Hi everyone,

I took my '71 500L for it's MoT today. I was in a rush and stupidly took it to a Halfords Autocentre, but that's a rant for another time.

They failed it based on the side-lights being the wrong colour. I took some advice a few years ago when I got the car and changed the white lenses to orange so they 'comply' with VOSA regulations. It's been through three MoTs since without a problem.

I tried to argue the case (shared unit for side-light and indicator, and white indicators are illegal), but after a bit of a Mexican stand-off, and hunting in the VOSA website, I had to stand down.

Any advice on what I should do here? Seems like I fail if they're orange and fail if they're white?!?!?

That's a real shame.
For what it's worth, our car is the same and the front indicator/side light lens is white.
Our (tame) MOT tester argues that the side repeater lights which are orange are visible from the front and therefore comply with regs.
Not sure if he is 100% correct but I am not going to argue... ?

Thanks for the reply. I've done some further research and, strictly speaking, they're well within their rights to fail it on that, but most MoT test centres don't!

By all accounts the UK compliant headlights have sidelights incorporated in them, so it's a case of getting hold of those, re-routing the sidelight wiring into the headlight cluster and leaving the indicators as they are.

A bit of a pain, but not too much of a drama.

Man I feel for you. I am just glad that we do not have to do MOTs here in the US. I would pull my hair out! My 500 L has the white indicator light in front and orange ones on the side like it came feom the factory.

R/H/D headlamps for the 500 are EXTREMELY difficult to get hold of---try Mark jays at 'Motobambino'---he did have a batch of R/H/D headlamps complete with built in side-lamps (I know, I bought a pair off him) although I don't know if he has any remaining.

http://webshop.fiat500126.com/katalog/artikelinfo/8230/headlamp-with-parking-light-rhd

I don't know what they are like quality wise but they aren't overly expensive. Peter bought some from another supplier in Europe I think and I think he said his were a bit iffy?

I know we are allegedly in Europe.

Tony

Vitesse said:

http://webshop.fiat500126.com/katalog/artikelinfo/8230/headlamp-with-parking-light-rhd

I don't know what they are like quality wise but they aren't overly expensive. Peter bought some from another supplier in Europe I think and I think he said his were a bit iffy?



Tony

Click to expand...

Yes, remember one of mine cracked on the way to the MOT.
The lenses are rubbish and the sidelamp hole and the electrical socket for it are poor. But they've been good for nearly two years now with a few modifications.

I just bought a set of headlamps from Van der laan for about £47. They look ok and have the side light in them. I have also gone for s set of orange indicators to be mot compliant

So what modifications need to be done to have your side lights in the headlamps and indicators in what was the side lights?

Still to wire mine up yet, but basically side light wire to the side light, indicator wire to indicator and side indicator

The headlamps which are based on those as originally fitted to UK cars, which have a small bulb holder which is a tight push fit into a socket built into the reflector in the style of the fit into the side repeaters.
The copies have a more crude, simple hole with a rubber grommet that the bulb holder pushes into. This is a slightly dodgy fit.
But all you need is to move the sidelamp connector over and to provide an earth.
The glasses have a poor beam pattern and when the lights are on, they don't look as bright as the originals in my experience.

The headlamp units with built-in side lamps have a hole (about 13mm in diameter) in the reflector, under the main bulb holder. Into this is (factory) crimped a side-lamp bulb holder. My 'Motobambino' supplied lamps have a rubber bulb-holder 'holder' instead of a crimped-in bulb holder. Only time will tell if this is a viable system. At the moment the lights that I have in the car are working fine, so using the Porsche adage "if it ain't broke, don't repair it' I will leave them in and save the new headlamps until I need them.

Vitesse said:

http://webshop.fiat500126.com/katalog/artikelinfo/8230/headlamp-with-parking-light-rhd

I don't know what they are like quality wise but they aren't overly expensive. Peter bought some from another supplier in Europe I think and I think he said his were a bit iffy?

I know we are allegedly in Europe.

Tony

Click to expand...

Thanks Tony (and everyone else who contributed).

I've found some here in the UK (ricambio) and have ordered those, as I need them pretty quickly for the retest. It's outside of MoT now, I forgot to get it done and it's lapsed!

These are the sort of thing I'm hoping to use with some modification to the holder:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-BAY15...663400?hash=item4648893968:g:WpMAAOSwFqJWqGxC

Check eBay for 1157 lamp holder - simple mod