Headlight sides

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randall977
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Headlight sides

Post by randall977 »

My 6 has the early type headlights with metal dishes behind each lamp. The high beams have been replaced with domed sealed units - no good for the wipers. The low beams are a bit tarnished.

Are these headlights sided? As in are the high beams two different part numbers? The existing low beams are both the same...

I'm slightly confused looking at ETK etc. I'm in the UK btw.
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Re: Headlight sides

Post by randall977 »

The answer btw - is that my car has E12 lights (even though it's E28 based). The lights are not sided...

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Re: Headlight sides

Post by tschultz »

My understanding is they are the same, but I'd be curious to learn for sure.
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Ralph in Socal
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Re: Headlight sides

Post by Ralph in Socal »

The ones pictured appear to be aftermarket Hella H1/H4 units. The screw on trim ring is a give away.

83 and up Euro e24 Low Beam Headlights are sided as the rear mounts are different from left to right. High Beam are identical. I'm not sure about early cars.

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Re: Headlight sides

Post by randall977 »

Hi Ralph - do you mean the chrome outer ring? The reflectors are 'Made in Germany' Hella - identical to the originals...
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Re: Headlight sides

Post by Ralph in Socal »

randall977 wrote: Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:52 pm Hi Ralph - do you mean the chrome outer ring? The reflectors are 'Made in Germany' Hella - identical to the originals...
Yes, that chrome outer ring is secured with 3 small screws and also secures the headlight globe in the bucket. The bucket is secured to the frame with adjustabe mounts for beam alignment.

The Hella H1/H4 headlight system is readily available on Amazon and ebay. Typically used in place of substandard US type sealed beam lights. They are very good lights.

Proper euro headlights trim rings are push on with a small metal tab. The headlights themselves are secured to the frames with adjustable mounts at the back of the light reflector/globe.

Visually the headlight lenses appear identical and probably function identically. Proper headlights are much more $$$ due to specific application and supply. Also many plastic bushings that easily fail and are not exactly cheap.

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Re: Headlight sides

Post by randall977 »

Thanks Ralph, very interesting. So my lights are not E12 based lights but modified? Yes, the other type I've seen are much more expensive.
Last edited by randall977 on Mon Sep 17, 2018 8:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Headlight sides

Post by tschultz »

Early euro's used the screw in place trim rings.. I have a set with headlight wipers.

But Ralph is correct, the ones you pictured are visibly marked Hella which means aftermarket and not E Code lights from the 80's.
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Re: Headlight sides

Post by zinnocoupe »

All very good info here. Thx :D
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Re: Headlight sides

Post by randall977 »

My headlight assemblies are E12 based as fitted in the factory to my car. My original main beams, from the 1980's, are identical in every way to the new ones 'Made in Germany' large Hella symbol etc - see photo here;

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Re: Headlight sides

Post by Brucey »

-unless that is an optical illusion, making the low beams look larger than they are meant to be- I've never seen that on a European E24 before. They are the correct buckets, but I think someone has modified/bodged that, using low beam units from another model (E28?) maybe?

In your photo above that is the RH headlight; the low beams are meant to be on the outside and the high beams are on the inside. You should (unless they have been swapped about somehow) have odd low beams, the lamps in the high beam positions look original type (*).

ETK lists four different headlight sets, changing 5/82, 9/86, 7/87. What is the production date of your car?

They all have same sized high and low beam units (with single filament H1 bulbs in them, plus a small sidelight in the low beams) , and the E24 headlight wiper assembly (which is unique to the E24) won't work with different sized lamp units to that. Both headlights need to have a chrome edge ring with 'parking tabs' on it for the wiper blade, too.

BTW the headlight wiper setup changes in 5/82 but the change is (I think) confined to the type of connector plug on the motor unit. The buckets are different at that date too but if they take the wiper unit (not all will) they will accept the same wiper unit to 6/87.

I think the low beam units and the high beam units are not 'handed' in pre 5/82 cars (so LHD and RHD use different low beams, but left and right on the same car are the same and the same high beam is used everywhere in Europe apart from France ) but in later versions the left and right side are different on the same car, because (I think) the mounting tabs are 'handed' on each reflector unit. Thus for 82-87 high beams (which have a symmetric beam shape), there are (excepting France) only two part numbers; one fits to the right side of the car and one fits to the left side of the car (because of the mounting tabs), whether the car is LHD or RHD. Looking at the ETK, this simple piece of information is presented in the most tortuous way possible, I'm not surprised you are confused... :wink:


BTW it seems likely that to fit a larger headlight unit to your car, the plastic headlight surround pieces would have had to be modified (cut away) too.

Hella make lots (and lots) of headlights BTW.

(*) both units in the photo above have arrows on the glass; this normally indicates that they are low beam units, not high beam units, because only low beams lenses/reflectors are handed. Is it possible that someone has installed the original low beams in the high beam position? If so the car may not be legal if you only have the inboard units lit up on the dip beam setting.
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