I am going to keep this in English to make this posting more accessible for non-German speakers, who may be looking for information about those lights.
As we all are aware, position lights for the XM are becoming more and more of an issue. If one is looking for lights to replace broken ones or to replace faded ones, he or she is going to have a bad time. NOS parts are hard to find and rather expensive.
Hence, with much excitement I noticed the offer from Technocitro for refabricated position lights. 200 Euros for a pair of lights may be a fair price if the quality is right. I received my shipment yesterday and did some testing. I hope this information will be useful for you to decide whether those reproduced lights are what you are looking for.
One small disclaimer: I am not an expert on anything. I am just sharing my opinions with you guys. All provided pictures are in 12MP resolution. They may take some time to load.
Initial impressions:
Right after digging into the box, I noticed the gray tint and a bit hazy looking glasses. Well, that was a bit of a disappointment for me if I am being honest.
The feel is a bit more flexible than the original parts. A little rough looking in places.
pictures show comparison between refabricated version and NOS part:
Build quality, fit and finish:
Overall, the lights seem to be dimensionally accurate. Some rework may be required on some of the housings to be able to install the metal clip into the arm. The light bulb socket fits well. A bit looser than in the original, but not to the point that it should produce an issue.
Installation on the car itself is straight forward. I swapped the lights out several times and experienced no issues with installation or removal of the lights itself nor the bulbs.
On some examples it may be neccessary to bend the arm a bit to ensure it properly locks into position.
The glasses on the original lights are welded onto the housing. For this reproduction, I believe, a clear silicone has been used to adhere the glass to the housing. I don't consider this a great solution. The glass can be peeled off the housing rather easily. Also, Silicone will not hold up for a very long time if exposed to the elements.
In addition, I noticed the bottom vent hole has been glued shut on the lights I received. This may lead to moisture buildup.
The surface of the reflector has some texture to it and appears to be spray painted with some kind of silver paint. Whereas in the original the surface is smooth and properly coated.
Since the reproduced lights felt a bit more flexible than the originals and also smelled a little funky, I decided to do some further testing regarding mechanical properties.
First, I wanted to see how the material strength compares. I clamped the lights down, loaded the arm with approximately 14N of force and measured the flex.
The original light and the NOS light flexed about 5 mm, the reproduction flexed 10 mm. A more bendy arm results in a less secure fit to the car and might allow the light to come loose. We will have to wait and see whether this an actual issue or not.
I also put an original and a reproduction in my oven and heated both up to 75° C. I have no idea on how hot they might get when sitting in the sun on a hot summer day. Probably no more than 50° C.
At 75° C the housing of the reproduced lights got quite a bit softer. Also, the glass seemed to have softened up a little. Unlike the original light, which did not show any signs of weakening at those kind of temperatures. Which does not come as a surprise, the glass transitioning temperature of the materials used in the original - ABS and PMMA - are at about 105° C.
The arm on my test subject got bent after heating up and testing the flex in heated state. Easy fix, just shows that 75° C is more than the material can handle.
Weights: 86 g for the original, 80 g for the reproduction.
How it looks installed on the car:
Pictures comparing:
- original light with approx. 15 years and 135 tkm of use
- reproduced light
- NOS light
dipped beam: OSRAM Original H1 (new bulb)
position light: OSRAM Original W5W (new bulb)
U(battery): 13 V (+/- 0.1 V)
Pictures look a bit more yellowish than in reality. I am not a professional photographer and just set the white balance to a preset that came somewhat close to what I was seeing (5200K).
I am not a fan of the yellowish tint of the standard W5W incadescent bulbs and therefore using Cool Blue Intense to match the color temperature of the main beams more closely. If you'd like to see pictures with those installed, let me know.
Light pattern and comparison of the lit lights:
Same order as above:
- original light with approx. 15 years and 135 tkm of use
- reproduced light
- NOS light
light pattern:
OSRAM Original W5W @14 V:
OSRAM CoolBlue Intense @14 V:
Again, chose a white balance preset that came somewhat close (3200K), this time the light appears a bit more blueish than in reality.
That should suffice for today. In the following days I will add a few more things.
- closer look at the glasses
- impact test
Let me know if you have any questions or would like a closer look at specific things.
Finally, I want to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to Lionel at Technocitro all the other people involved in the project who made this reproduction possible. My ordering experience has been very positive. The seller had contacted me after delivery as he was interested in my feedback about the product, which I provided to him. There are certainly some areas to improve upon. I am both hopeful and curious to see what lies ahead in this regard.
Michael