Anyone got some LHD headlights for Sale (for a good price!) for a 2005 Superb? ~I know I can flat-beam my RHD lights, but I want to register the car in France, and don't think I will get away with it for the Control Technique....

Anyone got some LHD headlights for Sale (for a good price!) for a 2005 Superb? ~I know I can flat-beam my RHD lights, but I want to register the car in France, and don't think I will get away with it for the Control Technique....

If you are any good with DIY, those Bosch units disassemble without too much hassle I think, and once the projector is in half (basically the front and the rear halves separate out - they are only held together with some clips - but you need to get to them first), the beam plate easily swaps around for LHD, then you re-assemble and that's it. And it's free. There is info on this forum somewhere on how to remove the headlights - 5 minute job, but bumper off first required. Also a 5 minute job.

If you are any good with DIY, those Bosch units disassemble without too much hassle I think, and once the projector is in half (basically the front and the rear halves separate out - they are only held together with some clips - but you need to get to them first), the beam plate easily swaps around for LHD, then you re-assemble and that's it. And it's free. There is info on this forum somewhere on how to remove the headlights - 5 minute job, but bumper off first required. Also a 5 minute job.

Great news! Thanks for that, oh_superb - I saw the bumper off thing, but didn't realise that you could change the lights completely to L/H - thought it just flat beamed them. Cheers

Great news! Thanks for that, oh_superb - I saw the bumper off thing, but didn't realise that you could change the lights completely to L/H - thought it just flat beamed them. Cheers

Sorry, just to clarify, the above is the case if you have halogen headlights. Forgot to say of you have Bixenon it's not as simple as that. In that case you will need new headlights I'm afraid, as the Bosch shutter is more complex than what is used in Valeo units, where the shutter also easily swaps around for LHD.

Sorry, just to clarify, the above is the case if you have halogen headlights. Forgot to say of you have Bixenon it's not as simple as that. In that case you will need new headlights I'm afraid, as the Bosch shutter is more complex than what is used in Valeo units, where the shutter also easily swaps around for LHD.

I think I only have halogens - its a classic model... not sure if they are Valeo tho...

The supplier of the headlamps for the Mk I Superb is (unfortunately) Hella not Bosch.

I have on occasions used the "tourist levers" to convert the LH kick up to vertical dip which is OK for a business trip. I would have thought that with a little ingenuity the headlamp optic unit could be dismantled and the wedge shaped shutter turned over to give a RH kick up for European use. The shutter profile determines the beam shape.

Given the price of new lamps, I'd have a darned good go at it - a bean tin and some snips would probably do for a new one. (+ black paint if you're fussy).

rotodiesel.

The supplier of the headlamps for the Mk I Superb is (unfortunately) Hella not Bosch.

I have on occasions used the "tourist levers" to convert the LH kick up to vertical dip which is OK for a business trip. I would have thought that with a little ingenuity the headlamp optic unit could be dismantled and the wedge shaped shutter turned over to give a RH kick up for European use. The shutter profile determines the beam shape.

Given the price of new lamps, I'd have a darned good go at it - a bean tin and some snips would probably do for a new one. (+ black paint if you're fussy).

rotodiesel.

There were some LHD lights for sale on leboncoin.fr but they have hazy lenses.. not sure if I want to risk puchasing them with polishing in mind - I've only got a couple of days down there before I need to fly back...

£500 for new lights vs 30p for a tin of beans? .... hmmmmm let me think.... Beans it is!

~I'll get creative with the snips when I'm in Le Blanc though - its warmer than York! I should be there before nightfall - If I'm lucky.

What about french scrap yards? Or are they expensive over there??

Or french ebay?

What about french scrap yards? Or are they expensive over there??

Or french ebay?

Everything is expensive in France with regard to motoring - for the money that I paid for my superb, you cant get much over there that isn't full of dents with bucket loads of km's on - the french don't seem to replace their cars as often as we do - hence you still see renault 16's 21's, 25's etc on the road - and for sale for ridiculous money.

I was looking at a belingo on a 2004 plate with 185000kms and it was up for 6000 euros!!! (that wasn't a one-off either)

TBH it is the reason that I'm taking the superb to france. saved myself 5500 Euro. - OK its RHD, but I don't care too much for that kind of saving.

