south_bound

I have just changed a blown headlight bulb on my car (RHD, original UK headlights) using a bulb I bought here in France. Someone then told me they thought it would now "dip" the wrong way because of the way the filament is set up differently for French cars. I'm not sure that sounds plausible, or why would all those peaple have paid 100s of Euros for new headlight units when they register their UK cars in France? I'll try to see if there is any difference when I go out tomorrow morning, but not sure I'll see anythig significant.

Any one know the answer to this or have useful weblink?

le plumber

Useful weblink no but I do know what you're taliking about. The headlight beams are directed at the side of the road - in the UK this is on the left and on the continent its on the right (obviously). if the beam isn't diverted it could 'blind' on coming drivers. You either have to put stickers on the headlamps or change the headlamps altogether - I'm not aware that they can be altered. Years ago I was stopped by "les coyotes", and told that they had to be changed on my LHD BX, so I went to a scrap yard and did it myself.

bonoeuf

The bulb will make no difference, it is the shape of the lens that makes the difference to where the light shines. To do it properly you will need a new pair of reflectors or a whole new unit if they are not separate. The scrap yard would be the cheapest route. You can always just use the sticky tape option until you sell the car.

Im_and_Er

It's nonsense and whoever told you that probably also thinks that the pedals are reversed on a RHD car

That said there are reports of people modifying bulbs so that they can be rotated by a few degrees and and scraping through a CT without actually replacing the lights themselves, personally I remain sceptical.

Tweedpipe

D'you mean I shouldn't be breaking with my right foot and accelerating with my left in my converted RHD Moskovitch.........?

le plumber

sounds like a car out of the Flintstones..........

Casa Santo Estevo

That is an up market car, I have a Wartburg Knight!

Ka Ora!

I have one of theses Ruska's It's a VW underneath though.

Casa Santo Estevo

I have never seen one of those. Not even when I lived in NL as this one is a Dutch registered car.

Ka Ora!

It's a Dutch Kit car, 30 Years old. Although it's had a newer rebuilt VW performance engine put in it. I need to find a nice bit of Walnut to remount the dash gauges in as the original has taken a hammering and it was just ply with a veneer, And finding a spray shop thats good with Fibreglass as it needs some tlc.

cjm

It is possble to 'tweak' the RHD headlights to pass the CT. Friend did it on RHD Vectra. In UK at mo and using black gaffer tape over key headlamp bits that direct beam. Not been flashed or pulled over as yet (now touches head in hope it won't happen).

cyrian

Depends on your headlamps.
If you can use deflectors (black tape) to cover the lenses on the headlamps then you have one type of headlamp and you will need new lenses for a permanent fix.
Many new cars have asymmetric beam headlamps which rely on an internal deflector to control the beam.
On my last car (Asymmetric) you could turn a small lever on the headlamp to adjust it for driving in France. Don't think that it changed over the direction but just reduced the glare for other drivers.
Another type is bi-xenon which use a very high voltage and should only be adjusted in a garage.
In my current car, the computer changes the headlamps for me.

cjm

Well, aren't you the lucky one Cyrian! My old beast in a 1999 and tape has to do it. The tweaked car was an ancient Vectra. I recall one of the okld systenms in that you tugged a lever across within the headlight mounting, but I think rust was always the issue.

south_bound

Thanks for that - it all makes sense. I only aksed because it came up in conversation, and then the replacement bulb I bought has a blacked out bit on the front which could conceivably have been used to control the direction of dip (but probably just to stop glare). Interestingly, the only time I have been flashed by oncoming drivers was during the few days I only had one bulb working and used the foglights to make sure I was seen. I have set the height adjustment to the lowest setting though, which might be helping.

Casa Santo Estevo

The black tip is normal for a Halogen bulb.


Sometimes they are grey!

I am not going to add anything about using fog lamps whist it is clear either