Xenon Headlight adjustment

[ScouseIan]

Regarding headlight adjustment when driving in France, etc.

My car is a VW Phaeton with twin xenon headlights option. When I press SETUP on the dash, Other Functions, Maintenance and Service I have a Headlight option which says 'Opens the mechanical opening for headlight adjustment).

I can't find any reference to this in the manual so I don't know if its for adjusting for continental driving or for headlight realignment. If its available to me it must be a user serviceable item. If I phone VW as I have before they know as much about it as me.

These headlight units I think should be the same as on a Touareg and maybe Audi A8's.

Does anybody know what its purpose is?

Thanks

Ian

 

[Jaydug]

Maybe this is of no help to you at all but on my Citroen C5 the HID lights don't need any adjustment for continental driving, neither do they need masks on the beams. The only option on the central display is to turn off the auto-switching of on/off and also the turning of the beams in line with the steering.

 

[ScouseIan]

Sorry John, been away

How do you know they don't need adjustment on your C5? What does the manual say?

The turning of the beams in the Phaeton only appears to work in high beam mode.

 

[Jaydug]

Quote-"How do you know they don't need adjustment on your C5"-Quote

Because I have a letter from CitroenUK's techie department telling me so. I always carry it with me when I go abroad in case of meeting a stroppy gendarme who thinks I might be dazzling on-coming drivers. As far as I know, my turning beams only work on dipped. But then I don't often use the mains.

 

[Glenn_5132962]

Type approval laws mean that any car with factory fitted HID lights must also be fitted with an automatic beam levelling system as well as headlight wash so as to prevent dazzling other road users. The beam pattern also means that adjustment is not required for continental driving.

 

[JTQ]

Three years ago when looking into buying a Toureg was an option, we investigated this.

VW UK said the whole zenon units needed changing for Continental use. Major design **** up in my book in a quality vehicle likely to be taken abroad regularly.

The supplying dealer undertook to hold a Continental set for me and change FOC both in and out for each visit to the Continent. Changing is not a practical DIY job and the purchase cost was something awful like

 

[xtrailman]

Glenn

Thanks interesting, thank you.

I have the xenon lights on the xtrail. i knew the head lights were self levelling, but not the part about continental use.

I didn't really want them but it comes with the sat nav, also that would explain the head light washers, now i must remember to switch them on.

To be honest i find the cruise control, the auto lights, and the auto wipers a waste of time.

I would of been much happier with a proper spare wheel, and side rubber protectors.

 

[Lutz]

I spoke to the product design engineer responsible for exterior lighting for all Opel/Vauxhall/Saab models and he confirmed the information that JTQ got from VW, i.e. that the only proper solution is to fit LHD headlamp units. However, he did admit that this was not a viable alternative for most people and dealers have therefore been given details of how to 'tweak' the xenon units to make them suitable for Continental use. He said that this was not a job for the uninitiated, though.

 

[ScouseIan]

Sorry been away again.

Thanks to all responses. Clear as mud. Seems another con to me.

I cannot believe that a manufacturer can sell a car in the UK that can't be legally taken to France without having headlamp units changed. Of course once you change the headlamp units here it then becomes illegal to drive in the UK because you would be dazzling UK drivers.

The strips that we use on our traditional headlights was used to block the beam as it comes back off the reflector. Xenons don't work this way so it seems to me that maybe the beam scatter pattern is different now. But this is pure guesswork isn't it.

Maybe PC magazine could look into this issue for us?

Ian R

 

[Lutz]

Compared to the volume of vehicles sold worldwide, the numbers that actually get involved in crossing borders between left and right hand drive is miniscule and it would be unreasonable to expect the car manufacturers to come up with an expensive technical solution. The easiest solution is not to buy a car with xenon headlamps if you know that you are going to be travelling back and forth a lot. Perhaps someone can persuade the UK government to change the law to allow vertically dipped headlights that are suitable for both left and right hand drive, instead of the curent assymetric dipped beam pattern.

 

[ScouseIan]

Lutz

I disagree that it is 'miniscule'. Some cars are now only available with Xenons in UK. If they were sold with a note saying 'you may be illegal driving this vehicle in france (etc) without amendments to your lights' then I am sure many people would not buy it.

Do the black headlamp strips still work with Xenons? I seem to recall that the strip goes on the opposite side to that you would expect in order to block the beam. That is, to stop the beam going over to the left, the strip goes to the left of the headlight bulb (when viewed from the front). My memory is a little hazy here so feel free to correct me.

