Amber cruise lights - As fitted to new volvos, lorries etc

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young_simon

New Member
After a winter of driving down the motorway in the dark, I thought it would be a good idea to stick some amber lights on the side of my P6 on all four corners.

These lights are appearing infront of the front wheels and behind the back wheels on the wings/bumpers of the current Volvo's and Jags. They make the vehicle far more visible in the dark, and if done neatly, I reckon would look good too.

Does anyone know of any legal issues with these lights? There probably aren't any, but just in case, you never know.

To make them look neat, I will fit a repeater for the indicator infront of the 2000TC badge on both front wings, and using the same light assemblies as the cruise lights level with the repeater on the four corners. I would need to know of any car that I can source these repeater light assemblies off that are preferably rectangular, and definately the same height as the badge on the front wing to use for this little project.

Any help would be welcome

Simon
 
Hi Simon,

I have seen p6's with "running lights" or "cruise lights". To be honest the only ones which looked ok are the NADA spec which reflectors on the corner.

There are plenty repeaters that you could use but two that spring to mind are the current MG rover items which have been used since 1986 on the SD1, land rover, ldv vans and everything else churned out by rover, next time you see an MGF have a look and you will see the Austin-Rover logo. the repeater is probably about an inch square. a reasonable hole needs to be made to accept it.

The other is a sort of aftermarket one very similar to the P5b item, about 2"-3" long and about a cm wide. You would recognise it from the FX4 taxis which started to use them from 1986/1987. the need a hole at the rear and fix to the wing with 2 self tappers.

The problem is you will need to pierce the wing so think about rust proofing.

As for the legal requirements, my MOT manual says "additional indicators are not inspected" and "the position and angle of visibility of direction indicators are not part of the inspetion". My manual is a bit old but is good for pre 1980 vehicles. saying that it always depends on the testers. I would be say that the running lights shouldn't also be repeaters. I say this because if it may appear as though the indicators are not working correctly.

If you add side repeaters then you will need to adjust the flash rate which should be between 1 or 2 per second ( 86-120 per minute I think) your unit can adjusted if you are careful.

Did you see the V8 used by auto car to compare the New 75 v8? the car had running lights/side repeaters which were not NADA spec.

Arthuy
 
lights.jpg


On the left is a clear version of the taxi light that simon mentions, on the right is a rover 800 repeater, the ruler shows a inch scale if its not too clear.

Basically the 800 repeater is 1 1/4 inches high by 1 3/4 inches wide. The taxi one is 3 inches long by 1 inch wide.

Hope this helps

Richard
 
I will go down to the local MG Rover dealership to check them out. They have a small parts office that I can try and get some from if they look good. Preferably I'd like them from the MG Rover, Rover Group or British Leyland parts bins to keep it as British as possible.

Thanks for the replies

Simon
 
Simon,

mg-rover will charge a fortune for these. You need the lense, bulb and bulb holder. Rimmer bros do these for sd1 and they charge £9.18 a side.

If you want them I would pop in to a scrappies, they kind of pull out so just snip the wires off. I would imagine it would ask a couple of pounds and any metro, rover 200, etc will have them.

If you price them at a dealer lets us know what them charge.

Arthuy
 
Be carefull when removing the 200/400/800 ones, you need to push them to one side and then pull the other side out.
i.e. one side has a 'spring-loaded' clip that goes behind the wing.

They are often stuck because of the seal thats fitted, just keep pushing backwards and fowards until it frees up.

Richard
 
You can buy LED side markers for about £12 a shot, or side repeaters for a rover at £3 a go from vehicle wiring products. Better than the scrappy i would have though.
 
Hello Simon,

Couldn't help wondering why you are driving in the dark. Do you have head/taillights? Where do you live? I have never seen orange cruise lights except for those on roadtrains which can be up to 50 metres long.

Regards, Harry Australia.
 
I am, for my sins, a bobby and I can confirm there are no problems per se with fitting cruise lights, marker lights etc on your vehicle. There are indeed specifications in vehicle lighting regs concering the positioning of aftermarket lights but to be honest, unless you start getting silly with the positioning & colours of the lights then I can't see it being an issue.

A proper dim/dip system is a nice idea for the safty conscious who want running daytime lights. Research has shown that normal headlamps during the day actually break up the outline of the vehicle, making it more difficult for oncoming road users to mentally calculate its speed.

I'd go for it if it's going to give you peace of mind, but remember to check with your insurers before spending time and money on the project.

Good luck,

DD.
 
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