Switching from driving on the right to driving on the left

Yes, it is tricky. However, you can always buy new correct lens. At this age, it is best to buy new glass.

In the first link it is not clear what they mean by "lefthand". If it is left-hand drive, then it is unsuitable, as the car is in the Irish Republic, where the steering wheel is on the RIGHT.

DAS

Sounds like the issue is the car has US sidelights at the front corners. With the replacement assembly, you apparently need to do some drilling so it will clear what is already there. Then disconnect the wire from the existing sidelight, re-connect it to the new sidelight and ground the other new sidelight wire. Beyond that, without having the stuff in front of us, going to be real hard to speculate.

If that advice is coming from a local expert, have you considered paying him to do the conversion?

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Thanks Tiger again,

These two lamps are different from mine, even if they are for the WDB123 cars. Is there a place where I could sent the picture of mine so that you can see the difference?

TIA

There is indeed a lot of confusion about the left or right hands. I prefer to write it as:

headlamps that are for-left-hand-side-of-the-road driving

It doesn't matter whether the driver is on the left or right side of the car.

I do know what yours is... W123 has two different headlights.

In USA, they are two round headlights... actually one is yellow for foglight.

In Europe, they are one glass rectangle headlight. I prefer this style and they put out much better light than any USA headlights. I would say about 3 times better light output with this euro type headlight.

Thanks again Tiger,

Are you sure that the lamps shown in the two links you gave me will actually fit into my car? Some seem to be much more sloped back in front, whereas mine are almost straight up and down.

The front blinkers seem to be a problem here and I think the blinking lamps have to be removed but what about the parking light then? - hmmm, maybe I should cut one of the connections - the one that blinks.

I just found the blinker lamp (turn signal) on my MBZ wiring diagram. The color of the wire I need to cut is sw/gr, which I interpret as schwarz/gruen. Deutsch, jawohl! I'll just cut that wire. Seems the right thing to do?

Next problem though, what happens if I want to make a turn and there is oncoming traffic towards me? Do I need to install a front blinker to show the direction I want to travel in?

I forgot to ask about the 4 sets of lights and I have made an offer almost at the asking price. Could you please have a look at the following URL and tell me if you think it will work for my car?

Thanks again Tiger for all you help :-)

Back to the first question... yes, the european headlight will fit your car. The only thing you need to change is the harness plug. On USA car, there is only 4 wires. Euro headlight got 5 wires... the extra wire is the city light... that little light above headlight. Other 4 wires are the same but arranged in a different order.

Now, your later post tells me something about UK light law... I am not familiar with that. I know for a fact that Euro blinker light is strictly a blinker light... it only lights up when you turn on signal. Their side light is also "Orange" color rather than yellow-orange in USA... the orange match the tailight orange signal light.

To determine which one is the side market always on circuit... just use a voltmeter... there will be three wires... one is brown... which is ground... one will be side marker and one will be turn signal. So when you get 12V with light on... that's the wire you need to remove from the socket and reroute it to your separate side marker... which I believe is that 5th wire on the headlight.

Like DAS said, it is tricky to see if the headlight are in fact UK lens... the only difference is the glass... you can buy new glass that conforms to UK law. It is very easy to tell when you look at the glass... You will see in the middle of the headlight portion... you will see a line and then you will see the angle upward at about 40 degree angle...

USA and other countries that drive on right hand side of the road... you will see that slant go up on the right hand side of the car. On UK, Ireland, Japan and others... you will see that slant go up on the left hand side.

I am glad you are now understanding that those flat glass auro headlight... does fit on all W123. I change al my MB to euro headlight when I buy the car. It is the way the car should look and I get better light on the road.

Thank you Tiger. You are an expert :-) I'm curious to know where you live now. Recently I moved from USA to Ireland, and I miss the California climate :-( You seem to know a lot about the UK market.

My lamps should be here by midweek and I will start work on them then. The harness you mentioned, is it readily available at MBZ garages?

It seems that the flickering lights at the front corners of cars here is unacceptable. I had a look today at the wiring diagram today and saw that the sw/gr = (schwarz/gruen - jahwohl, das is Deutsch :-) ) goes directly into the turn signal lamp. I have never opened that little side light. Is there one bulb there or just one bulb with two filaments for turning and parking?

