kmascotto

I while ago I replaced one of my taillights... I happen to be driving behind my 928 and noticed a difference between the size of the brake light surface area. One was smaller than the other...by 1-2 Cm. It wasn't until a friend who has a European car, did i make the connection...they made the taillights different in North America.

granprixweiss928

Also, US DOT taillights have reflectors built in. Not sure if euro ones do.

Nicole

There have been different standards for lights for decades... Just think about the difference in headlights (H5/H4, North American Sealed Beam, etc) or side markers vs. side blinkers. It's one of the major difference between US and ROW cars.

kmascotto

The front headlight differences were apparent...maybe its just me...I thought the rears were all the same. One side (brake light section) has 5 ribs passed the backup light...the other side has 8 ribs passed the back up light.

kmascotto

on the other hand...maybe its not a difference between NA and Euro cars...maybe its the difference between S4 and GTS taillights...
can anyone confirm...

Alan

USA and ROW S4+cars rear lamps are set up quite differently. ROW have a fog light in the outer red segments (both sides) combined with a marker light (dual filament bulb). They also have a dedicated brake light segment on the innermost segment (does nothing else - single filament bulb) plus a marker light only in the middle. USA cars have no rear fog light so have marker only lights in the outer two segments (single filament) and have a dual filament brake light/marker (dual filament) in the innermost segment. This operation in controlled more by the bulb harness than the cluster itself - so depends what bulb harness you used (if you even got one for the ROW cluster).

As is usual - the ROW configuration is actually the most sensible arrangement (makes the brake lights more distinct). However I'm glad we have no rear fog lights here in the USA or millions of morons would leave them switched on all the time. When I was in the UK it seemed that people particularly liked to turn them on every time it rained - just perfectly wonderful!.

Alan

R.Pires

Alan,
It must be a stupid common problem with some european drivers, also in my country there are some people that can't turn on their lights without turning the fogs on! Maybe it's a problem with their electrical system, maybe they just like to see another light on the dash or maybe they are just stupid...

Regards

kmascotto

Thanks for the feed back Alan.

SeanR

Or it could be that some of us just like having the extra light. I don't think I've ever not had my fogs on when the head lights are on.

Alan

Sean - Not sure if you are talking front fogs? Here we are talking about rear fog lights - most 928's in the USA don't have rear fogs.

IMO it is a very unwise choice to have rear fog lights on at any time its not actually foggy. The extra rear light light is helpful in fog for extended visibility (of you by others). The extra rear light is not helpful at other times. It is wearying on the eyes for other drivers behind you, it especially dazzles in the rain and it makes you less safe from rear end collisions because it makes your brake lights relatively less distinct.

Front fogs are a different story - they can usefully serve other purposes (DRL, extra visibility laterally etc), and anyway they don't cast their extra light very far down the road as they are short throw and low cutoff - but therefore they also don't have any particularly detrimental effects on others.

Alan

bogdann

I haven't seen serious fog in 40 years of driving here yet we still have drivers who put on rear fogs and it is so annoying when you follow them for 20 or 30 kms. Sure they don't know they are on because they never read the manual or familiarise themselves with the car.

GlenL

I see this a lot with Audis. As I recall, from having one, it's not clear which switch is the front and which switch is the rear. People use them all the time and just flip them both on not knowing, or caring, which is which.