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MG MGF Technical - Head light beam deflectors

Does anyone know how to deflect headlight beam away from oncoming French (or other Europen) drivers using insulation tape on front of the lights? or do I have to buy some special deflector kit?
Brian

Yes, I've got the patterns on my web site (http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com - go to the European travel menu).

If you print off the patterns, you can then make appropriate masked areas on your head lamps out of electrical tape, which is precisely what I do every year :o)

In the process of updating the page to include a pdf version of the patterns, so they are less subject to scaling by your printer. :o)

One thing though, the official masking patterns cut practically ALL the light from the dipped beams. Therefore, best avoid driving in the dark.

Hope this helps
Rob Bell

Why bother? How many LHD cars do you see here with their headlights modified not to dazzle us? I have driven quite a lot on mainland Europe and never had any problems.
Unconcerned

Dear unconcerned it seems you are also uninformed, UK cars have headlights that dip to the left - into the path of oncoming vehicles when you are across the channel - the rest of Europe (and most of the world) have headlights that dip straight down, so when they are over here they dont dip into our path.

British eccentics!

Ted

Ted Newman

If that is correct, why do so many euro cars have dazzling headlights over here, but not over there?
Puzzled

In my experience, they dazzle of there too.

Along with cats eyes, directional dipped beams are very sensible legislation that we have here in the UK and am surprised isn't taken up in the EU.

I guess the French yellow-tinted lamps aren't as dazzling as the pure white ones - but they aren't compulsery there anymore.
Rob Bell

Thanks for a bit of sanity Ted.

Also let's not lose site of Englands position in Europe - our job is to teach them how to behave and help them better themselves.

JohnP

Sorry folks, world cup fever seems to have got to me.

Seriously, Ted is almost correct about almost every body else using straight dip lights. Every grey import bike that I have seen was straight dip.

However, I always mask my lights (bike and car) simply as a matter of courtesy. The mask usually cuts down the light levels to a ridiculous level so I normally find myself either sticking to daylight driving or dropping speeds a bit at night.

French evenings are meant for eating and drinking not driving anyway so there is no great problem.
JohnP

I was lucky enough (see my "Breakdown in France" thread...) to take a French Clio onto the Calais-Dover ferry yesterday and we got given a leaflet in French telling us that headlight converters would be compulsory for our car in the UK. I also saw that the Belgian BMW parked behind us on the ferry had converters stuck onto its headlights. So would both these cars have had straight dip lights anyway? Seems like people are being scammed.

Thanks for the patterns Rob, I printed them out and made them Blue Peter style out of tape. I wasn't planning on doing much nighttime driving in France (see JohnP's advice :-)) but a 4 hour late ferry on the way to France meant that we did need to do some.

cheers
kirsty
kirsty darbyshire

Glad they were of use Kirsty - and sorry to hear that the trip had to be completed in a Clio. But hey, more booze in the boot! ;o)

Sometimes I wonder about Ferry operators; is this a scam to make our european chums buy head lamp converters from the Ferry operator's shop???

Okay, I'll stop being cynical ;o)
Rob Bell

I feel it is courteous to adhere to the local motoring regulations, other than night driving there are the situations where weather conditions require lights to be used during daylight hours and the effects of a misdirected dipped beam will be amplified by wet road surfaces.
Rob, I have printed the patterns using the PDF format, much simpler than trying to accurately scale up the originals, just a point but would be preferable to mark the patterns as offside and nearside to avoid any confusion.
Arthur Jacks

Thanks Arthur for that suggestion - yes, I agree - it would help prevent any ambiguity :o)

Shall update the page shortly.
Rob Bell

This thread was discussed between 10/06/2002 and 17/06/2002

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