Headlights

[JeanS]

We are advised to carry a set of lights but how offer do the Police/Gendarmes stop people to check.  We drove back from Sazeray,36 to Caen on 20th.December  and the number of cars with faulty lights was quite high which leads me to think not to bother with a set of replacement lights because no one checks anyway.

[Loiseau]

And would you even be able to change them yourself if the need arose, Jean?

Having watched the local garagiste change one of my rear light bulbs, i know i couldn't!

For form's sake, I carry an old set of bulbs that were knocking around in a previous car, which certainly don't even fit my Golf. :-))

Angela

[PaulT]

[quote user="JeanS"]We are advised to carry a set of lights but how offer do the Police/Gendarmes stop people to check.  We drove back from Sazeray,36 to Caen on 20th.December  and the number of cars with faulty lights was quite high which leads me to think not to bother with a set of replacement lights because no one checks anyway.[/quote]

So let's all not bother - surely the wrong attitude.

[Clair]

[quote user="JeanS"]We are advised to carry a set of lights but how offer do the Police/Gendarmes stop people to check.  We drove back from Sazeray,36 to Caen on 20th.December  and the number of cars with faulty lights was quite high which leads me to think not to bother with a set of replacement lights because no one checks anyway.[/quote]

No problem... until you are involved in some roadside incident/accident, however minor, and the gendarmes, and your insurance, and the other party's insurance suggest you contributed to the accident because of the missing/damaged/broken headlight... [Www]

[sid]

But it is only advisory. On my previous Megane (2004 model) you had to jack up the car and remove a wheel before you could get at the access panel for the headlight bulb, and even then it was very difficult to get the spring clip back onto the bulb unless you have small hands. I wouldn't fancy trying to do this in the pitch-black night. In a case like that it would be safer to drive home first rather than attempt it at the side of the road; if you got hit by another vehicle whilst changing a bulb I don't think the insurance company would approve of that either.

I wonder how many people will carry spare xenon bulbs? I certainly don't, although I do have the smaller sidelamps/stop/tail bulbs.

[Clair]

[quote user="sid"]But it is only advisory.[/quote]

That's correct.

If driving with a defective light, you also run the risk of being stopped, fined (min 45€, max 180€) and prevented from driving the vehicle (legislation).

At least with a set of spare bulbs and fuses, you can show you're prepared and you stand a chance of driving on once the faulty bulb is replaced.

All it takes is a gendarme who got up on the wrong side of the bed...[Www]