HEADLIGHT REFLECTORS

[scotty]

Has anybody fitted headlight reflectors to a 1999 Toyota Corolla SE right hand drive? How did you accurately position them if you did?

Scotty

[Sunday Driver]

For fitting headlamp reflectors for a short term visit to France, just park the car facing a wall in the dark and lay the adjuster up to the lens until the beam is flat, ie without any rise at the left hand side.  Check first to see if there's a mechanical lens adjustment you can make instead.

If you're bringing the car here permanently, headlamp reflectors or sticky tape aren't allowed so you'll need to fit proper LHD units if they can't be mechanically adjusted.

 

[Dick Smith]

SD, you are a man who would know the answer to this question.

Is it legal in both France and the UK to set beams so that they are straight ahead, and therefore avoid the need for deflectors or adjustment every trip? I just leave my deflectors on, and the car has been through a couple of MOTs without objection, but they always fall off in the end.

[Sunday Driver]

Dick

My understanding is that your vehicle is registered in the UK and is used for visiting France from time to time.

If that is the case, then deflectors are allowed so that you do not breach the code de la route which states that the headlamps must not dazzle oncoming motorists.  However, if the headlamps are capable of being mechanically adjusted so that they are not reliant on external "devices" like sticky things which can fall off, then that's clearly a better solution.

If the devices remain on the car whilst it's back in the UK and don't dazzle, then that's OK.

 

 

[St_Jacques]

I'm not sure how many people bother with deflectors anymore. There was one time when on the ferry and on the tunnel drivers would be round the front of the car puzzling out how to put the things on but I have noticed for a while now that I have seemed to be the only one doing it!!!!  Its the same with GB stickers - its amazing the ignorance of some drivers who seem to think that just because they are British it somehow means they are exempt from displaying one (if they dont have a Euro GB number plate).

Dale.

P.S A tip for those of you who do put them on and want to remove them - use a baby wipe (pampers, huggies etc) and they come off including that sticky residue pretty easily!

[Dick Smith]

Thanks SD, that confirms what my friend at the garage said, but with much less sarcasm!

[mattjazz]

Does anyone know of a deflector that can be removed and re-applied as and when needed ?It proves quite costly having to keep buying them

[Elephant]

I'd be interested in that too as when I got mine out of the packet, the glue had dried up and they wouldn't stick. I couldn't fathom out how to get them on either even though two very comprehensive (and conflicting) diagrams came with them. We ended up not taking the car out after dark so it was ok......

A thought has just struck me - what about the Headlight Levelling Control? I've got a thumbwheel that I never use, on the dashboard under the steering wheel, , which according to my car Manual (Fiesta) is to lower the beam when you've got a full load on. I wonder if I could use that instead of the sticky things? Does anyone know? Thanks in hope...

Zoe

 

[mattjazz]

I must confess I have done that in the past. Trouble is it just lowers them not deflecting them,so the side of the road is very dark.

[M]

If they are available for your car, buy a pair of perspex headlamp protectors, and stick the beam benders to them. Then just clip them on / take them off as required. My wife did that with her Audi A3. Cost about £40 though...

M

[chrisb]

[quote user="Elephant"]

We ended up not taking the car out after dark so it was ok......

[/quote]

'Fraid not - the police sometimes carry out spot checks (I've seen them going round the car park at a motorway services specifically examining the headlights of all the GB cars) and won't let the fact that ir's daylight alter the fact that an offence has been committed.

Which seems hard but I guess does make sense. If a rain storm comes along and you need to put the headlights on you really don't want them to be shining in the face of oncoming drivers - for your own health and well-being as well as theirs.

I suppose the same applies in those tunnels where headlights are compulsory - not that most British drivers seem to take any notice of that regulation either. Or perhaps they just don't understand the sign and are rummaging around in the car well to find matches and sticks so that they can light their fires.

[Dick Smith]

I just leave mine on - went through the MOT last weekend with no problems.

And Sunday Driver says it is OK, and that is diamond.

[Elephant]

I'll look into that option -thanks very much for the idea.

[chatnoir]

"Fraid not - the police sometimes carry out spot checks (I've seen them

going round the car park at a motorway services specifically examining

the headlights of all the GB cars)"

This sounds ominous.  If they find you're without deflectors, what do they do?  They don't seem to sell defelctors in France - I've looked and never found them even near the major ports. Not only that though, they don't even seem to sell them for converting European lights to be legal on UK roads either.  In fact, here's a good game - if you're in the UK, see if you can spot a European car with headlight deflectors on.  Is the law different here?  It may be about to change as there's now starting to be a focus on EU lorries on the roads and it's not like the UK to miss an opportunity to make a quick buck by fining motorists!

