Superb Estate foreign travel bulb kit

[freddyuk]

I am off to France next month and will require a replacement bulb kit to comply with their regs. Is there a source to get these? I know there are various different bulbs in different variants so buying individually would be a bit of a pain.

Cheers

[ApertureS]

If you were looking to buy one actually made for your car you’d be looking at nearly £100 with the correct bulbs including xenon.

 

if I was you I’d just get the cheapest kit you can as the chances of a bulb failure, you having the tools to change it and having the correct bulb is slim to none 

[Patent]

What @ApertureS said.

 

Buy any old cheap set from Halfords, in the event you have a lamp blow, just go to the local French equivalent and pick up the lamp you need

Edited 17 August, 2022 by Patent

[26DIPP]

What do you do if you an all LED or Matrix setup?

[Patent]

The law is that you can be fined €80 if you have a lamp out and no spare on board. So you'd have to have a bad day for a unit to fail, an officer to pull you for it and for them not to understand that it's not possible to carry a spare!

 

I've stopped carrying the extra bits with the exception of the Hi Vis vests, but that's not official travel advice

[Penpusher]

On 17/08/2022 at 20:54, Patent said:

The law is that you can be fined €80 if you have a lamp out and no spare on board. So you'd have to have a bad day for a unit to fail, an officer to pull you for it and for them not to understand that it's not possible to carry a spare!

 

I've stopped carrying the extra bits with the exception of the Hi Vis vests, but that's not official travel advice

I'm the same.  In June, I drove through France from Calais to Belgium and on the return trip I drove from Italy and up through France and back to Belgium.  This month, drove from Calais to Belgium and then back via the same route.  In total, I spent 6 nights in French hotels.  I've never been stopped or checked to see if I have spare bulbs or Hi Vis vests, though like Patent I always carry the latter.

 

Maybe if you commit another offence, ie speeding, then they'll check these items?  I always take my time, stay within limits and try to avoid any reason for being being stopped.

[edbostan]

I have a Roomster and been to France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands and never saw a police car. I bought a cheap Lidl general bulb kit in case I was stopped but never have been in 8 trips. Remember the breathyliser kits for France. Our French friends laughed when we told them they were mandatory. The law was proposed but never passed into law. In Germany they require you to carry a spare pair of driving glasses. I only found that out on our return.

[freddyuk]

I was going to suggest just carrying my old Mitsi L200 bulb kit as it was never used and how would they know which bulb fitted where! It looks the part. You have all confirmed my thinking that it is not practical to have a kit and if a headlight bulb goes how an I going to change it. Wife pressure means I have to make the effort to investigate options.

Thanks all.

 

[Patent]

The one you already have is the best one in that case! 

 

[Danoid]

You could get a really cheap d3s bulb from Amazon or ebay. I doubt they’re that arsey in the hopefully unlikely event but at least you’ll have it.

 

something like this

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403816868255?hash=item5e055c699f:g:-mkAAOSw-~Vi7Nji&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoJnQjwxAZRjWa7o0Dda8XYXfzGw9JWqde%2F%2BcwyzATHt8gn%2F2U80xfZ58jrm18YsrhulJENtT%2FL5Olr2gWV%2FlY5ykO7DTy6HWaxfLSCYqsihIMr2GeeF5PO4ETqrweXU3MpUgVgbtyD%2B9Yg2nzDPpC4Z9FIcnhpBwCIk6FPzNkJnXv%2FH3aEGUwF1YkO8Ea5xPEZ80lGU2OIeKiQMB7pPMGS4%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8aQvfLWYA

 

[Gax]

As per others, I've never bothered with any of the supposed requirements, just the stuff I want to use (i.e. high viz and triangle).

 

The breathalyser (when I did used to think they were required) and the light kit, I never have bothered, because I figure if asked then the police could never prove me wrong if I said "As it happens I used both this morning officer, just on my way to Carrefour now to buy new ones".

 

I actually got pulled for a violation four years ago in France, having got sick of waiting at a busy in-town junction I blasted out into the path of traffic. A Gendamerie instantly appeared out of nowhere on a motorbike. Gulp! My first thought was here's a fine coming up, instead he appeared to clock we were English, his English was very poor, so I just got a 10 second 'educational' message that in France this is not legal (yeah, it isn't in England mate) and then waved on our way.

 

No checking of anything in the car.

 

I have also been done for speeding in Poland (I'm not proud of these things by the way) and had to pay a cash fine to the officer. He did check my passport (he had a Russian in his car who he had arrested for not carrying his paasport) but again he had zero interest in checking the contents of my vehicle.

 

I'm not saying they never would check, but you'd have to p!ss them off with some attitude to have them start probing about. They're too busy in reality.

 

I'm currently 500 miles into France and got no spare bulbs etc, and one week into being in France and covering a good 1000 miles since Calais I have seen one Gendamerie and one traffic cop (virtually asleep at a service station). 

 

In that time I must have seen 50 British cars who don't have either GB on their licence plate, not a UK or GB badge slapped on the boot (which funnily enough, as a visible item I do have one f these). Not seen one person pulled over.

