What Is this called???

[MikeMc]

I know the vehicle is a mountaineer, its that light on the fender...

Edited January 13, 2011 by Stasch

[SuperStockAndy]

I believe it's a Mercury Mariner.

[JamesW]

Actually it's a Mountaneer, but I think he's talking about the turn signal on the rear of the front fender.

[moparmagiclives]

Yeah, the high end models add those cool port holes in front of the lamps to help put the fires out

[MikeMc]

Thanks Mark...makes sense, these don't blink...must be for the "look"

[Harry P.]

Since I don't see that this got a "real" answer...

The short story is that some European, Asian and other world markets require a fender-mounted turn signal lamp. You see many European and Asian cars here in the United States with body-color plugs to fill the spot where the flasher would be on a car built for other markets.

Since you knew the answer to that one, here's one I've wondered about: Why did Japanese market cars have the outside rear-view mirrors mounted way up front on the fenders near the headlights like this?

[moparmagiclives]

but I think he's talking about the turn signal on the rear of the front fender.

I thought that was a real answer

Working or not, thats what they are. I've seen alot of those with bulbs that have been burnt out for years. I'm sure the newest ones are all LED's now.

[moparmagiclives]

Harry, I'd love to have a better answer, but it was really "because in Japan they thought that was the way to do it" for a long time. The best I ever heard was that putting it all the way up there supposedly allowed the driver to see more of the road behind in the mirror pulling away from a curb, and that not being on the door allowed you to check for traffic as you were opening the door.

However, in the 80s they figured out those "advantages" weren't worth the aerodynamic penalty of those big honkin' mirrors on the hood and they relaxed the requirement...and the fender mirrors went away overnight.

The real answer.. ( sorry,I could help myself Mark ) The reason if I remember correctly was that it was regulated so the miiror could be seen from the windshield by the cleared area of the wipers, Some kind of safty requirement they had in place.

Edited January 13, 2011 by moparmagiclives

[CAL]

as far as the fender blinker, turn signal, repeater light, whatever you want to call it is just that.

However European law states the fender blinker, turn signal, repeater light cannot be any part of the front light cluster(s).

[sjordan2]

Since you knew the answer to that one, here's one I've wondered about: Why did Japanese market cars have the outside rear-view mirrors mounted way up front on the fenders near the headlights like this?

That was a common mirror position in the 50s and 60s for a number of sports cars, and it always seemed to me that the Asians were influenced by British cars back in those days for one reason or another, maybe because they could be imported with right-hand drive. That's just a guess.

Edited January 13, 2011 by sjordan2

[sjordan2]

so in reference to the mirrors, i was right?

Winner!!! Winner!!

[moparmagiclives]

Least that's what they keep telling me...one of them made the comment that the passenger mirror could technically have been mounted much farther back on the fender due to the angle to the driver's eyes, but no car company ever did that because the "better" view of traffic/pedestrians would have been lost.

What little I've driven with them , they are horrible to see out of, raining or not. Maybe that was just the age of the glass.

[sfhess]

Most Japanese cars sold in the U.S. in the late 60s and early 70s, when they had door-mounted mirrors, had little chrome pieces on the fenders to cover up the home-market mirror mounting holes.

[Greg Myers]

On the side marker lights, I lived in England in the early fifty's. My Dad had a '54 Ford. To park on the street at night he had to have some form of side marker light. To meet this requirement he purchased a little black rubber 'hicky' with an orange and red light that mounted in the side window when rolled up and plugged into the cigar lighter.

[Gregg]

Correct on the side marker lights.

For Germany, I believe it was that when you turned off your car, parked on the street, you had to leave the turn signal in the opposite position that the car was on the street, ie, parked on right side of street, turn signal has to be on the left.

With the way they were wired, you turn off car, turn signal to left (parking on right side of street), and power goes through to the light on the left side.

That's why with some of the older VW's, you would have that extra black/green or black/red wire to the turn signals.

I think they were numbers 55 and 57, but that's my old memory going.

[Craig Irwin]

Rear fog lamp. The euro light on the front fender near the door is a repeater light.

[moparmagiclives]

I always thought that was some kind of "slow moving" vehicle designation...from way back

[Jordan White]

Yeah the rear fog lamp is kinda weird IMO. Course it may be due to not having them in the US, but it seems like it would make more sense to just have both sides be brighter than normal, otherwise it would seem that the person has a bulb burned out or something!

[CAL]

Yup rear fog.

Modern European car come with them intergrated into the tail-light housing, but most people do not know even how to turn them on. The are on a lot of US cars post 1989 or there abouts when European makes just started build a US spec car for the world rather than having a US and ROW car.

Porsche is the only one I know that had two rear fogs - that kind of balance the rear light situation, but only one is required.

Edited January 13, 2011 by CAL

[Jordan White]

Yeah a few weeks back I saw an older Volvo wagon with the rear fog on. I at first thought that it had a taillight out, but then I remembered about the rear fog (and it wasn't even foggy!)

[fumi]

However, in the 80s they figured out those "advantages" weren't worth the aerodynamic penalty of those big honkin' mirrors on the hood and they relaxed the requirement...and the fender mirrors went away overnight.

The Japanese car manufacturers lobbied for the relaxation of the fender mirror rule. They didn't want to have one set of mirrors for the Japanese market and a different set for the rest of the world on the same assembly line. They also argued the law was unfair to them as import cars were exempted.

At the time the law was relaxed in 1983, fender mirrors were the standard of the law with door mirrors being allowable substitute. The Japanese government stuck to that rule for a long time and ordered all their cars with fender mirrors whenever they were available, and you can see them on cars like the FC3S RX-7, Z32 300ZX and R32 GT-R.

[diymirage]

Yeah the rear fog lamp is kinda weird IMO. Course it may be due to not having them in the US, but it seems like it would make more sense to just have both sides be brighter than normal, otherwise it would seem that the person has a bulb burned out or something!

i always understood that by having only the driver side rear fog light will allow you to know where the car in front of you ends

since a lot of car manufactures just wired the brakelight to come on when you pull the rear fog switch it would disable the brake lights alltoghether if both of them would light up

[evilone]

I know the vehicle is a mountaineer, its that light on the fender...

yes its a light and its called a side marker. it blinks with your signal to inform the driver next to you that you want over kinda like the arrow in the mirrors.