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MJ City Lights


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I've always wanted city lights since I converted to H4 head lamps; had them in my old Benz's and always liked them. But my Hella H4 housings had no provision for them, and even if I wanted to buy new housings you can't get them anymore w. city lights, except for the Autopal housings, which I didn't want. biggrin.png I found these city light adapters on Ebay for $15 that work with all H4 bulbs, and thought I'd give them a try.



Installation is cake. The city light holder is clamped firmly between the Hella housing and H4 bulb by the wire springs, and sits in the three slots. The H4 bulb and gasket even have two little holes to thread the wire out of the housing.







Smoke test.



Near dusk pic



No readjustment of the headlamps is necessary. I wired them to come on with the non-flashing parking lights, then go off when the headlights come on. This is done by tapping the white city light hot wire into the parking light hot wire, then tapping the city light black ground wire into the headlight low beam hot wire. This provides a false ground (double positive) to the city lights, turning them off when the headlights come on. They can also be wired as additional turn signals or ignition switched daytime running lights. I used the amber bulbs, but most any color is available.

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2 questions, real quick:

1) Why would someone want "city lights"? Are they actually like DRLs', or what? Not being smart, just don't understand what "city lights" are for. :hmm: 2) What did you find the rings listed under, as I could see me wantinga set for an upcoming project.

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2 questions, real quick:

1) Why would someone want "city lights"? Are they actually like DRLs', or what? Not being smart, just don't understand what "city lights" are for. :hmm: 2) What did you find the rings listed under, as I could see me wantinga set for an upcoming project.

 

City lights are used on well lit city streets in most European (and some Asian) countries; in fact it's illegal to use headlights in most Euro cities. They usually have a separate position built in to the headlight switch to turn the city lights only on. There is legislation in the works to do this in some US and Canadian cities too. And a lot of folks also use them for DRL's.

 

Link: HERE

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Well, that makes sense to a certain degree. I have been thinking back in time, and I don't remember seeing them in use in Sicily, but then again, I don't remember seeing alot of "European" things while I was there: Swedish women in the nightclubs, braided armpit hair :eek: :ack: (Thank God for that!!!!), and a few others.

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2 questions, real quick:

1) Why would someone want "city lights"? Are they actually like DRLs', or what? Not being smart, just don't understand what "city lights" are for. :hmm: 2) What did you find the rings listed under, as I could see me wantinga set for an upcoming project.

 

City lights are used on well lit city streets in most European (and some Asian) countries; in fact it's illegal to use headlights in most Euro cities. They usually have a separate position built in to the headlight switch to turn the city lights only on. There is legislation in the works to do this in some US and Canadian cities too. And a lot of folks also use them for DRL's.

 

Link: HERE

Outstanding work Don, As I recall they had City lights in vehicles in Hong Kong back in the day. Many of my friends that lived in Manila and Makati PI that could afford European imports had German made vehicles with such lights like the old Mercedes 300 D in a variety of forms. :cheers:
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I've had several W124 and W203 series Benz's and converted them all to Euro lighting. The crappy DOT standards we are forced to live with here is ridiculous. Joe, you must have hung out with a different crowd in Manila and Makati than I did. The folks that did have vehicles were all owner jeepneys, and some of those didn't have any lights at all, especially in the city. :eek: I had a BMW R60/5 like this one, only in black

72-r605.jpg

 

that I rode all over there. Ever come up at 80+ MPH on a dark country road behind a 1 MPH carabao cart coming home from the rice patties at night? The skid marks were everywhere. :eek:

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  • 1 year later...

I picked up a set of City Lights, & plan to install them on my MJ with the H4 HID's i run in IPF housings.

These are easy to install with the H4 conversion, but as you can see, the H4 HID Bulb is different. The three alignment pins do not sit flat against the Hid Bulb Flange, & there are no holes for the lead wires. Had to drill small hole underneath the bulb in the plastic, and brake off the alignment tabs of the City Light Ring :(

Sense I broke off all the alignment pins, I plan on using the reflective shield to mount the City Light's to the HID Bulb. To do this I had to drill two small holes through the City Light Ring, and use the screws from the reflective shield to mount them.

We decided to use our lights as an additional turn signal, so wiring was easy as splicing them in on the turn signal.

Here's a pick with the hazard's on near dusk.

jamminz.gif

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One use I have heard for city lights is for fog lights. You still need headlights to be recognized by on coming drivers. But, in dense fog, regualr headlights can throw back a bunch of light. I have also experienced this in snow. Sort of like high beams. So, in fog, then the low mounted fog lights get under the fog to light the road. I also own an MB. I plan to set it up with city lights and driving lights.

Tom

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  • 4 weeks later...

I don't know what Benz's you have but I had a slew of W124s and W201s. First thing I did on all of them was to get a buddy stationed in Germany to scour the junkyards and ship me over a set of the local Euro headlight assemblies. The Europeans are light years ahead of us in automotive lighting. Pun intended. :D

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