Headlight Deflectors

[Busman]

Last year bought headlight deflectors for travelling in France from Halfrauds which came with a magnetic GB plate ,followed instuctions and stuck them on at the right place. When i returned home i peeled them off and was left with sticky residue which took an age to clean off ,i cannot reuse them because there is no stickyness in them. So are these meant to be one off fitting ? and is there a much better kit to buy than these? thanks for any info

[Thicko]

I bought those from Halfords too but I took them back because they were so useless and expensive. I got the templates from the dealers and we made deflectors out of sticky back plastic which we keep re-using. I am not convinced that they are very good at doing the job they're supposed to however I think it's always worth making some sort of an effort for if you are ever stopped by the police.

[Jim52V6]

I bought some from Halfords that were a one size fits all affair.

They were called Eurolites and are recommended by RAC and the AA. These were were a single use also and difficult to remove after.

 

Personally I would not recommend them as the were impossible to place accurately. It took me and a mate the entire time on the tunnel crossing to France to put them on and I still got flashed a few times.

 

He used Duck tape on his Galaxy whilst shinning his headlights at a wall at this worked just as well. Wouldn't recommend using a knife like he did as he managed to scratch his lenses quite badly

 

I haven't seen any that were reusable.

[Sher]

I normally use Aluminium sticky foil which is usually on offer 2 or 3 times per year at Lidl or Aldi. It has multiple other uses as well.

 

I remove it using a wooden cooking spatula and remove the residual gunk with a bit of white spirit on paper towel and finish with alcohol/ surgical spirit .

 

The coloured meths has components which I am not happy with as regards to paintwork.

 

The alcohol is available in French supermarkets off the shelf.

 

I used to use ordinary insulation tape but the heat made it fall off too quickly. Its good for 2 weeks or so.

 

Since I am on the Continent for some months I changed to the foil which has the advantage of relecting more and not absorbing the energy from the bulbs.

[mikeohope]

I reckon its always worth using a proper converter.

 

If for nothing else if you are unfortunate enough to have a bump, you will probably find the insurance companies looking for any excuse not to pay up and not having proper headlight converters would be a prime example.

 

For the sake of what they cost i.e. less than

[insider]

Here are the templates...

 

Galaxy_headlamp_conversion.pdf

[snewland]

i agree it is worth using the proper deflectors or you can lose part road vision.

[insider]

Perhaps a little late but I've just seen this on ebay:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=120160738574

 

It says they're available for all Galaxies.

[seatkid]

I once tried some "beambenders", but found that lots of car drivers abroad still flashed me! In any case, one of them flew off halfway through my holiday and at ~ Edited September 11, 2007 by seatkid

[insider]

Would you mind sharing this information for the benefit of other Mk1 owners?

[seatkid]

Just look for the clearly defined areas as per photos below - these are the bits that throw light to the left - cover up with sticky backed tape making sure to clean the surfaces first to ensure good adhesion.

[raymac]

Perhaps a little late but I've just seen this on ebay:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=120160738574

 

It says they're available for all Galaxies.

 

 

Bought some of these of ebay and although i have no need to try them they are well worth the money,will use them for france next year ;)

[big_kev]

Just a question on this...

 

If left hand drive vehicles come over here do they have to have them fitted ?

 

I am sure I read somewhere they don't ?

[insider]

Just a question on this...

 

If left hand drive vehicles come over here do they have to have them fitted ?

 

I am sure I read somewhere they don't ?

 

Looks like you're right - http://www.dadrl.org.uk/lawhiwaycode.html. ("Strangely, there is NO REQUIREMENT for continental left hand drive vehicles to have beam converters on UK roads.")

[Tram]

QUOTE(big_kev @ Oct 12 2007, 19:53:48) *

Just a question on this...

 

If left hand drive vehicles come over here do they have to have them fitted ?

 

I am sure I read somewhere they don't ?

 

 

Looks like you're right - http://www.dadrl.org.uk/lawhiwaycode.html. ("Strangely, there is NO REQUIREMENT for continental left hand drive vehicles to have beam converters on UK roads.")

 

I'm sure i read somewhere that continental vehicles dip down but not to the left or right. If true, that would explain why they don't need converters.

[adrianf.]

Well i know this is not the correct way of doing things but ive just come back from france and whilst there done quite a lot of night driving without any beam deflectors and didnt get flashed once.

 

Maybe i was just lucky but i would probably go again without any and just carry a roll of tape in the boot like i did this time.

 

Adrian.

[insider]

I'm sure i read somewhere that continental vehicles dip down but not to the left or right. If true, that would explain why they don't need converters.

I don't think that's true. I've seen deflectors for LHD cars being sold on ebay.

I think it's just something that was overlooked by our own law makers.

[rayc]

I work in France and haven't used beam benders for years (Always carry a set though).

 

As I also work in the docks at dover I see all the gubbins being handed out stating that you would be contravening type approval etc and liable to having a fine and the car seizes etc etc etc.

 

All I ever do is lower the headlights (for those who have the electric lowering). The angled beam then is on the ground and not in the air dazzling people.

 

If I ever got stopped (Never in 10 yrs including living there for 5) I would say. Oh somebody must have pinched them or they've fallen off but I have some spare ones here! :rolleyes:

 

There are other items you must definately carry. such as 1st aid, reflective yellow jackets, fire extinguisher and triangle. These are safety items and if you break down the fine is heavy if not used. Equally if you are approached at the scene of an accident for a first aid kit or extinguisher and dont have them the fine is very heavy. If these are used by an official you get a chitty for a replacement foc.

[mikeohope]

Would love to see the insurance co's wriggle out of any claims stating the car was not legal at the the time due to no beam converters. Not worth the hassle for a measly

[Ex-Galaxy person]

I've got plastic headlight protectors on my Galaxy - last time I went to France I stuck the headlight adaptors to the protector - and then took the protectors off to clean them up and get all the sticky stuff off.

 

This made me think - surely someone has made clip-on adaptors that would work in the same way to the headlight protectors? No messing about with tape or trying to line things up - just clip on and clip off.

 

Has anyone seen anything like this on the market? It seems so simple that it must have been done already.

 

Phillip

[Ex-Galaxy person]

Following on from my last post - it seems that there aren't any purpose designed "clip-on" beam deflectors. To avoid hassle, I'm going to pick up a second set of headlight protectors and put the adaptors on those, so I'm not messing around with sticky stuff when I want to go over the channel - I'll just swap them over. The really annoying thing is that I've just missed a dirt cheap pair on eBay ^_^ .

[Ivor_E_Tower]

This made me think - surely someone has made clip-on adaptors that would work in the same way to the headlight protectors? No messing about with tape or trying to line things up - just clip on and clip off.

(snip)

It seems so simple that it must have been done already.

Yes - Lucas used to do them back in the 1970's when most cars had round or rectangular headlamps. My dad bought a set for our family Volvo and they just clipped on and off in seconds, so easy to do dock-side when waiting to board the ferry.

With every car having different shaped headlights these days, there is just no money to be made from tooling up to make so many different shapes/styles ...... also the car accessory shops would need a mile of shelving to stock them all! Hence the stick-on deflectors that are now on sale.