[W126 Coupe] Rear Lighting?

[Steve Nervig]

On Jan 4, 2008, at 11:09 AM, Sam Sisic wrote:


> Happy New Year all!!!

>

> I was changing out bulbs in the rear lights and noticed that the  

> innermost cell with a red lens has a hole for a bulb but no wiring/ 

> power to it. It's just an inoperative blank cell.

> Anyone know why this is? Is this typical for US models where the  

> Euro models have a bulb in this cell?

>

> Just curious...

>

> Sam

> 88 560 SEC US


The hole is for the rear fog lamp. It's an added lamp in the driver's  
side tail assy (left side in NA, right side where they drive on the  
wrong side; some countries use both, I am told). It's the brightness  
of a brake light. You turn it on when visibility is very poor and it  
allows someone following you to see your car better.

If you opened up your tail assy, you'd probably see where the extra  
lamp could go...there's an extra socket position. They were not  
enabled in USA until about 91 or so. I don't believe that the wiring  
cables supported the simple addition of the socket, either, but I  
could be wrong. Would be nice if it did. Neither my 79 or 90 had it  
enabled; my 92 does.

If you have the rear fog light option (which is an added 20w? lamp in  
the drivers side rear turn signal), there is a lamp in the center of  
the main light switch...it illuminates the orange "button" of the  
rotary switch when it's pulled out to its second detent... IOW, you  
pull the switch out one detent and the front fogs come on, but no  
orange button...pull it out to the second detent and in addition to  
front fogs, the rear fog lamp illuminates, as well as the orange button.

The problem is that some people turn it on when it's not needed for  
safety and it can be very annoying to those following them.

Above info from my web site:
http://web.mac.com/dakota/Projects/EuroLights.html

Regards,
Steve
1992 300CE Sportline