What's the deal with the missing taillight bulbs on US roccs?

[treed2@u.washington.edu (T. Reed)]

> Yes Rhett, you are correct. although both bulb carriers have spots for
> bulbs only the left (drivers side) is used for a correct rear fog. Use this
> in conjunction with a three position fog light switch, US fog light
> switches are only 2 potion.

In LHD countries, the left is used. In RHD countries, the right is used
but apparently some RHD sciroccos came with both.

I brought back a pair of tail lights with me from the Netherlands.. the
rear fog is on the left. The rear fog spot in euro tails has a special
metallic reflector inside that is NOT present in us tails. It is also
only present on the one side where the rear fog is located on the
particular pair of tails you buy. So it is not present on the right side
of my set.

Use ONLY the rated wattages of bulbs for all your taillights, or else you
risk melting the plastic lenses from the excess heat. They will get a nice
"bubble" in the middle where they melted. The european rear fog takes a
puny parking light bulb, not a brake light bulb. The metallic reflector
makes it very bright even with such a dim bulb. If I stand behind the car
and look directly at it at night it is very painful, it's the bright.

Believe me.. I had US tails before and dremeled out the opening. There is
no reflector inside (just some dull silver "paint" iirc) and the rear fog
was quite dim even with an overrated brake light bulb.

My recommendation is that if you want a rear fog, buy a set of euro tails
otherwise use the extra openings as brake lights (you will have to rewire
them, as the factory sockets are wired for parking lights). The extra
visibility while braking is well worth it.

Also, FWIW if you like the responsiveness of LED brake lights like I do,
save your money unless you can find something with a very wide angle.. I
bought a set and tried them out and they just projected a little circle of
light on the lens because they were so close to the lens.

> The Euro tail lights have this opening but are missing the corner lights...
> You could modify the Euro tails to accept the corner light but then they
> don't look right cuz they don't have the reflector and blocking... the
> better way to go is the Dremel a hole in the left side of the US tail light
> and install a bulb, I belive the reflector is already mirrorized so a hole
> is all you need. You will need to add one wire to the harness that plugs
> into the carrier and run that up front to the fog light switch to wire it up.

Like I said the reflector is only there on european tails. But you can
have a dim rear fog if you want.. I think personally that another pair of
brake lights is the most useful use for this space with US tails.

> I had drilled both on my '84 until I found out that only the left was
> supposed to be lit up so I just removed the bulb on the right side, cool a
> spare!

A good place to store a spare.. just wrap a piece of electrical tape
around the bulb and plug it back in. If you ever have a bulb burn out you
can just switch it out without going to the store.

-Toby