Can I get pulled for having "stupidly bright" xenons?

[sparklesTHEpony]

I know this sounds stupid but I've just come back from dropping my girlfriend off home and this has happened a lot recently..

let me start off by saying I bought a set of 172 xenon headlights for my sport rep. The indicator bulbs had silver visions already installed.. Which tells me the previous owner knew how to "mod" or at least spruce up his/her car rather than leave it standard.

anyway now in a 53plate ph2 1.4 with manual headlamp adjustments next to my steering wheel I've kept the setting on halfway so they're not aimed up as high as possible but rather just dipped under cars that are in front of me.

problem is on dark trips people ALWAYS flash me to tell me to turn off my beams. They're not on! I flash them back to prove so and I laugh to think what they're now thinking!
even had one person go so far as pulling over, then pulling out as I went past to then him
constantly flashing me from behind?! Mate my beams aren't on!

Question is: surely this may be illegal in some way? As stated above I haven't changed any bulbs just swapped headlights over so the previous owner may have put some sort of the sun harnessed in the projector?? That or are people still Stone Age to xenons?

ive followed one cop car in the dark and they never bothered? Starting to think this has to be illegal in some ways? Or as I call them "Dick head lights"

 

[Stefan.]

Can't you point the lights down a tadge more??

 

[DannyR]

The inside adjustment doesn't work on xenon lamps.

You need to manually adjust them in the headlight.

 

[182Trophy]

They are obviously distracting/blinding people so if i were you i would change them. You will get pulled eventually or even worse piss off the local nutter and you don't want to do that tbh.

 

[Heez]

Have you made sure the lamp isn't projecting upwards rather than just have the dial halfway? If you look at the back of the unit there should be a socket you can stick a 6mm allen key in, turning that adjusts the beam.

Get to a wall, turn lights on, adjust them so they're level. You may find they're pointing up at the sky.

 

[Fudge]

yeah just point them down more I have mine on like 3 or 4

 

[sparklesTHEpony]

I may have to. Like I said it's dipped so much that it literally shines just under other cars in front licence plates at a proper distance. But then the typical roads I love around are country lane ones so it's up down and all over the place, I'll be coming down a hill whilst someone is coming up.. I have the upper hand of height so they have no choice but to stare into the inevitable. I'll drop it down to the second to lowest setting and see how I get on!

 

[sparklesTHEpony]

I remember reading about a manual adjustment a while back whilst looking into buying the lamps. Is it behind the rubber cover or on the outside of it the manual adjustment?

 

[McGherkin]

 

[sparklesTHEpony]

Awesome haha! Very helpful community. I'll pop up to a wall in the dark next time I have a night off. Appreciated

 

[dann2707]

So they can be adjusted both ways? Sideways and up and down?

How do you know when they are in the right spot? My left light is pointing up at the sky

 

[Fudge]

The inside adjustment doesn't work on xenon lamps.

You need to manually adjust them in the headlight.

Also it does

 

[DannyR]

Also it does

Do you have HID's in standard lamps?

Xenons do not need/have adjustment from inside the car.

Edit: just seen from a previous post you've retro fitted Xenons, I'm sure the controller isn't doing anything though as Xenons are auto levelling.

 

[McGherkin]

Do you have HID's in standard lamps?

Xenons do not need/have adjustment from inside the car.

No, but they are still servo adjusted, be it by a self levelling system or a manual adjuster switch, it doesn't matter at the headlight end. The servos from a set of standard lights will fit and work with a set of xenon units therefore enabling manual adjustment from inside the car. It's probably possible to use the ones that come with the units too.

 

[DannyR]

So any standard fit Xenons do not, but retro fit can be retro fitted to work?

 

[AlexW]

If you fit Xenons to a non-sport, the dashboard adjustment works just the same. Some later 182's and such have differing plugs on the adjusters, hence why a lot of people change them I think, or poss from my non sport being a late one it had the right plug. I can't remember now.

Either way, adjustment works from inside the cabin as long as its not broken or unplugged etc.

The auto leveling on sports works the same way, its just done via a rear beam sensor and UCH.

 

[McGherkin]

Not quite sure what you're saying now.

The headlights have motors in them. Both the Xenon and standard units have these motors. In the photo above you can see the motor unit with the vertical adjustment on it. Looking at it now it looks very similar to the standard servo so it wouldn't surprise me if the standard and xenon units both use the same servos. Even if they don't, the servos are interchangable apparently.

For cars that have xenons as standard, the motors are fed a signal from a self levelling system.
For cars that have the standard units, the motors are fed a signal from a rotary switch inside the car.

If you put the xenon headlights in a standard car, they will be controlled by the same rotary switch that normally controls the standard lights. Vice versa will apply too, if you wanted to take your xenons out of your 1*2 and replace them with the standard units then they will still self level.

 

[DannyR]

Not quite sure what you're saying now.

...

