Euro Smiley's: not plug and play with US plug

[Elekta]

Do I have to buy Euro adapters and stick with euro bulbs?

My body shop guy pointed out the disparity in the pins on the bulbs and the plugs on the harness. Basically it's the same plug that's on the fog lights. So, do I have him just splice in fog light plugs that mate onto the headlight bulb?

Sorry no pics of the headlight buckets side by side, but the jist is that US plugs have pos/neg paddles/plugs and the Euro has a single paddle/plug and I'm guessing the ground is in the round base of the bulb.

I will have two headlight motors left over if anyone is interested....though I'm pretty sure one will need to be repaired, as it threw the lic plate error message

[Scott H]

The end cap is what the bulb plugs in to and there is a regular plug that connects to the end cap. You need the end cap for sure as it seals the back of the light up.

diagram from realoem

My body shop guy pointed out the disparity in the pins on the bulbs and the plugs on the harness. Basically it's the same plug that's on the fog lights. So, do I have him just splice in fog light plugs that mate onto the headlight bulb?

Sorry no pics of the headlight buckets side by side, but the jist is that US plugs have pos/neg paddles/plugs and the Euro has a single paddle/plug and I'm guessing the ground is in the round base of the bulb.

[Elekta]

nope, that's the part I am missing, and the headlight bulbs are single spade like the fog light bulbs.

[granit_silber]

.

I will have two headlight motors left over if anyone is interested....though I'm pretty sure one will need to be repaired, as it threw the lic plate error message

Our headlights have adjustment motors? Do they level the lights?
-ashley

[Scott H]

there are two wires inside the cap. One attaches to the spade on the bulb and one grounds to the reflector on a small round post near the bulb seat (which is where you were right assuming the bulb base is ground)

Let me hunt up the p/n for the plug that fits the endcaps....it's a bit obscure and not a standard plug IIRC

nope, that's the part I am missing, and the headlight bulbs are single spade like the fog light bulbs.

[Don McAdams]

http://e30m3therealm3.com/e34/

I put this together a couple years ago when I installed mine- Hope this helps you out-

[Elekta]

Mel just emailed from abrahammotorports. He has a whole wiring conversion system that I would order today if I knew I wouldn't have a problem with the headlights themselves being Bosche instead of Hella.

Is that going to be a problem?

I will have to do a search and see if my headlight pic is still hosted.

[Elekta]

http://e30m3therealm3.com/e34/

I put this together a couple years ago when I installed mine- Hope this helps you out-

I saw that, and contacted Mel. Still have headlight issue and no caps to worry about.

back in an hour

[shogun]

@acyre:
yes, in Europe it is standard to have headlight adjustment motors (low beam only), even required by traffic law. I do not understand that that is not mandatory in the US. If someone has the trunk fully loaded they light the sky but not the street and disturb oncoming traffic.
Excluded from this are of course cars equipped with LAD. LAD adjusts the rear height automatically and therefore no need.

[Don McAdams]

What headlights are you putting in your car? The original euro ones your car came with? The Bosch's use a different part# on the low beam caps- the high beams show the same part # for Hella/ Bosch (I don't know what is exactly different- maybe the pins). Sorry, I've never installed a Bosch set to be able to give you *exact* help- I'm thinking it's just the *low* beam cap & everything else will be the same-