Cheers

[Cassis]

A lot of cars made for the continental market do not have the equivalent upthrow that UK market car headlamps have, so they do not dazzle when used in the UK.  Some others can be adjusted without having to stick bits of plastic on the lens.

The latter goes for many UK cars nowadays, as already stated here - so what is the point of les flics patrolling car parks?  Do they have a list of car models showing which should have deflectors? [blink]

[mike151]

i bought an aa headlamp pack in about 92 & have been using it ever since, ie cutting the covers out of sticky back plastic from examples from the pack.( my cars are that old) or shape them to the etch marks in the glass. ps the reason people dont use gb stickers is probably because there not proud to be british any more ! ( well, i'm not!)

[Brian]

Mike151,

Probably explains why I always fit GB number plates when I change my car!

Today on the way back from the tunnel we passed mile after mile of stationary lorries heading towards the channel ports on the other side of the M20, a large number of whom were French - I wonder if they were not proud to be French!

I prefer to use headlamp protectors (expensive but easily fitted as required)

Brian

[briwy]

Might be worth a call to Toyota Customer Services and asking them if there is a mask pattern available.

A few years ago I had a Saab and they supplied a template FOC.

Went ot Woolies and got a roll of black fablon and kept making them as and when needed. Dead cheap option.

Brian

[Sunday Driver]

A few years ago, I chose the option of collecting my new Merc from the factory in Stuttgart.  When they handed it over to me, I noticed the RHD leadlamps had been fitted with neat adhesive beam deflector panels in a natty matching metallic silver.  [8-|]

The following summer on the way down to Dover, I called into the Merc dealer in Maidstone to pick up some new ones.  They said they'd never heard of them, so I ended up using some bits of scruffy yellow insulating tape (the only colour I had)......... [:(]

 

 

[Truffleman]

Our Police could make a fortune if they checked the EU lorries from outside UK for incorrectly adjusted headlights. Coming back at night up the M20 from the Tunnel the traffic heading the other way is positively dazzling, also lorry right dipping lights behind in the rear view mirror are not to pleasant.

However if adjusting UK headlights by means of the thumbscrews to go from left dipping to right dipping (or vice versa) keep a record of the number of turns of the adjustment wheels if you want to avoid an MOT failure or paying the garage to re-adjust them.

Use black insulating tape instead of the expensive sticky patches.

[Sunday Driver]

[quote user="Truffleman"]

However if adjusting UK headlights by means of the thumbscrews.....

[/quote]

Sounds a bit draconian, even for the Kent Constabulary.......[:D]

 

[Alan Zoff]

I assume that mechanical movement of the whole lamp unit should only really apply to cars that have a dedicated dipped lamp, such as the Mazda Xedos which has a fixed "dipped" lamp and a separate main beam unit, each separately adjustable. Otherwise, the main beam will also be affected, causing reduced long distance visibility (as well as blinding pedestrians).

A leveller control fitted to the dashboard is merely to move the beam up and down to compensate for the effect of extra weight in the rear of the car (which would cause the beam to rise). It will not produce any deflection to the side which is what happens with a standard headlamp unit when the lights are dipped, due to the lens pattern.

[Pun]

Going back a few years now I purchased the headlight deflectors (that was the correct title) and after 8 hours driving on the french side of my trip i arrived at my last paybooth, the police pulled me over and said my lights needed looking at, the deflector on the left light was missing and the right hand one had slid down the lens and was no good, all due to the heat of the lamps causing the sticky backing to melt, (transit van lights(

I was let off by the police as france had just won the world cup,

After this I always used black masking tape and had no trouble. and france hasnt won the world cup since.(it's so long since england won i just dont have that kind of memory.)

[Pun]

I wonder why the powers to be put a stop to the yellow head lamps we use to see on car/vans etc years ago< they didnt dazzle you and seemed safer .

anyone any idea on this one?

[Bugsy]

[quote user="Truffleman"]

However if adjusting UK headlights by means of the thumbscrews to go from left dipping to right dipping (or vice versa) keep a record of the number of turns of the adjustment wheels if you want to avoid an MOT failure or paying the garage to re-adjust them.

[/quote]

I,m sorry to tell you this but it is not possible to adjust conventional headlights from left dip to right dip by means of the thumbscrews. The beam is dictated by the lens on the front of the headlight and UK lights always have the rising angle on the left of the glass. French car headlights have the rising angle on the right.

Certain new vehicles are switcheable but they have no lens risings and produce an entirely different beam pattern.