UK Headlights

[Colin McKenzie]

Hello

I am trying to get my LHD Lancia past the UK MOT test but have found I can not adjust the headlamps sufficiently to meet the UK regulations. Do you know if it is possible to buy headlamp units for UK or modify the lamps in some way ?


Regards

Colin McKenzie
UK Mobile 07900 970670

[Simon]

Colin,

This is the answer I gave on the Thesis forum:-

2 ways around this, Alan Cooper with his Delta HPE HF put beam bender inside the head lamps, I understand that this was a tricky job which involved cutting a slot in the underside of the body and then sliding the beam bender in.

Or do nothing and see what happens at the MOT station, on my Delta HPE I have done nothing and have never had any trouble. I have adjusted the headlights on the leveling system to dip on the 2nd out of 3 positions and in over 6 years I have had only about 1 person flash me.

Hope this is of use, If you are in the Bristol area I can tell you of the MOT Station

Simon
England

[Colin McKenzie]

Simon,

Thanks for the fast response.

I took my car to an AA service / test centre, they would not do the test until they could realign the lamps and after some time fiddling about with them they could not move the beam far enough.

I will have a look on the internet for the beam bender you suggest and will also try and find a Lancia dealer in South Africa or Australia where I think they have RHD cars.

Keep you posted on my success.

Colin

[Simon]

Colin

Just to warn you, lancia pulled out of both South Africa, Australia and all other RHD countries before England. These contries have been sourcing the later cars from England.

In Austrailia, they are not allowed to import LHD cars any more, and understand that the LHD cars are only allowed out in organised events.

If you follow rallying you will notice all the rally cars have stickers warning 'Left Hand Drive'

Regards
Simon
England

[alan cooper]

you could simply use beam benders on the outside or mask off the offending area assuming the lights are of conventional construction, if you are a little mad you could do like me and mount beam benders on the inside of the lamp this is not beautiful (and maybe not even possible on a lybra) and is hellish fiddly to do but more durable and gives a reasonable spread of light in the right direction for night driving

[alan cooper]

forgot to say e mail me if you want to discuss further!

[Stuart Wilson]

Have you tried contacting Fiat in Slough? I know of one Lybra in the UK whose owner had the same problem. After contacting Fiat, Lancia did light refraction checks and faxed the results to indicate exactly where to put stickers on the lenses. This allowed it to pass the MOT.

Regards,

Stuart.

[Brian Hilton]

Suprised he got away with that one as the information on importing cars into UK specifically states that beam benders can not be used as a permanent fix. Alans idea of putting them on inside the headlamp is to my mind the best way, as if you use clear beam benders they would be hard to spot but will do the job.

However, I imported a new Y Elefantino Rosso from Rotterdam in 1999 & like Simon,I dipped my beams and never had a problem, for MOT I set them down to the lowest setting and although it was queried that they were LHD lights my local testing station were happy to mask off the beams where necessary and told me after it had passed that I could take off the masking or leave it on.
I decided when I brought the Y in, that if I didn't want to hear the answer then I wouldn't ask the authorities the question.

Brian Hilton

[Colin McKenzie]

Hello all

Thank you for suggestions. After first masking off the entire outside of the lights and removing each patterned area of the lamp in turn I have been able to identify the exact part of the lens responsible for the “Kick up”. I masked this area off using a commercial stick on deflector for its MOT which it has now passed.

Now for the difficult part; to satisfy the legal requirements the inside of the lamp had to be modified. After several hours of struggling I have managed to get the glass of the front of the lights. Using the stick on mask as a guide I have painted the corresponding area inside the lens with several layers of reflective paint and then reassembled.

After talking with the Department of Transport they told me that they would accept photos of the modification as proof for the paper work. If anyone would like a copy of the photos please mail me at colin.mckenzie@executive-renaissance.com

I have yet to get the reaction of the D of T and more importantly The Vehicle Certification Agency because I have run into a problem with the Speedo.. but that’s another story. I will let you know the outcome shortly.

Thanks

Colin

[Colin McKenzie]

Hello all

Thank you for suggestions. After first masking off the entire outside of the lights and removing each patterned area of the lamp in turn I have been able to identify the exact part of the lens responsible for the “Kick up”. I masked this area off using a commercial stick on deflector for its MOT which it has now passed.

Now for the difficult part; to satisfy the legal requirements the inside of the lamp had to be modified. After several hours of struggling I have managed to get the glass of the front of the lights. Using the stick on mask as a guide I have painted the corresponding area inside the lens with several layers of reflective paint and then reassembled.

After talking with the Department of Transport they told me that they would accept photos of the modification as proof for the paper work. If anyone would like a copy of the photos please mail me at colin.mckenzie@executive-renaissance.com

I have yet to get the reaction of the D of T and more importantly The Vehicle Certification Agency because I have run into a problem with the Speedo.. but that’s another story. I will let you know the outcome shortly.

Thanks

Colin