It seems that cars are cheaper in France on the South coast, or near Paris - but they still have lots of dents!!! - which might mean the scrapyard thing is worth the effort.

Ebay.fr doesn't appear to be as developed as the UK version - they prefer to go with 'small adds' - classifieds

There was a few listed for 2008+ vehicles, but very little of anything really...

The supplier of the headlamps for the Mk I Superb is (unfortunately) Hella not Bosch.

I have on occasions used the "tourist levers" to convert the LH kick up to vertical dip which is OK for a business trip. I would have thought that with a little ingenuity the headlamp optic unit could be dismantled and the wedge shaped shutter turned over to give a RH kick up for European use. The shutter profile determines the beam shape.

Given the price of new lamps, I'd have a darned good go at it - a bean tin and some snips would probably do for a new one. (+ black paint if you're fussy).

rotodiesel.

Yes, on my Primera Sport I have Valeo xenons, and the design is pure genius. The shutter revolves around for a full and proper LHD conversion, exact mirror image of UK beam, a bit fiddly, just requires rear cover plate to come off, 10 minute job.

Edited 1 December, 201114 yr by oh_superb

Well, I've just had a delightful two hours fighting with headlamps.

Changing them to flat beam is easy.. just operate the little levers on them - you can't miss them.

Changing them to LHD from RHD is not so easy. There is a fixed shield that goes halfway across the lamp area; it has a 3mm cutout area, and then it has an adjustable shield that sits over the top - with an inverted 'V' shape in it.

In RHD mode, it leaves the 3mm cutout exposed, revealing the kick-up at the end of the light. when you operate 'tourist mode' the adjustable shield covers this cut-out.

Ideally VAG should have put a cutout in both sides of the fixed shield, so that operating 'flat beam' would reveal another cut-out to make the lamp LHD, but... they didn't. Its very hard to get into the lamp unit without breaking it - you cant just unscrew the projector lamp part - (T20 screws) because the projector lens (and the small hole for the bulb) stops the projector unit being retracted. I think that the lamp was assembled first, then the front glass was bonded in last.

If you had a steady hand and a dremel tool with a flexi head, you might be able to nibble away at the fixed shield until it matched the RH side, but unfortunately I didn't have mine with me. - you can use the adjustable shield as a template by reaching through the headlight bulb hole and scratching with a scriber - you would only need to remove 2.5-3mm barely anything, but it would need to be nicely filed or the beam would look scruffy, and probably fail testing anyway.

A small file (and a lot of patience) would possible work - the metal is very thin.

I gave up. I'm gonna see if I can get through the French CT test with Tourist mode set - after all, I got a Honda through with beam stickers on!

I've done a cad sketch of the required modification if anyone wants it, but cant work out how to upload it to the Briskoda.net server.

Can anyone help with this????

Basicall poor design.

On my Primera (Valeo Xenons, dipped only, no bixenon) the beam cut off plate revolves around 180 degrees, so instead of a flat beam for tourist mode, it actually converts into a proper LHD headlight.

Maybe they have a patent on it or something, cos I have not seen Hella or Bosch do this, and its incredibly clever as well as improving safety when driving in conti Europe.

Just a quick update to this - If it helps anyone

"I'm gonna see if I can get through the French CT test with Tourist mode set"

The answer was Yes - it passed the French CT test with Flat beams!

Happy Days!

Quite sensible result. Flat beam is as good as shaped beam in real life driving. Reason? Deer, people and falling tree branches do not realize that they should always enter the road from the better illuminated side

I set non-flat beam only for UK MOT as I travel often to/from Continental Europe, and set the lights back to flat beam afterwards. I might be temped to try flat beam one day as UK MOT has provisions for it, though not sure if they allow E marked headlamps with flat beam.

Anyway, one thing that flat beam setting does show is how poor those Hellas are in light output. Excellent beam control, but not much beam to speak of. Fortunately, HID conversion is very easy and gives excellent results, thanks to large lenses even 75W HID is not excessive when used with flat beam. Razor sharp cutoff and even light distribution.

High beams are another story, small reflector and H3 means they are very, very poor, just like fog lights are poor due to their high location. No HID upgrade will improve range there, just blast the road with light, you need either to overvoltage the bulbs or install auxilliaries (or both :sun: ). Fogs can really only be improved by installing auxiliaries in lower grille.