tail light dilemma!!

[toole325i]

Hi everyone i'm new to the zone and i must say how chuffed i am i'v found this site its great and other members and users of the zone are very helpfull and extremely sound! Plus theres some stunning examples of E30's on here and the resto projects are just awesome! hats of to these guy's for putting these cars back to there former glory pure class!

Anyway my dilemma is can anyone tell me how to get the red tinted indicator on my tail lights to flash orange i'v heard if you tint the original clear bulb green it makes em flash orange or is this just fable? any help would be very much appreciated many thanks chaps!

[bazcoupe]

sorry mate i tried this and it dosent work you just have to put up with red indicators.

i havent been pulled yet and they have had plenty of oppertunity just swap them come mot time.

[toole325i]

hmm al just have to keep my eyes peeled for the jammers then! would i be right in saying that the last of the e30 convertibles were released with these lights though? if they were surely the rear indicators on these cars mustav flashed orange.

[march109]

hmm al just have to keep my eyes peeled for the jammers then! would i be right in saying that the last of the e30 convertibles were released with these lights though? if they were surely the rear indicators on these cars mustav flashed orange.

Jammers?

ALL original e30 rear lights had orange reflectors for indicators, you will not find one post or prefacelift 2door convertable 4door or touring that has red indicators that flash orange. The red tint is nearly always achieved by aftermarket tinting spray which affects the light emitted.

[toole325i]

Heavy! red indicators it is then. Jammers is scottish for police

[march109]

Right oh then.

You could try fewer coats of red tint spray, you could even try the green paint trick, you won't no what works until you try it.

I've never been bothered by the 5-0 about mine.

[toole325i]

no probs mate al try blasting the bulbs with some green paint and see wot happens. the 5-0 are pretty strict up here though cause theres to many stupid little boy racers kicking about in there crappy wee french hatch backs thinking there nigel mansell! Al stick em on though and keep my fingers crossed.

[mrLEE30]

green bulb does not work, in fact it make the problem worse as a green bulb is not as bright as a clear bulb so it wil appear even redder!!!

yes red and green make yellow but only when mixing paint and light wavelength interfearance, in this case the green (or '''white'') light has its wavelength modified (or really filtered) by the red lens so it can only appear red irregardless of what bulb you have.

the solution is to only pertially paint the indicator lens red, i.e. something similar to an E34/E39 reverse light, coloured you indicator red in stripes so it looks red from a distance, but still leave enough yellow to make the light apprear to flash yellow

or a better soulition is to leave UK and move to a ''less civilised'' counrty where the police care more for speeding and theft than the colour of indicator lights and have lights like this...

[toole325i]

nice car mrlee30 those tail lights are sick! the lights should be fine i reckon the police will have bigger fish to fry this summer rather than me kickin about in my pristine 325i sport with my dodgy red indicators! lol

[Cloggy Saint]

Why is red indicators an issue? Just about every American car over here has red indicators as standard.

[toole325i]

hmm yea mate but i bet the cops in amsterdam are far more forgiving towards drivers of nice vehicles than they are up hare in sunny scotland as i said before the wee twat boy racers spoil it for everyone by keeping the jammers eyes peeled for anything remotely suspicious on your car but as i said before al run em and hope for the best.

[mrLEE30]

red indicator lights are illegal in UK. red is reserved for brake, tail and fog lights. Yank cars that find there way over to UK must have yellow indicators (i persoanlly think its best to make yank cars illegal too and solve the problem once and for all but then again i dont have the power to make that choice )

for the record it is not compulsary to have reverse lights, a good number of people in uk rewire the lights to use yellow bulbs in the reverse light slot as the indicator and paint the yellow indicator red.

mrlee

[rubjonny]

what about trying a superbright yellow/amber LED bulb, courtesy of http://www.ultraleds.co.uk. You'll need the indicator led resistor thingy to stop them flashing too quickly, or the special indicator led relay that are also sold on that site.

I've had good results using a blue LED to 'overpower' a green filter, I dont think a red housing would give an uber bright yellow/amber led any trouble. I recon a led bulb thats more yellowy would help offset the red tint better though