Reagrds

Ian

 

[Lutz]

No, xenon lights run very hot and any blanking off the lens can create hot spots that can cause damage to the units. Besides, they create some degree of scatter of the light beam which, in the case of the powerful xenon beam, can actually make the dazzle even worse than without the black strips.

Of course, the numbers are miniscule compared to the total volume. Even if several thousand cars are involved, that doesn't make it worthwhile developing a solution that would put a cost penalty on every car leaving the production line, whether the owner ever makes use of the feature or not.

 

[Bryan_374360331]

Has anyone ever seen a Continental car with beam deflectors in Britain?

 

[Lutz]

Continental cars don't need beam deflectors because their headlamps dip vertically down, not asymmetrically to one side. Setting the adjustment to the lowest possible beam is sufficient.

 

[ChrisUK]

I have just driven my X trail at night with xenon headlights and they do dip flat so should be OK abroad. (Very impressive light output) I agree with Ray, I would rather have had a proper spare. Stupid when the temporary spare is as big as the normal alloy - I carefully measured it today. Im now trying to buy a spare that is usable.

Whats French for "they are xenon headlights officer so I don't need to cary a spare bulb" The Nissan dealer says he has never heard of one going, and they cost about

 

[MikeA]

Interestingly, the owners manual for our Volvo XC90, under the heading

- Correct light pattern for right or left-handed traffic.-

carries on to advise -

"So as not to dazzle oncoming drivers, the

headlamp beam pattern can be altered by

masking the headlamps. The quality of the

beam pattern may not be as good."

It then goes on to provide detailed templates for you to make your own masks for Halogen headlight models and then also the Xenon headlamp models. I used the templates last year to cut down sticky "deflector" masks that I bought in Halfords to the shape specified by Volvo and applied them to our Xenon headlamps at Dover. Worked no problem at all. No sign of any overheating problem that I ever detected.

Cheers

Mike A

 

[Lutz]

Obviously, if the car manufacturer has made recommendations what to do when xenon headlamps are fitted, then these are to be followed. But do not automatically assume that solutions offered for halogen headlamps also apply to xenon ones.

 

[KnL]

Obviously, if the car manufacturer has made recommendations what to do when xenon headlamps are fitted, then these are to be followed. But do not automatically assume that solutions offered for halogen headlamps also apply to xenon ones.

Scouse Ian,

Our Touareg has got the same biXenon, self levelling and adaptive lights as your Phaeton, but the onboard menu doesn't have the function that you mention, so can't help in that respect.

I got this sorted last year by purchasing a set of very discreet VW headlight protectors, which come supplied with odd shaped, self adhesive black masks.

The protectors have etchings on them which show exactly where to position the masks and they are easily peeled off on return to UK.

The protectors themselves sit clear of the headlight lenses thus there is none of the heat build up commonly associated with Xenons.

The protectors are so discreet that I have left them on permanently, with the added bonus that they afford better protection from stone damage (I can only imagine the cost of replacement of a headlight unit).

It's worth checking with VW to see if they do protectors for the Phaeton.

Hope you get sorted soon.

 

[KnL]

Oops....wrong button again !

Scouse Ian,

Our Touareg has got the same biXenon, self levelling and adaptive lights as your Phaeton, but the onboard menu doesn't have the function that you mention, so can't help in that respect.

I got this sorted last year by purchasing a set of very discreet VW headlight protectors, which come supplied with odd shaped, self adhesive black masks.

The protectors have etchings on them which show exactly where to position the masks and they are easily peeled off on return to UK.

The protectors themselves sit clear of the headlight lenses thus there is none of the heat build up commonly associated with Xenons.

The protectors are so discreet that I have left them on permanently, with the added bonus that they afford better protection from stone damage (I can only imagine the cost of replacement of a headlight unit).

It's worth checking with VW to see if they do protectors for the Phaeton.

Hope you get sorted soon.

 

[ScouseIan]

Thanks Ken

I'm not so bothered about this really. I'm just amazed by the fact that nobody, VW included, knows what to do here. VW today suggested a visit to the garage to have it switched over. Thats madness.

Ian

 

[Dobbie]

My 5 Series BMW has xenon adaptive headlights, each headlight unit has a pop off cover with a lever inside that switches the headlight from RHD to LHD and vice versa.

It physically re alignes the headlamp unit to a pre determined position.

Steve

 

[AdifferentJim]

My Volvo V70 also has a switch on each lamp to change over.

Perhaps the Swedes are thinking of changing back to driving on the left.