W211 should there be foglights at rear on both sides?

[nictry]

Odd question maybe but noticed yesterday I only have a fglight on the drivers side at the rear of my W211 E220cdi, before I start delving around can anyone confirm if the e-class should have rear foglights on both sides?

Thanks in advance?

 

[Diesel Benz]

In most (if not all) EU countries (but was UK different, or is it still different) it is illegal to have a rear fog light on both sides. It makes it difficult for others to figure out if the car is braking or if it just had rear fogs on if both sides had fog lights. MB certainly has had the fog at one side only since the W123 (I cannot remember further back).

 

[nictry]

In most (if not all) EU countries (but was UK different, or is it still different) it is illegal to have a rear fog light on both sides. It makes it difficult for others to figure out if the car is braking or if it just had rear fogs on if both sides had fog lights. MB certainly has had the fog at one side only since the W123 (I cannot remember further back).

Thanks for that, i assumed was prob ok but just wanted to check

 

[N7OGP]

In most (if not all) EU countries (but was UK different, or is it still different) it is illegal to have a rear fog light on both sides. It makes it difficult for others to figure out if the car is braking or if it just had rear fogs on if both sides had fog lights. MB certainly has had the fog at one side only since the W123 (I cannot remember further back).

my laST CAR, peugeot 406 had both rear fog lights. if thats the case why have side light and brakes togther, it doesn't make sence.

 

[CE230]

SWMBO's Rover has fog's at both rear corners.

 

[rf065]

Mercedes are the most safety concious of all the motor manufacturers, if they have deemed one better than two, that will do for me.

Russ

 

[renault12ts]

^ Or it could be they deemed one cheaper than two.

 

[rf065]

^ Or it could be they deemed one cheaper than two.

There was a big discussion before on this, two foglights can appear as a car braking when it looms out of the fog, causing others to brake sharply and cause a pile up, thats why one foglight is favoured by more safety concious manufacturers.

Russ

 

[Shude]

^ Or it could be they deemed one cheaper than two.

Which part is cheaper please? The tail lamp cluster is identical on both sides including bulbs the only difference is a length of wire missing from the side with no lamp. Can't be a huge saving can it?

Modern cars even have the wiring in place but software inhibits the lamp activation!

 

[nictry]

..

 

[Ted]

rf065 is correct

I remember a communication from Mercedes at the time, and the only reason there is one foglight is because having two could mask the brake lights.
This was at the time of the W123, so no thought of cost cutting there.

 

[flango]

rf065 is correct

I remember a communication from Mercedes at the time, and the only reason there is one foglight is because having two could mask the brake lights.
This was at the time of the W123, so no thought of cost cutting there.

Nope! one rear fog is definitely not safer than 2 in the UK look up all the work from TRRL (in fact one of our members works there) The one instead of two argument does not hold up because in the tests almost everyone thought it was a motorcylce braking as they could not see the nearside rear light of the car, those that didn't thought it was a car braking with a brake light out.

The main reason two are better than one is two symetrical rear fog lights provide distance information for a following driver, one does not.

Volvo still fit two fog lights to the rear and you can't get more safety consious than them, all the UK tests show that 2 fog lights are safer than one thats why certain safety concious manufacturers still fit two on their UK models, those that don't simply run with the European production which has only one rear fog as it is illegal in most EU countries to have two.

Incidently the safest fog light ever introduced in tests was a single mid mount rear high intensity, which flashed (not to disssimilar to the wet weather light on an F1 car) but was never adopted because of the road traffic acts in various countries and the legislation on flashing lights.

So currently according to UK tests and statistics 2 rear fog lights are better than one.

 

[Ted]

It may or may not be safer, but the reason Mercedes gave at the time was on safety grounds.

They also said that the deeply ribbed rear lights on their vehicles at the time was a safety feature - so that there was less chance of the rear lights being obscured by road dirt.
I have thought it interesting that for some time, this safety feature has been omitted (although perhaps other factors such as the design of the rear of the car could have addressed this).

 

[killwilly]

My last two cars have only had one rear fog light, Nissan and BMW, both on drivers side.

 

[flango]

It may or may not be safer, but the reason Mercedes gave at the time was on safety grounds.

They also said that the deeply ribbed rear lights on their vehicles at the time was a safety feature - so that there was less chance of the rear lights being obscured by road dirt.
I have thought it interesting that for some time, this safety feature has been omitted (although perhaps other factors such as the design of the rear of the car could have addressed this).

There were a lot of ill thought so called safety ideas in the 1970's and 80's and if you look back not many of them stand the test of time, the genuine safety advances do though, 3 point seatbelts, ABS, Airbags & Curtains etc.

With aerodynamics on modern vehicles rear light clusters are kept flush to aid airflow this in turn keeps them clean, not many of the boxes of the 1970's and 1980's could be called aerodynamic, I wonder what the cD factor was on a Volvo 244 flying brick It wasn't until the early 80's when Audi & Ford started paying attention to aerodynamics that things changed, the Ford Jelly mould Sierra might have been scoffed at when it was launched but it gave the other manufacturers food for thought and car design altered dramatically at that point.

 

[tony bob]

Which part is cheaper please? The tail lamp cluster is identical on both sides including bulbs the only difference is a length of wire missing from the side with no lamp. Can't be a huge saving can it?

Modern cars even have the wiring in place but software inhibits the lamp activation!

i was interested in your post saying that more modern cars have the required wiring for the operation of a rear foglight on either side controlled by the software, that seems to be the case on our w211 e220 cdi 2002 reg. would only an mb main dealer be able to alter those settings? we need to alter our uk spec. model to left side rear fog light so that we can put it on spanish plates and pass the mot test there, any advice apreciated, thanks, tony bob.

 

[Ted]

There were a lot of ill thought so called safety ideas in the 1970's and 80's and if you look back not many of them stand the test of time, the genuine safety advances do though, 3 point seatbelts, ABS, Airbags & Curtains etc.
.

Ah yes! who could forget that great advance in safety - the square steering wheel on the Allegro!

 

[Diesel Benz]

Nope! one rear fog is definitely not safer than 2 in the UK look up all the work from TRRL (in fact one of our members works there) The one instead of two argument does not hold up because in the tests almost everyone thought it was a motorcylce braking as they could not see the nearside rear light of the car, those that didn't thought it was a car braking with a brake light out.

So it was not good when drivers assumed it was a motorcycle braking ahead? Did they not brake in this case? Does it make a difference for safety if you brake for one or the other reason when you are supposed to brake?

If the cars brake without a need (the one ahead being far away), that should not be a safety issue (assume no car comes close behind in foggy conditions).

 

[Satch]

Never been that happy about the one foglight thing, especially so one particularly foggy night crossing France/Belgium.

There must be some danger of misleading other road users (especially those who ripping past in very poor visibilty) because my single foglight was of course now on the "wrong" side.

 

[flango]

So it was not good when drivers assumed it was a motorcycle braking ahead? Did they not brake in this case? Does it make a difference for safety if you brake for one or the other reason when you are supposed to brake?

Yes the point is they braked when they did not need to because they could not judge distance

If the cars brake without a need (the one ahead being far away), that should not be a safety issue (assume no car comes close behind in foggy
conditions).

that depends on how hard they brake and that is often what causes the multiple rear end shunts on motorways in fog.

As above