sells it overseas and in Canada, and yet when I tried (very briefly) to lobby for legalization of Euro headlights to certain of Virginia's legislators in the late '70s, General Electric argued in total nonsense, but successfully, that the E-code required that the beam drop about 2" in 25 ft., and therefore that it would require a level garage floor at least 45 ft. long to check headlight alignment if the car was to also be indoors -- that's the kind of gibberish which apparently convinced the feds and the state to stick with sealed beams for so long!

Finum Fit,

Thanks for the information, that is interesting.

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Ali Al-Chalabi

2001 CLK55
1999 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Diesel
2002 Harley-Davidson Fatboy
Merlin Extralight w/ Campy Record