Hello all,

 

Has anyone tried adjusting the Fabia III's headlights from right-hand-drive to left-hand-drive? In the manual it says it can be done, but should be done by a qualified mechanic... I'm a bit loathe to stick Eurolites or whatever on my precious new headlights - there are what appear to be adjustment screw drives in the headlight unit, but does anyone know how they are supposed to function?

 

Cheers,

 

FL

If your car has projector dipped beam headlights, there should be a movable shutter that flattens the beam, ie cuts off the section that points towards "our" kerbside. There should be no need to alter the basic alignment of the headlight assembly. 

 

I feel your pain, I bought a new VW Passat back in 2000 then planned a trip to France, car had projector beams as it had HID, I asked VW dealer about this "we don't have any information on this", I asked the AA "contact your local dealer", I contacted VW UK "contact your local dealer" I replied, I have and they do not know, "we will send them information today" - that information was never received by my dealer. So, I just ended up using black banking material from a Lucas kit.  BTW, it turned out that that car did have shutters that could be moved.

Shutters? What shutters? Where do I find them, how to adjust them.. no mention of shutters in any handbooks, and can't see any shutters that look like shutters that are begging me to adjust them..!?

Interested because my Fabia will be going to Europe kinda soon..

The shutters were not too obvious on my old Passat, I had to remove the cover for dip beam bulb access, and look in and find a lever, then either move it up or down, it will currently be at one extreme, ie the correct one for UK.  For what it is worth, if you do find these levers on both head lights, remember to record which position each one was in before you alter them as I seem to remember that the shutter moves in a different way for each side. Good luck!

The question has been put here before. Someone told that the UK cars have symmetrical dipped headlights not needing any adjustments for continental driving.

I have no idea about the truth of this assertion, continental have asymmetrical headlights needing some modification for left-hand driving, according to the manual, and done by a shop.

I'll have a look under the rubber cover and see if there is a switch. To be honest with the long summer evenings I haven't even noticed where the beam is going, so can't confirm if it's symmetric - don't think UK law allows for that anyway to be honest, they should go towards the kerb.

 

The other option (which I had on the Mk 1) are a set of headlight protectors - Skoda did some (made, bizarrely, in Australia) with the blacked-out bit ready for driving abroad. I wonder if anyone's done protectors for the Mk3 yet? Hmm.

Wife's new Polo 1.2TSI 110PS SEL has a setting option in the lights section, something like  "LH driving/RH driving"  I have not noticed any chat about that in the owner's manual, that car has LED headlights though.

 

If you need to travel and have not resolved this issue, then as suggested buy a blanking kit and add enough material to remove the section aiming towards the kerb - and a bit more to be safe. I think that I went on to create a template using card and kept that just in case I needed to take that car (B5 Passat) abroad again.

Edited 18 August, 201510 yr by rum4mo