Convert U.S Lights to Euro's?

[Ashman]

Just a thought, but could one not change the reflector on the U.S. Liight to a euro Reflector and put on the lens froma euro and essentially have home made euro's?

The only reason I ask is that I was looking at the headlights while just reading through my cdrom manual, and it appeared to me, that changing the reflector and the outer lens would be all that is needed.

I also read that the reflector in a regular light could be swapped for a 500e one, so essentially you could make a 500e light from a normal one, with the reflector and the lens if I am not mistaken.

Either way, just some things I thought about when reading, anyone have any ideas as to whether or not either of these are feasable?

Might be easy to do if it can be done, and possibly a little cheaper than actual real euro's. But I figure the housings might be pretty much the same, and the lens from a euro might fit on a U.S. assembly if you remove the U.S. glass and plastic lenses...

I know I'll hear why don't you just buy euros for the slight difference in cost... I'm not going to argue that, this is just something I thought about because it came into my head and is bugging me now to know the real differences between a U.S. and Euro, like is it just reflector and lens...

To get the true better light pattern, the reflector could be changed for the euro reflector too. Does this sound like it would work?

Anyone with a U.S. and A Euro light sitting next to each other want to do an inspection and or post some pics to be examined?

Alon

[Arthur Dalton]

In the case of the later style US DOT "Euro Look" lights,
there are some Interesting points to consider.
If one were to want to replace a lens on these [ I am talking the 124-94/95,202, 140-92 glass lens] , they will be informed that they have to replace the whole unit. But the surprise is that when they first came out, the lens only could be changed, Then , the DOT got into the act and Benz of NA had to come out with a TSB
[ 382/081- to be specific], that had the Dealers hot glue these lens mounting rings so they could no longer be changed.
Free of charge , of course,,, Well, Thank You MB..
Their excuse for the TSB was the fear that a cracked lens might allow water damage to the inside of the light housing and might impair the light if one were to just change out the lens.
Proper cleaning, of course, would solve this, but the DOT was not hearing it.
My thoughts are it was a quick way to stop Euro Lens 'E Code" spec lenses from being mounted on the US cars...
If one were to dis-assemble one of the DOT early, non sealed units, he would notice that the lens reflectors already have the mounting hole for the Euro 'City Lamps" are already cut into the US reflectors. That indicates to me that the reflectors are the same. And these are H-4 lamps.[9003's].
Sooooo, A couple of Hella Euro lens should give us a EURO E code headlamp.
As far as comparison goes, the US -DOT Euro 'STYLE' do have
a cut -off pattern that is close, but not as pronounced.
The TSB does state that there is objection to this sealing
and has not been ruled on yet.
Your guess is as good as mine....

[Ashman]

I'm talking about the pre 94 U.S lights.

I know the 94 ones can be converted by changign justt he lens, but for the pre 94, Older U.S. Style, could one not take off the U.S. lens and the plastic lens, and affix a euro lens onto it? I mean the housing should be nearlyt he same if not the same. the euro would just have a different bulb and wiring.... Not sure though, but I would assume the main plastic housing is the same.

Alon

[JCE]

FWIW, Hella NA told me that while I could purchase a replacement Euro lens for my Euro lights, they would not sell the Euro reflector alone - just as part of the Euro light. To get the Euro lighting effect, you would need the reflector, the lens, and a frame to maintain the same spatial geometry between the two.

The Euro lights seem to be a more shallow assembly than the DOT units as well, and the reflector appears a tad larger, but that may be hard to prove without removing the lenses. I tried to replace the reflector on the fog lights between the two lights (to get the yellow filter), but they were different sizes - the US fog reflector wouldn't go into the Euro frame! The Euro fog lens was more narrow than the US. The Euro headlight reflector looked a little wider and a little taller than the US. (Makes sense, since the fog light reflectors were different. I don't think they would make up a different fog reflector unless the design differences between the US/Euro headlight lens forced them into it!) I didn't measure the headlamp reflector at the time, but recall it did appear measurably smaller on the US lamp than on the Euro light.

On the w124 pics thread there are pics of Adams US headlight car, and below it the pics of a Euro light car. These show the differences pretty clearly.

[Ashman]

Aha... But I think we still need to investigate this further.. ehhe

Because it might be easier to get some Euros and then just add the 500E Lens to get the 500E look. Wald has the 500E Lens for sale on their site...

So I assume you get the look without the reflector.

But on the other hand, imagine if you can just pop off the US plastic lens and glass lens from the us reflector and snap on the euro front glass lense.. If that worked, I would be interested to know...

Alon