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Does anyone know how many variations there are for the S4/GT/GTS tail lights for US and ROW? There is a minor difference between my GTS tail lights and the ones on my ROW GT. I have also seen tail lights that are all red without the yellow turn signal part. So there seems to be at least three different variations but are there more? What markets are the different ones used in? Thanks
Agreed with Sterling. FWIW, US market PET says 928 631 483 00 and 928 631 484 00. European PET says the same numbers, 87 to 95. Though they call out the same two numbers for cars with vs. without rear foglamps, perhaps there was originally a variant for cars with rear fogs that has since been superceded (?)
The three variations of models are USA, ROW, and Euro. All have the same visual appearance. However USA lights are wired differently. Here are illustrations from each regions owners manuals:
Euro and ROW are the same config which has fog lights on the lower/outer position (red). This is a dual purpose light that is 5watts when the lights are on and an additional 21 watts when the fog light is on (total 26watts). The center/lower position is an additional 5 watt bulb for rear lights when the front lights are one. The inner/lower is a 21watt bulb dedicated to brake lights.
USA models do not use fog lights. So the lower/outer and lower/center lights are activated with headlights and the lower/inner location is dual purpose for braking and lights.
I do believe USA cars are wired to be able to add a fog light. My USA spec 88 S4 is odd in that has Euro spec lenses (which have printing on the back for which bulbs go on which locations). I am not sure if that was added to my car or if the manual is wrong and USA cars had Euro lenses and just deleted the read fog switch.
Hope this helps
Last edited by Michael Benno; 07-31-2017 at 01:46 AM.
I ran across this tail light on ebay that is new and from the picture it appears to be all red? Perhaps my partial color blindness is getting to me and it's just how the picture is taken? This is why I was thinking an all red version was available.
Nicole - Yes! That is a great option! Hope to see you again at third coast.
I ran across this tail light on ebay that is new and from the picture it appears to be all red? Perhaps my partial color blindness is getting to me and it's just how the picture is taken? This is why I was thinking an all red version was available.
It's orange. Just a bad angle making the far right side look reddish.
I do believe USA cars are wired to be able to add a fog light. My USA spec 88 S4 is odd in that has Euro spec lenses (which have printing on the back for which bulbs go on which locations). I am not sure if that was added to my car or if the manual is wrong and USA cars had Euro lenses and just deleted the read fog switch.
Hope this helps
The rear lamp housings in my '89 (12/88 build date) have these same markings, with callouts for the bulbs used in each section for the different markets. The main difference is in the wiring harness on the housing itself. All wiring for all markets, including the rear fog light wiring for ROW cars, is in the body harness. It just doesn't get connected to my US-spec wiring on the housing.
Similarly, there's a plug connector in the pod for the fog light switch. To use that on my US car, the Intensive Washer button is removed to make space, and that function goes to a small button at the bottom as standard on the ROW cars with rear foglight capability.
There have been several threads over the years that offered option to get the orange section to be red. That, some careful sanding and a bit of window tint might get you to the smoked look that Nicole has on her car. It's s subtle change that plays well with her smoke markers and front turn signal treatments. Great look on a dark car!
The three variations of models are USA, ROW, and Euro. All have the same visual appearance. However USA lights are wired differently.
For Porsche there is no distinction between Euro & ROW - there is just USA & ROW (with market specific M-Codes). Biggest differences in ROW are between RHD/LHD models and then Japan models - which tend towards some USA details, but are often RHD cars.
For ROW cars the outer red segment is a dual 21W Fog/5W Marker light the middle is a 5W marker only and the inner is 21W brake only. Turn signals and back-up lights are the same for all markets.
Having distinct function brake lights is a good feature to me, some LED conversions have much less distinction between the low and high power modes for these types of "dual filament" bulbs - this is a VERY BAD THING for safety!!
I'm glad we don't have rear fog lights in the USA - or the morons would just leave them on all the time - and we do have plenty of morons to go around.
Some of these morons even work at the DOT (well lets face it lots of them work there - very very over represented) - they are the people who allow us to have automatic front lights only - so that lots more morons can drive around at night without any rear lights on at all (not even really the drivers fault so much in this case! )
What Dr Bob says is also true - all S4+ lenses seem to be the same to me - mine also have the ROW markings by position. Both the bulb holder types (single/dual) will fit in all slots.
i believe that when the GTS was released they changed the surface area of the brake light portion of the tail light (GTS are larger). I also pretty sure this was why they recommended you replace both units at the same time instead of just the broken one.
Interesting that both lenses say DOT so it seems not to be a ROW Vs USA thing. Given the configurations - it does make some sense that the USA brake light segment could be bigger and wrap more. My GTS rear lenses are like yours.
On an ROW car the brake light segment is not illuminated at all without the brakes on. So for rear facing tail marker lamps you need to be able to see the last 2 outer segments. On a USA car the brake lamp segment is a dual level segment with combined low illumination markers and bright brake lamp so this is much less important and they can be made bigger.
However there is no good reason I can see to have a difference between USA S4 and GTS models - only between USA and ROW models. Given that by the time of the GTS Porsche was investing relatively little into the ongoing development this seem like an odd minor change to be making? Anyone have better details here? do ROW cars use the ones shown here for the S4 throughout the production run (e.g. on the GTS too)?
Alan, the top photo is the original 89 tail light....the bottom one is a used replacement that I bought...thats when i noticed the difference. A local friend has a 93 GTS and his are both like the bottom pic...
07-30-2017, 10:51 PM
S4/GT/GTS Tail Light Types
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