My trip to England.....

[Brian300E]

Hello all. I just got back from a week in England, and I thought I would share some of my Mercedes observations (mainly about w124s). The first odd thing I noticed was that several 124's had a piece of black tape placed on their headlight lens'. Does anybody have any idea what purpose this serves? Second, I noticed that none of the 124's had the side markers wired to illuminate at night. They markers remained dark until a blinker was turned on and it flashed. Is this standard on euro 124's? Finally, my last question/observation is that all 124's had a small blinker on the side body underneath the mirror. Has anybody on this forum every installed one of these on their Merc's? Well as I re-read this message it has turned into questions rather than a story, but hopefully some of you will have some answers!! Cheers.

Brian

[bobbyv]

The black tape covers that part of the lens that is responsible for the swept-up part of a Euro-beam's lowbeam - the "/" in "__/". My guess is that these cars have Euro-beams that are used for driving on the right side of the road, and when you drive the car on the left side of the road, you have to cover that part of the beam so they will not blind oncoming drivers, who will now be on that upswept part of the beam. (did you notice if these cars were right-hand-drive or left-hand-drive? might they be foreign cars?)

The Euro-beam's parking lamp is a small bulb in the main reflector. The front turn-signal bulb holder has only 2 connectors, not 3 as in those used in North America. So when the parking lamp is on, you will see the main headlamps dimly lit and the side markers not turned on.

[Eberhard Weilke]

...there are different lights for right- and lefthand-driven cars. They are asymetrical to enhance the visibility on your side of the road, to see pedestrians at the curb, deers, whatever.

If you come into foreign territory (lightwise) you have to tape of the part which direct the light into the oncoming traffic.

For some european markets (like Great Brittain and Italy) an indicator light on the side of the vehicle is mandatory.

Kind regards
Eberhard

[Brian300E]

Thanks for the replies. So the Mercs that had the black tape didn't have vacuum adjustable head lights? I was thinking that if they did then they wouldn't have to put the black tape on it to redirect the light into traffic.

Eberhard - do you have any idea how difficult it is to install a side indicator light? I think that they look really good and also serve as an extra safety precaution.

Thanks

Brian

[bobbyv]

The part of the lens that produces the upswept part of the lowbeam projects the light diagonally upwards, while the other part of the lowbeam is spread horizontally, with the horizontal cutoff (you can see this from the orientation of the flutings of the lens).

This means that if you use the vacuum adjusters to not blind oncoming traffic with the upswept part of the beam, your horizontal cutoff will be too low to be useful.

[Eberhard Weilke]

...to be honest, I have no clue how difficult it is to install these lights.

Get someone with an EPC (or go to a very friendly guy at the dealership) and look it up. Remove all filters at the EPC and look for the british or italian version of the W 124 (I think Honkong cars also get the additional indicator lights)

Concerning the vaccuum: The taping has nothing to do with the vaccuum. As mentioned above, right hand driven cars headlights have more light to the left of the road, left hand cars vice versa.

If a continental car enters Great Brittain, you have to take care not to blind the people there.

Kind regards
Eberhard

[pentoman]

Hi Brian, hope you liked our country..
I live in the UK (and in 6 hours leave for a trip to Washington DC & New York).

All UK cars as of around 1983 have 'side repeaters' - indicators/turn signals on the side of the car below the mirrors.

The 'side markers' aren't illuminated at night in the UK on any car, only the headlights front and rear.
The 124s (and 201s) do have vacuum adjustable lights, but the low-beam pattern points slightly to the left. If one then took the car to Europe/USA, the low-beam lights would in fact dazzle oncoming drivers (as the are now on your left not on your right) - the tape simply cuts the light out that would do this (and is required by law), and is only necessary if you are driving on the opposite side of the road to normal.

Following on from the side markers, i think its only the new Volvo V70 that has them....and it looks strange to see orange lights on all the time on the side of a car,.....looks like a stuck indicator!

[Brian300E]

Thanks for all the replies. It makes sense now what you all are saying about the tape being placed on the lens'. Now my goal is to find out how to install those side markers that are underneath the mirrors.

Cheers

Brian

Its easy to fit side repeaters, just drill through the front wings where you want to fit them, and splice into the live and neutral on the indicator wires....job done!

[Brian300E]

Hmmm, sounds fairly simple. Any ideas on where to buy the indicators?

Brian

Thats the hard bit for you i think. I mean, you can buy after market side repeaters in any motor shop, or genuine MB ones from any dealer, purely because they are fitted as standard here in the uk. if you are positive you want genuine MB ones, your best bet would be to order them over the net from a UK based firm and they will mail them to you.

[Eberhard Weilke]

...for these lights (you should find them on the EPC) you should be able to order them from any dealership around the world.

It is basically the idea of Mercedes Benz Service to be better than the rest.

Kind regards
Eberhard

[Brian300E]

Thanks guys. Now thats one more thing to add to my Mercedes "to do list." If I only had the time....

Brian

Brian, its a shame you didnt have a chance to look under the bonnet of a couple of UK spec cars while you were here, you would have been amazed at the lack of piping, as from what i hear US engines tend to me strangled with emmission reduction equipment.