 

In that time I've also sat on a minibus on a daytrip that consistently drove at 70kph through 50kph village limits, and easily 60kph through 30kph limits. Just to put things in perspective, what British people do or don't have in their cars pales into significance in comparising to everything else happening throughout the country all day!

 

I honestly wouldn't waste your money on anything, nor spend and furthet timr worrying about any of this, as the cops aren't! Show this to the missus if she isn't convinced.

 

As with most of Europe, times are tight, outside of the major cities you simply don't see police driving around anywhere, there aren't enough to do so.

Edited 21 August, 2022 by Gax

[J.R.]

All spot on, 17 years in France a couple of hundred thousand miles and never been pulled over aside from when I have done something equally deserved as GAX.

 

You simply do not see patrol cars except for dodgy places like my old town with lots of social problems where they do cruise around, they certainly are not out looking for GB plates or the lack of any of the things that the professional worriers carry in their vehicle.

 

99% of speeding tickets are sent by post including to the UK, it's dangerous to pull a car over, when they do spot checks with the binoculars they set up a whole area further on to pull the cars over into a safe area (they used my hôtel car park with my blessing), on the autoroutes there are dedicated exits to Centre d'entretien Gendarmerie et Police where you may be escorted off to have your car siezed or to withdraw loadsamoney from their own cashpoint if you are lucky.

 

I have never driven at night and seen more than 6 or 8 cars without one having at least one non functioning light, often there are no rear lights at all. Indicators are considered optional as is dipping the headlights when there is oncoming traffic!

Edited 21 August, 2022 by J.R.

[ApertureS]

A little tip for you - I used to work at a well known retail chain of automotive stuff (and pedal bikes)... mentioning no names.

 

From day 1 i was taught - you need to sell people going to EU a long list of things including bulbs, breathalyzers, high viz jackets, fire extinguisher.

 

I subsequently got called in to the office as I was telling people that carrying bulbs is all well and good, but did they have any idea how to change them, most said no, so i said no point. 

I done my own research and breath tests arent even a requirement, it was more a scare tactic.

And the only one i recommend is a high viz jacket and thats useful no matter what country you are in. Just keep it in the back of your seat or glovebox, its no use if youre hunting for it in the boot and get chopped in half by a rear ender.... 

[Patent]

I've come here to tell you all the superb has a special cut-out in the driver's door pocket, specifically designed to accept a hi Vis vest without impeding the use of the remaining pocket.

It's also the exact size to conceal a wallet you thought you'd lost

[ApertureS]

On 21/08/2022 at 19:28, Patent said:

I've come here to tell you all the superb has a special cut-out in the driver's door pocket, specifically designed to accept a hi Vis vest without impeding the use of the remaining pocket.

It's also the exact size to conceal a wallet you thought you'd lost

Ah, so I’m not the only one that lost stuff back there in that hidden extra bit… it was sunglasses for me! Took a few weeks 

[Penpusher]

I always carry a spare pair of driving glasses whatever country I'm in.  As SWMBO doesn't drive, if I lost or broke my glasses when we're out it would be a major problem that can easily be avoided with a spare pair always in the car.

 

I also carry hi viz vests as well as they could be needed at any time from getting a puncture to being first on the scene of an accident.

 

Like others commenting above, I saw very few police on my two recent trips in Europe.  The country where I saw most with speed guns was in Poland.  I've only been stopped twice in over 50 years of driving in Europe.  The first was hardly a stop as I'd parked incorrectly in  village in Romania in 1975.  I think I was too near a junction or a fire hydrant and they issued a ticket and I had to pay the equivalent of £1.66.  The only other time I was stopped was in Poland in 2014 near the Lithuanian border early on a Sunday morning.  The road was very quiet and he just stopped me to check my documents.  I got out to take a file from the back seat and he started talking to SWMBO, who's Russian, and he spoke Russian too.  After chatting with her for a few minutes, he waved us on our way and didn't bother to check anything.

[Gax]

Weirdest stop for me was on the German side of the Polish/German border.

 

Having entered Germany from Poland. I passed what I thought was a police van, and spotted the driver looking at cars through binoculars. About two minutes later, the same van appears in my mirrors lights and siren blazing and pulls me. States he is just doing a random check, looks quite carefully into the boot, inspects all of my paperwork. All is well, and sends me on my way.

 

The weird part is it was a customs officer, the van clearly had 'Customs' (or German spelling of) on the side. So, it wasn't even police. It is within the Shengen area, which is why to this day I remain baffled at a customs officer stopping cars. I didn't think there were any customs powers on Shengen land borders.

 

I've also been stopped in a blatant trap/sting entering Croatia once, border guard trying his best to hoodwink me into bribing him!

 

I, of course, pretended not to know what he was hinting at, so he sent me on my way. All this while he was stood next to a poster advising bribery is punishable with a prison term.

 

And Poland....yep, easily a country with the most bored police ever. Jesus, I've driven for an hour in remote wilderness and not seen one other car, but will round a corner and see police with their silly little radars ready to point at you, having clearly heard your engine for five minutes before you reached them. This is why so many Polish have huge CB aerials on their cars, to communicate police locations to each other.