smileys
Moderator: martauto
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gar81
- E30 Zone Newbie
- Posts: 82
- Joined: Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:00 pm
- Location: Rush, Ireland
One more question, why hasn't my 87 cab got smiley headlights and what is the difference?
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mrLEE30
- E30 Zone Team Member
- Posts: 6589
- Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:00 pm
- Location: Sweating buckets in Bahrain
There are four types of light on an E30 that i know of.
1. US market sealed beam lights, duel filiment and all four lights switch to high beam, but normal low beam is the outer lights - these are on the grey sport below and are absolutly terrible.
2. the older european(and others i am sure) system that uses a flilament bulb directed by a mirrored reflector for both main beam and high beam - this is what will be on your cab. they are also not too great.
3. the projector lights these use a filament beam projected and directed by a glass lens for the low beam and the normal bulb and mirror for the high beam - these come in two versions - Smileys and non- smileys, same thing but the backing plate is different the ''smileys'' have a cut out to allow some light to be directed dwon infront of the car
there does not seem to be any correlation on car age and whether the lights are smiley or non smliey projectors, my cab is a late 1992 and has non-smiley projectors.
And finally there are lights made by Bosch and Hella (and GE for the US sealed beam type)
the smileys (brought from the E32 7 series) were introduced in Europe on tin tops when the face lift car was introduced in September 1987.
Cabs were not so simple, the cabs remained a pre-facelift shape until some time in 1990/91 but to add more confusion the front lights were changed about the same time the tin tops were facelfited. So your car being an 1987 does not mean it was necessarily manufactured after Sept 1987, I would also imajine there were a few cabs sent out with the older lights in order to use up stock in the factory/full fill lights already ordered. The cabs are unusual in the fact that some have the later plastic tech 2 kits but still with the prefacelift bodyshell (by that i mean the smaller rear lights).
so in a longwinded way it is very hard to place cab specification to manufacture date..
you can see below my cab with non-smiley projectors and my sport with Us type selaed beams..
1. US market sealed beam lights, duel filiment and all four lights switch to high beam, but normal low beam is the outer lights - these are on the grey sport below and are absolutly terrible.
2. the older european(and others i am sure) system that uses a flilament bulb directed by a mirrored reflector for both main beam and high beam - this is what will be on your cab. they are also not too great.
3. the projector lights these use a filament beam projected and directed by a glass lens for the low beam and the normal bulb and mirror for the high beam - these come in two versions - Smileys and non- smileys, same thing but the backing plate is different the ''smileys'' have a cut out to allow some light to be directed dwon infront of the car
there does not seem to be any correlation on car age and whether the lights are smiley or non smliey projectors, my cab is a late 1992 and has non-smiley projectors.
And finally there are lights made by Bosch and Hella (and GE for the US sealed beam type)
the smileys (brought from the E32 7 series) were introduced in Europe on tin tops when the face lift car was introduced in September 1987.
Cabs were not so simple, the cabs remained a pre-facelift shape until some time in 1990/91 but to add more confusion the front lights were changed about the same time the tin tops were facelfited. So your car being an 1987 does not mean it was necessarily manufactured after Sept 1987, I would also imajine there were a few cabs sent out with the older lights in order to use up stock in the factory/full fill lights already ordered. The cabs are unusual in the fact that some have the later plastic tech 2 kits but still with the prefacelift bodyshell (by that i mean the smaller rear lights).
so in a longwinded way it is very hard to place cab specification to manufacture date..
you can see below my cab with non-smiley projectors and my sport with Us type selaed beams..
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StuBeeDoo
- Engaged to the E30 Zone
- Posts: 6756
- Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 11:00 pm
- Location: Up My Own Arse
ETK lists non-smileys from 09/87 to 09/88 and smileys from then on. Non-smileys are definitely fewer and further between.mrLEE30 wrote:there does not seem to be any correlation on car age and whether the lights are smiley or non smliey projectors, my cab is a late 1992 and has non-smiley projectors.
This is why I no longer drive an E30......
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mrLEE30
- E30 Zone Team Member
- Posts: 6589
- Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:00 pm
- Location: Sweating buckets in Bahrain
ETK lists non-smileys from 09/87 to 09/88 and smileys from then on. Non-smileys are definitely fewer and further between.
i think that may then be specific to the UK market, out here where almost all older BMs come from Japan they are almost exclusively non-smileys, this includes later E34's which went up to 94/95. In fact here its quite rare to see the smileys!!
mine are factory (non-smileys) lights and manufacture date is 9/1992
even our M3's come with saddies
mrlee
