Is it possible to retrofit the European lights on to the American-market Saturn Astra? They are actually not the same even though GM changed little from Opel to Saturn. In fact, the lights may be the biggest difference between Saturn and Opel versions.
The Saturn Astra in the US uses the Hella Bi-Halogen projectors which take 9005 bulbs. One filament for both high and low beam. Yes, I know you can install 9011 bulbs in it, but I still feel that two lights should have two filaments! Unless the Hella Bi-Halogen really is better than separate H7/H1
The Saturn's tail lights look the same as the European version, but they do NOT use separate amber turn signals like they do in Europe! Nope, they had to change it to the STUPID red turn signal combination stop/turn!
In Europe, of course those red turn signals are illegal, and rightfully so, and they have separate amber turn signals. There were two headlights available for the Opel version: A bi-xenon option, or a halogen setup that uses separate bulbs for high and low beam. H1 for high beam, H7 for low beam.
The fogs are different as well. The American Saturn version uses 9145 bulbs and is shared with a couple other domestic GM cars (if you're lucky, you can find a 9155 to install in it). In Europe, the high-performance OPC had H11 fogs, while other Astras got H3 fogs.
Other European GM imports that made it here, like the Catera, retained the Euro headlights/bulbs (the Catera debuted around the time it first became possible to meet US and ECE standards with the same headlights), and I think the Catera even kept the rear fog, too. Too bad they didn't do the same with the Astra. It is probably not possible to import one from Mexico, which is identical to the Euro version and was even available with the 2.0T from the Cobalt SS and Solstice GXP
The Saturn Astra in the US uses the Hella Bi-Halogen projectors which take 9005 bulbs. One filament for both high and low beam. Yes, I know you can install 9011 bulbs in it, but I still feel that two lights should have two filaments! Unless the Hella Bi-Halogen really is better than separate H7/H1
The Saturn's tail lights look the same as the European version, but they do NOT use separate amber turn signals like they do in Europe! Nope, they had to change it to the STUPID red turn signal combination stop/turn!
In Europe, of course those red turn signals are illegal, and rightfully so, and they have separate amber turn signals. There were two headlights available for the Opel version: A bi-xenon option, or a halogen setup that uses separate bulbs for high and low beam. H1 for high beam, H7 for low beam.
The fogs are different as well. The American Saturn version uses 9145 bulbs and is shared with a couple other domestic GM cars (if you're lucky, you can find a 9155 to install in it). In Europe, the high-performance OPC had H11 fogs, while other Astras got H3 fogs.
Other European GM imports that made it here, like the Catera, retained the Euro headlights/bulbs (the Catera debuted around the time it first became possible to meet US and ECE standards with the same headlights), and I think the Catera even kept the rear fog, too. Too bad they didn't do the same with the Astra. It is probably not possible to import one from Mexico, which is identical to the Euro version and was even available with the 2.0T from the Cobalt SS and Solstice GXP
