JakeS2

Ok, so I finally made my dream come true and this summer bought a 928 S4 5sp manual. And what a machine it is...

There is only one thing (currently) that I'd like to change on it's appearance and that is the parking lights from bumber to... the main headlights , ok bear with me a moment:

The idea is pretty much similar to 968 setup where you have parking lights in the main headlight unit and they can be activated when the main unit is not raised up.

I have seen a picture of a 928 that had lights on in it's main headlights but lights were not in upright position. Sadly I cannot remember where I saw it (thought it was 928gt.com's Red one but cannot find that pic).

So, pls raise your voice if you know that its a)been done or b)cannot be done due to ______ <- fill here. Next winter I'll propably source a pair of damanged headlights and start figuring out how to do it. Can't be that hard??

br, Jarko

gruffalo

Never seen it, but could be done in two ways: adding a 5w bulb, or using electronics dropping the voltage on the regular bulb.

PorKen

ROW 8" H4s have a spot for a 3 or 5 watt bulb built into them. The plastic cover/seal has four terminals for this purpose.

AFAIK, the reflector is metal, so a hole would just have to be (carefully) drilled through the (small) bulb holder location.

JakeS2

Cool thanks! I'll source some units and work something out (or destroy those in process) next winter.

Jamesr6967

Lordco (here in British Columbia) sells an H4 conversion that has a parking light at the bottom. I'll snap some photos next wknd when I get home. A childhood friend of mine manages one of the locations, he could arrange shipping to you, or you could find a supplier in your area for the light once I get the details.

Tony320

When I saw this tread title, I thought it was going to be another fiat conversion... XD

dr bob

"city lights" conversions are easy for pre-S4 cars with the 7" sealed beams. There are plenty of H4 conversions with that feature, plus others that make the lamp "look" better, but infringe on your ability to "look" better when driving. Uh, I guess I meant 'see' better.

For a number of reasons, the stock headlight filaments are disabled until the lamps are at full-upright position. Without that little feature, the bulbs would come on and would flash anybody in the way as they went from sky-search mode down to normal road-going height. The 'smarts' for that little feature are embedded in the headlight relay, by the way.

My casual thinking on adding 'city lights' capability to the original H5 bulb has an LED array wrapped around the edge of the existing bulb, inside the plastic shield/shroud. Just enough to make the edges glow, not enough to attract the wrong attention.

Hilton

I have this, but its a unique feature to the British market cars in 87-88 (actually until December '88, so early MY89 cars have it too).

Britain had a bizarre legislated requirement for headlights to come on dimly in addition to park lights, known as "dim dip", so on a British '87/88 when you turn on the park lights, the headlights pop up, and come on at a reduced voltage - there is a special low-voltage controller for the headlights for the UK market in those years.

On my '89, I changed the headlight coding plug so that instead of popping up in low-voltage mode with the park lights turned on, the headlights stay down, but they still illuminate dimly. They now only raise up in position II on the switch, at which point they switch to full 12V.

If you can't find a reasonable kit, it might be worth getting the bits from a UK salvage yard or someone with an 87-88 parts car? (assuming new parts are unreasonably expensive or NLA).

edit: On an 87/88 the low-voltage controller is above the CE panel. On early '89 british cars its behind the dead pedal.
edit2: There is also a different Headlight relay part number for Britain - not sure if its part of the low-voltage system however or some other reason

JakeS2

@Jamesr6967 thanks, I'll wait for details.
@dr bob, of course I am not looking for a airplane-beamer, just want the lights to illuminate a bit so..

@Hilton, you hit a homerun. I might be your car that I have seen and that's absolutely the feature I want. BIG thanks for the PET code, now I can reverse-engineer needed parts. Would you have pics of the car with that feature active?

Hilton

Its a bright sunny morning here - I'll see if I can get far enough back to take a useful pic in the garage, otherwise I'll get some outside in about 10 hours

Troy Barnes

I put daytime runners in my headlights so they are illuminated when the car starts but remain flat.
I personally love the look.

Alan

I understand what you want to do - but I don't really think its such a good idea - at least not when the headlights are down.

There is a provision in the H4 headlight you should have on the car to add a city light in the main headlights - though you'd have to drill the metal lens carefully. The headlamp buckets will stay up without the headlights on as long as the marker lights/city lights are still on.

Alan

Hilton

Ok, here's some pics I snapped.

This is completely stock electrics except I changed which two pins on the headlight controller coding plug are bridged, to make the light position behave as it does on non-UK models (where the lights only raise up in position II).

On a stock UK 87/88, in position I, the lights raise up and light dimly. in position II they switch to full 12V and function as headlights. My '87 is still set that way.

The three pics are:

Position I - from the side
Position I - head on
Position II - normal headlight mode

Brent

fify:

JakeS2

@Hilton, thanks! Love 'em!!

Actually did some sourcing and f.ex in some Volvo units they have this dimmer for main units so there are some electrics around for that conversion.