Here is what one of my communicants sent me recently about that problem:

You will need to drill the rear of the plastic housing assembly to clear the sidelight socket; US cars have the sidelight function built into the front indicators. Amber front sidelights like this are legal in the USA, but not in the UK, so you'll need to snip the wire feeding the sidelight filament of the present side/indicator bulb and route it to one of the new headlamp optic's two sidelight terminals, the other of which gets earthed. Fit the new lamps with one T4W sidelight bulb and one H4 dip/main globe (I recommend Philips Xtreme Power) and after the lamps have been aimed you'll be all set.

Does that ring a bell with you?

Thanks again Tiger and have a great weekend :-)

Terminology, at least as far as the UK is concerned (IE may be different):-

Sidelights or 'parking lights' are those low-level ones that come on

*before* the main headlight and are *not* orange.

The indicator lights (or even 'flashers') are orange. They are not know as sidelightsto my knowledge, even though some can be at the side.

However, I think we know which lights Tiger means..

DAS

The empty 6 hole socket is available at the dealer... or simply get one from junkyard. All Euro cars has those on their headlamp.

From that statement, then what I wrote is correct. The little light above the headlight will be your 'sidelight'

Thank you DAS and Tiger. Will be back soon :-)

Hello again Dear Buddies :-)

I have a few more things to report. I have the lamp units imported from Scotland, installed in my 1984 240D. These lamps are one piece. My old front lamps have a 7" diameter headlamp wired with 3 flat prongs and a smaller fog lamp that is clear, not orange.

The present lamp has 5 electric contacts or prongs, 3 in one row and 2 in the other. Now I have to get the "harness", as someone called it, and do some wiring. I assume this harness has 3 holes for one row and two for the other one.

The next task is to do the wiring or unwiring.

One of them is to knock out the front blinker lights on each side. The container that these are located in is glued firmly together and I cannot see whether there are two bulbs or just one with 2 filaments. More wires than 2 or 3 go into that container. Is the other filament or bulb a parking light or? The wiring diagram shows 2 bulbs, one for blinking (turn signals) and the other for parking.

Thank you for your kind attention :-)

TIA :-)

:-) Good luck.

Just curious: how far are you from a franchised Merc workshop/garage?

DAS

My current searches resulted in:

1 A Mercedes Benz repair ship at Bray. Ace Autobody Group - Fairgreen Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow. Tel 01 276 0600, email: snipped-for-privacy@aceautobody.ie

2 German Autoparts GLENBROOK LODGE KILLARNEY ROAD, Bray, Ireland

and both are about 31Km away from me.

Neither is mentioned in the Mercedes Eire list.

?OffsetPageNumber=2 Nor in Northern Ireland

Best regards. DAS

Sorry, direct link failed for IE. Have to go back a step or two:

Maybe this one will work:

Click on Dealer Locator on bottom left.

DAS

If you have reread my post... you would understand.

New headlight got 5 prongs... need a 6 holes plug... which you can get from dealer or wrecker yard... they comes apart... just like your 4 holes harness now. A flat screwdriver to one side will release the whole thing.

It has been a while so I don't remember which wire go to which hole... All you have to do is rearrange the wires to it is in proper location... if you look inside the headlight unit... you will at least recognize brown wire... which is ground and match the position to brown wire on the wire harness.

All other connectors are easy to trace by using the ohmmeter (part of multimeter) one would be to low beam... high beam... parking light... and fog light.

The parking light on the headlight would be where the parking light on the side light is suppose to connect to. A simple voltmeter will tell you which one is for parking light. Using ground on body and positive probe into one of the three holes on the signal light harness.

So once you find the wire you need... simply take it out of the plug... cut and splice the wire so it is longer to reach your headlight if needed... you do need that round plug thing to go into the headlight new harness in proper location.

Any mechanic with electrical knowledge can do it... it is so easy.

Seum wrote:

Hello again Dear Buddies :-)

I have a few more things to report. I have the lamp units imported from Scotland, installed in my 1984 240D. These lamps are one piece. My old front lamps have a 7" diameter headlamp wired with 3 flat prongs and a smaller fog lamp that is clear, not orange.

The present lamp has 5 electric contacts or prongs, 3 in one row and 2 in the other. Now I have to get the "harness", as someone called it, and do some wiring. I assume this harness has 3 holes for one row and two for the other one.

The next task is to do the wiring or unwiring.

One of them is to knock out the front blinker lights on each side. The container that these are located in is glued firmly together and I cannot see whether there are two bulbs or just one with 2 filaments. More wires than 2 or 3 go into that container. Is the other filament or bulb a parking light or? The wiring diagram shows 2 bulbs, one for blinking (turn signals) and the other for parking.

Thank you for your kind attention :-)

TIA :-)