Euro lights

[treed2 at wsu.edu (T. Reed)]

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Dirk wrote:

> The high-beams have an "R" and "L" on the glass, but are almost identical aside from that.

I'm going to speak up here to clarify, as that is what Dirk told me when
he sent me a passenger side high beam lens instead of a driver side lens.
Let me say right off the bat that I am 'over it' (my euro lights are
cracked anyway) and this is purely for informational purposes.

They may be similar, but they are far from identical. They are no more
identical than UK euro lights are to LHD euro lights. If you install them
upside down then perhaps you could call them 'almost identical', but I
consider this a half-assed approach.

If you look closely you will notice that the front of the car is not
straight but angled (like a cow catcher on a train, but less extreme),
and the headlight brackets bolt to this angled surface. The headlights
must point straight, so the bulb holder assembly is angled to one
direction with the respect to the glass.

If you install a passenger side high beam lense on the driver side, you
will have to adjust the lens heavily to get it to point approximately in
the right direction, and it will be very visibly cockeyed with respect to
the main beam lens next to it. If instead you try to make the glass for
the high beam parallel to the glass for the main beam (as it should be),
the aim will be way off.

The only way to make it work okay is to compromise and point it somewhat
in the right direction while having it somewhat parallel to the main beam
lens.

Therefore, I consider it a false statement to say that the "L" and "R"
characters stamped on the glass are the only difference.

-Toby

> Greetings from Germany
> Dirk