I?m about to take a few driving holidays to France and Holland and wondered if it?s still worth applying headlight adjusters?
What are the chances of getting stopped if I just use the load adjuster and set it to the lowest position?
It seems a bit uneconomical to have to apply fresh adjusters to the headlights every time I cross the channel.
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I?m about to take a few driving holidays to France and Holland and wondered if it?s still worth applying headlight adjusters?
I think that it's probably worth it for the poor souls in the oncoming cars.
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If you set your headlights to the lowest position you just don't get the necessary illumination of the nearside edge of the road, especially when you're facing oncoming traffic. This is a safety issue and you really should get the deflectors.
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Yes, get them. And remember that the lights aren't as good with them as without.
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I agree with all of the above but I can't say I have ever seen a foreign registered car in UK with beam deflectors or bits of black tape fitted!
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I agree with all of the above but I can't say I have ever seen a foreign registered car in UK with beam deflectors or bits of black tape fitted!
UK cars dip to the left; I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that European cars dip downward rather than dip to the right.
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Moodygit, I used to drive LHD cars on the continent and, at the time, the beam was certainly flat at the centre and 'up' at the right to provide a view of the curb/verge.
Rudedog. Depending on the age of your your car you may or may not be able to see where to stick the masking tape. I have a 307 with completely clear and unpatterned headlight lenses. I bought the polycarbonate lens protectors and they came with some cut to size tape and the corners of where they should be stuck, etched onto the protector.
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To save time and money I was thinking of sticking the adjusters to a set of lens protectors that are made for my car, then I can 'use & remove' them easily, is this OK?
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RD, can´t you just use gaffer/insulation tape cut to fit the area on the headlight that needs to be blacked out? Got to be cheaper.
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If you black out an area of the headlight, you lose the light from that area. Far better to use deflectors - although they're not 100% efficient and are more expensive than a bit of tape, they will get some light where you need it - on the nearside kerb/verge. Having done both I'd definitely use deflectors again.
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Deflectors may be a good idea but the ones I have seen look fairly thick/inflexible and might be hard to fit to today's highly curved lights plus, where the external lens is completely clear and has no external markings, how does one know where to place the deflectors to achieve the correct effect?
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How much are the deflectors? I'm going to driving in Europe several times in the next few months (day trips and longer holidays) and I guess I'd have to take them off in the UK and then put a new set on each time I travelled.
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£5 or £6 and they are sold in the AA and RAC shops at ports of emmbarkation and usually in the on board shops on the ferries. They claim to be re-useable SFAIK.
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I bought deflectors on the ferry a few weeks ago same as I have done many times before and I kid you not as soon as I reached about 60mph they blew off. I think the glues had perished, I checked the surrounding part of the stencil, the unused part and it wasn?t very sticky.
I haven?t replaced them, just lowered the lamps to the lowest setting and haven?t been stopped or flashed yet. I don?t think I?ll bother now.
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I might be wrong but I recall that in some cars with the projector-type headlights, it was possible to simply move a lever to adjust the beams to a more continental direction.
BIG
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I might be wrong but I recall that in some cars with the projector-type headlights, it was possible to simply move a lever to adjust the beams to a more continental direction.
A sensible assumption, but unbelievably on my Audi A4 it doesn't seem to be possible without major re-allignment.
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Just standard bulbs on my car (although I have uprated them - Philips Vision Plus).
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Whar car have you got Rudedog, some cars have the option to switch sides. Regards Peter
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Mk4 Golf TDI soon to be Mk5 Golf GT TDI.
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