S4 Number Plate Lamps

[William2]

I recently purchased a pair of Hella lamps for my S4 Elan rear number plate lighting. They come with the 2 blade connections pointing staight out from the rear of the lamp and consequently the boot lid is too shallow to accomodate them. Do I just gently bend them flat and outwards because even if I do, the lamp body looks quite deep for the boot recess?

[Pastapesto]

William

They should fit & IMHO & recollection you need to gently bend the terminals "flat" - both going in the same direction and they should just fit - that is if you have the ones I'm thinking of. Do you have a picture?
They are a tight fit but they do - fit, that is!

Good luck

Adam

[oldelanman]

Don't know if this helps or not but my lamps have only one spade terminal, the earth connection is via a ring terminal on one of the fixing screws. Recent replacements bought on ebay are the same except for the mounting rubber gasket which is grey on the old and black on the new.

[William2]

Gentleman, thanks for the replies. I have bent the blades flat but facing each other so as long as I use insulated female spades it may just fit. Maybe the fibreglass thickness on boot lids varies as well. Mine had a slightly different Hella part number which probably explains why the connections are different. I guess there is also a choice as to whether you attach them with self tappers or screws and nuts.

[fatboyoz]

William,
I also had to bend the spade terminals. I bent them at 45 degrees to aid fitting and also for ease of connecting. I used the supplied screws and nuts, but they are quite fiddly. With that in mind, I used LED festoon type bulbs that will, hopefully, last. I also noted, before fitting LEDs, that the heat generated by the 5 watt bulbs was starting to blister the silvery lining that covers part of the lens.
These are the LEDs I fitted: Warm White 3710-WWHP3
http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo ... /239/1136/
Cheers,
Colin.
P.S. This size also fits the dash mounted interior light.

Gentleman, thanks for the replies. I have bent the blades flat but facing each other so as long as I use insulated female spades it may just fit. Maybe the fibreglass thickness on boot lids varies as well. Mine had a slightly different Hella part number which probably explains why the connections are different. I guess there is also a choice as to whether you attach them with self tappers or screws and nuts.

[sveris]

Does anyone have a decent used one of these lamps, with a gray gasket? I'm trying to replace one. Or, a NOS lamp with gray gasket? Or, even a loose gray gasket or two - in decent condition?

Steve in Ohio

[William2]

I have decided to do a small mod to help the clearance of my lights. I'm going to use some 3mm rubber gasket material and make a couple of spacer gaskets up. They should be barely visible.