Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Ok. A very simple question. I am rebuilding my elan from several boxes of parts and about to fit the side lights. They have bulb shields. Looking at the front of the car, should the shields be above the bulbs, to the left or right? I guess they should not be underneath!. It is a UK car.

Cheers .

They should be on the inside to reflect the light outwards.
Eric in Burnley

Mine does not have bulb shields?............just ultrabright LEDs

From memory the shields are at the top. Agree about changing to LEDs - the old bulbs melted the front lenses on mine. LEDs not only run cool but are about three times as bright so usable as daylight running lights (sort of )

Hi Stuart,
You may be right. I am getting confused.
I was thinking about the clear part of the lens which needs to be on the outside. On my car the lamps had been fitted on the wrong sides of the car and I changed them over.
Now I have realised that, I do not see anything which could be called a shield so I am confused again.
Cheers
Eric

ericbushby wrote:They should be on the inside to reflect the light outwards.
Eric in Burnley

Eric,
You are quite correct. The Workshop Manual states that the clear portion of the lens must face the outside of the car and because the lugs which fix it to the bulb holder are different sizes, this can only be achieved when the shield is on the inside.




Just to confuse the issue the illustration in the manual shows the shield at the top which would put the clear part of the lens at the bottom

Oldelanman,
I would fit that name, I like it. I wonder how I would qualify for it.

Thanks, that clears it up I think, except that mine have no shields.
But with the LED`s it doesn`t matter any more.
Eric

Shields on the inside.