Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Having recently purchased a 1969 S4 I?m full of question the first one being,
did all S4s have reversing lights? Mine has red lenses in the place that you would expect them to be, also there have been other lights fitted and later removed above the number plate could these have been a later attempt to fit reverse lights?

Could it be an E-type lens? I seem to remember nearly being fooled into buying E-type lenses purporting to be for Elans at an autojumble once.

Matthew

I'd agree with Matthew that it's a Jaguar lens. The other lights could be anyone's guess

Not sure if it's a Jaguar Lens, but IIRC the US federal lenses didn't have a (white) reversing light in them

Thanks for the replies
I?ve looked at some pictures of E-type rear lenses, and it looks like you?re spot on, it makes me wonder what other strange parts have been substituted.

Federal (U.S.A. spec) rear lamp lenses were all red with clear insert for the reverse lights. There is also a red reflector inset next to the clear insert the same size. See figure 72, page 96, section M, of the 1971 Lotus Elan Workshop Manual. Jaguar had separate reverse lamps and would have been all red (federal spec).

Gary

Mark

Have you removed the lens to see if there is a reversing lamp under the red lens? There should be a rectangular cowl with a festoon bulb in it. If there is all you need to do is change the lens - not cheap of course!!

Mike

No I haven?t removed the lens yet, to be honest there?s a lot to do before I get to the lights, I was just unsure if they were the right lenses as the appear to have been on the car a long time, and the marks where other lights have been removed muddied the water even more.

Mark

If you change only ONE lens for the correct type with a clear reversing lamp lens, and you do a little bit of re-wiring, you could have both a single reversing light and a single fog light (perhaps not really bright enough though unless you can find a 21W bulb that fits...)

Matthew