Rear Fog lights, MOT failure

[Guest]

Hi All,

My car failed it's MOT on Saturday because the rear fogs are no longer there. It's a 1985 Supersport and I assume they were part of the bumper before or a single 'add on' fog light was in place. The thing I find strange is that I never see an external add on style fog light on any car in pictures. Do most people remove them? Anyway, the original bumpers were replced with IROC style bumpers before I bought the car and I don't want to drill these or ruin their look with an add on style fog light. I thought only original Minis had these kind of terrible fog lights! I'm now struggling to know how to solve this problem. Should I just fix a temporary fog light externally for the MOT or should I do the mdified post 87 rear reflector conversion? Does anyone have any experience of what is involved or how easy it is to carry out the conversion? Any help would be much appreciated. Many thanks

Kris

 

[Guest]

Just seen the new M5 on Top Gear, i know it's not a Porsche but I want one!

 

[steh]

you will find that its an bolt on type, after 1987,i think 87, the lights were intergrated into the reflective panel.

steve

 

[IanHighfield]

Kristian,

Mine were upgraded (1986 car) to the newer reflector with integral fogs. Done by PCT as part of a service, but simple enough job.

Requires two small holes in the rear panel for the fogs to protrude through for wiring etc. - very neat solution.

There is an article on the web here at type-911

 

[tripe]

I think only pre 1980 cars need not have a rear foglight for the MOT. I have once put an integral rear foglight reflector on a pre '87 MY car and did it by replacing the rear crossmember. A big job, but satisfying to know that it was as good as the factory way of doing it.

 

[Geoff_Fields]

A friend of mine has fitted the later reflector panel to his 84 Carrera. He had to cut two holes for the foglights to pass through but reports that it was not that difficult! So scour the breakers for the later unit and your problems nearly solved.

 

[Guest]

Thanks all! Does anyone know if drilling these holes causes any structural problems or weakness in what I presume is the rear cross memeber?? Cheers

Kris

 

[IanHighfield]

PCT did it for me and said it was fine !

 

[plhorner]

ORIGINAL: Kristian
The thing I find strange is that I never see an external add on style fog light on any car in pictures.

Check out my Avtar, you'll just see the horrible rear NS fog light! There days are numbered now however, my new sports back box is slowly melting the NS light due to the angle of the tailpipe so I reckon a post 87 rear pannel is the order of the day!

 

[Geoff_Fields]

The MOT requirement for fog lights does not specify quantity. So removing left side light is not a problem. My previous 3.2 Carrera had sports exhaust fitted, which necessitated the removal of the left fog light. It always passed the MOT OK.

 

[Alan_Armstrong]

I have recently upgraded my rear reflector to include the rear fogs.

As already mentioned, you need to cut 2 holes, but its not in a crossmenmber but the rear panel that joins the 2 rear wings. I used a dremel for cutting, allowing 2 very precise rectangles to be cut. The wiring is simple enough, I just waited a day or so after cure rusting the newly cut edges, then undercoat and topcoat (from a touch up stick)...looks good, a much better solution than the original bolt on afterthought!

Be warned though.....getting a rear reflector is expensive even from a breakers...I paid £160.00...and I know of other people who have paid simular and have received cracked/broken examples....I can recommend Douglas Valley Breakers, who emailed me pictures of the reflector from all angles before I purchased.

Good luck!

 

[Guest]

I'm still struggling to work out the wiring at the moment. I have wires hanging at the back of the car but I have tried an external fog light on them and no joy! I can't think of anything else they would have powered up previously. Going to get a multimeter on the job tonight. Does anyone know what the wires look like? These ones are fabric covered and don't have any specific colour to them. Any ideas? I'm planning to use a 'stick on' fog light fo rthe moment and update it in the next couple of months. Getting married in a couple of weeks and have far too much on to think about a new reflector at present. Cheers

Kristian

 

[Alan_Armstrong]

As far as I can remember, 1 wire was live the other was negative, hence no single wire to the body.

Remember to power up the fog lights you need to have the lights on at least side lights. The fog switch works with a pull, to switch on the fronts, and a twist clockwise to put on the rears. Hope this helps!