Export to Europe - Side Lights

[kwinhouston]

Hi y'all,

I just exported my 2000 986 from Houston to Netherlands successfully. I have an apt with the inspection agency this week to move the registration process along, and I know one thing that they are going to hit me on is the side lights. Currently the lights come on with the headlights, however, in Netherlands they must be used as indicators.

Is this a wiring or a programming issue? Reason I ask is that I rang the Porsche dealer here and he immediately said that the car needed to be fully reprogrammed, and was going to charge me 300 euros for the pleasure. I have spoken to others I work with who imported BMW's, Mercedes from the states and they had no requirement to re-program the engine.

If it is wiring, can I do this myself, or is it complex enough to take it to a shop?

Many thanks in advance.

Kiwi in Den Haag

[Tool Pants]

http://wa4ekg.home.att.net/996mods/sidemarkermod.html

[stickshiftnz]

Hi there,

The issue with the American "side marker lights" (basically orange parking lights in the front of the car, and red at the rear) may not have anything to do with the light function itself, but the embedded reflector. American law I believe requires not only the lights, but reflectors which can be viewed from the side of the car (red for the rear, orange for the front).

Some years ago, an American-spec 944 was tested in Europe, but had its front side markers blacked out literally with tape (rather than just having the bulb disconnected). Someone at Ford UK Personal Import-Export informed me it was because of the reflectors. You will notice in the Netherlands (and NZ for that matter) that Volvo S40/V40 cars as standard do have side markers (but all are orange, even the rear ones), check to see if they have reflectors. Chances are they do not.

If that is indeed the case, you'll need to convert your "side marker lights" to "side repeat indicators" (also called "side repeaters"). This means you will need to purchase non-DOT spec (basically non-North American) side repeater lenses (or it may come as an assembly) in either amber (not orange!) or clear (with an amber bulb inside). For the wiring, it SHOULD be simple enough to tap into the front indicators, however, turn signal relays are usually load sensitive, and will flash in a different frequency if more lights are added to the circuit, so you may need to change the relay too. Else, besides the flashing frequency not within legal requirements, it will also affect how the car indicates from the inside that one of your signal bulbs is blown (by flashing much quicker than normal).

Also, North American-spec cars (from what I remember -- correct me if I'm wrong) are required to have front parking lights in orange too, rather than white. You may need to get that converted too (outside North America, orange/amber is only ever used for turn signals).

A local auto electrician should be able to help you out with those. Knowing the Germans, Bosch will have some OEM equivalent relay with the right load capacity which slots straight into the relay carrier.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Tony