Driving in France & Plastic Headlights

Traceie_Lou

Hi
I wonder if anyone can give me some advise, I am driving in France in a few weeks time and was going to purchase some beam benders from Halfords to alter the beam on my headlights.

However I have heard that you can't put these on plastic headlights as they can damage them due to the heat. I have asked at Halfords and they said they have never heard of this I also rung Ford and they could not shed any light (basically told me to speak with Halfords).

Can anyone confirm that I would be ok to put beam benders on plastic headlights of a Ford Focus mk2 55 reg.

Thanks in advance.

iNath

I've used the exact same ones (Halfords) on my Ford Fiesta and the problem is with the adhesive. i.e. it won't come off! The plastic bits came off fine but now I have black smears where the adhesive was. In the instructions it suggests using neat washer fluid, think I'll give that a go...

C_Ronaldo

When i drove our 307 in france a few years ago we didnt put anything on the lights to divert the beam, i believe it depends on how old your car is and you have a 55 reg car which is over 2 years old so you should be ok

BenL

I bought the Halfords ones for my Astra H (2006)

In the end i didn't even bother using them.

Are you driving at night?

I was there for 2 weeks and was maybe out afterdark once from the campsite in the car - wine and champagne country!

For tunnels i needed to put my lights on but the tunnels we used were mainly dual carriageway ones with no oncoming traffic, if there was oncoming traffic I used my sidelights only.

The packets are sealed as well in Halfords so you cannot see if they will fit your car, I just ended up ripping one open in the store and my car was listed.

The headlights are plastic but there are no markers on them for where to install like there used to be on the older glass headlights.

logana

Just to agree with previous posters - beam deflectors are not really necessary on recent cars - the beam pattern is different and won't upset French drivers. I have driven thousands of miles in Europe at night and the only time I have upset other drivers is when the car is heavily laden and I have forgotten to adjust the headlamp aim down.

BillScarab

It might be worth seeing if you can adjust the lights instead. I've got an Octavia and it takes about 5 mins per lamp to adjust to continental setting by moving a little lever. Unfortunately you have to remove the light to do this but it's a quick job.

The age of the car doesn't make any difference the lights on UK spec cars have a different beam pattern as we drive on the left. The only advantage of a newer car is there may be a way of adjusting the beam.

One other option is to get the clip on protectors designed to stop stone chips and then fit the beaqm adjusters to them. If you go abroad a lot it makes it worthwhile as you won't have to keep buying beam adapters.

While modern beam patterns may not affect other drivers isn't it possible to be fined for not having them adjusted if you get stopped?

bunking_off

BillScarab's correct as far as I'm aware. I can't see how a car which had flat beams would be legal in the UK as I thought it was a requirement to illuminate the kerbside. If you want to test it, turn your lights on facing a wall after dark...if the beam isn't totally flat you'll be illegal in Europe. Questionnable whether you'd be caught, but illegal.

Only difference with modern cars is that with clear lenses the beam adaptors are no good as you've no guide where to put them on the lens, so there's generally some lever you need to pull under the bonnet to level the beam. I've heard that on some BMW's it's a dealer job, but on my Jag it's just a very inconvenient lever (guaranteed to take skin off fingers getting to it).

The protectors approach is a good idea....has the benefit that if you're going to be going overseas again, you can re-use them rather than having to buy fresh deflectors. As it happens, on an older car that I had with clear lenses, the manufacturer's solution was to provide lens protectors that had paint over the bits that would annoy oncoming traffic when driving on left. Only problem is they do tend to snap after a while.

C_Ronaldo

Like i said i drove our 307 in france a few years ago and we never did anything to change the headlights but then we drove mainly during the day but we had driven with lights on and the other drivers werent bothered,