For cars that have xenons as standard, the motors are fed a signal from a self levelling system.
For cars that have the standard units, the motors are fed a signal from a rotary switch inside the car.

If you put the xenon headlights in a standard car, they will be controlled by the same rotary switch that normally controls the standard lights. Vice versa will apply too, if you wanted to take your xenons out of your 1*2 and replace them with the standard units then they will still self level.

That's exactly what I was saying!

 

[Sargara]

What? no its not. You basically said "you cant adjust xenons you have to manually do it on the back of the headlight" at least thats how it reads. McGherkin is telling you thats incorrect, you can do it from inside the car using the headlight adjustor dial on the dashboard.

 

[Vaughan]

The headlights need to be manually adjusted to the correct "unloaded" position. After that the levellers (manual or auto) are used to lower the beams to adjust for load.

Is the op using xenon hid lights, or the normal halogen lights with "xenon" blue bulbs in them?

 

[DannyR]

So any standard fit Xenons do not, but retro fit can be retro fitted to work?

As above if your retro fitting Xenons they can be retrofitted to work using the manual adjustment inside the car, rather than the auto levelling system which all Xenons use in the Clio's.

 

[McGherkin]

What? no its not. You basically said "you cant adjust xenons you have to manually do it on the back of the headlight" at least thats how it reads. McGherkin is telling you thats incorrect, you can do it from inside the car using the headlight adjustor dial on the dashboard.

Hmmmm, Not quite.

The initial alignment of your headlights (which is tested at MOT) is done using the adjusters on the back of the headlights with no load in the car (for cars with self levelling) and the switch in the 0 position (for cars that have manual adjustment).

When you fill the boot up, the auto levelling system will adjust the beam back to the level on the fly, however cars with manual systems will need to lower the headlights using the switch as required. That's what the systems are there for - offsetting any loads placed in the car.


IN THIS CASE, THE OP NEEDS TO ADJUST THE HEADLIGHT USING THE ADJUSTERS ON THE BACK OF THE UNIT. THIS CAN BE DONE BY YOURSELF BUT YOU NEED TO WORK OUT THE ANGLE DROP (IIRC 1.2 DEGREES) AND ADJUST THE TOP OF THE BEAM TO FALL AT THIS ANGLE. IT'S PROBABLY EASIER TO GET A GARAGE TO SET THESE FOR YOU ON THEIR BEAM MEASUREMENT EQUIPMENT - MINE DID IT FOR FREE.
IIRC they do it as part of the MOT anyway, but it's worth just doing it to be free of any hassle.

 

[Ade182]

Take it to a garage that does MOT's and get them to check your beam alignment. I did once I'd fitted my new xenon units with stupid bright Osram bulbs.

Easiest solution.

 

[dann2707]

The headlights need to be manually adjusted to the correct "unloaded" position. After that the levellers (manual or auto) are used to lower the beams to adjust for load.

Is the op using xenon hid lights, or the normal halogen lights with "xenon" blue bulbs in them?

How do you get to this unloaded position?

 

[Adam D]

The initial alignment of your headlights (which is tested at MOT) is done using the adjusters on the back of the headlights with no load in the car (for cars with self levelling) and the switch in the 0 position (for cars that have manual adjustment).

^

How do you get to this unloaded position?

Pretty much an empty car, including you out of it too.

 

[callum_bell]

IIRC I'm sure your car is illegal, the reason xenons use auto-adjustment is so when say people are in the back of the car it obvioulsy lowers the car at the back making the lights at the front point higher up than normal, this is usually fixed by the level sensor on the rear axle which senses the height of the rear of the car and adjusts the lights accordingly. But since you dont have the sensor the lights no longer auto adjust. Your argument should you be stopped is you can adjust them from inside the car.

I know a lot of people around my way getting fines/points for fitting xenons or hid's to their car.

From an mot/police point of view i'm sure to have xenons fitted or Hid's the car must have

auto-levelling lights
headlight washers
projector style lenses.

Probably best looking up on it on VOSA website etc to find out for sure.

 

[callum_bell]

Looks as though they aren't illegal now, have a read through this.

http://www.partinfo.co.uk/files/MOT Changes - Lighting.pdf

 

[Amos91]

IIRC I'm sure your car is illegal, the reason xenons use auto-adjustment is so when say people are in the back of the car it obvioulsy lowers the car at the back making the lights at the front point higher up than normal, this is usually fixed by the level sensor on the rear axle which senses the height of the rear of the car and adjusts the lights accordingly. But since you dont have the sensor the lights no longer auto adjust. Your argument should you be stopped is you can adjust them from inside the car.

I know a lot of people around my way getting fines/points for fitting xenons or hid's to their car.

From an mot/police point of view i'm sure to have xenons fitted or Hid's the car must have

auto-levelling lights
headlight washers
projector style lenses.

Probably best looking up on it on VOSA website etc to find out for sure.

Car isn't illegal. As long as they are aligned then there is no issue surrounding MOT etc plus the OP can adjust them manually in the car.

From the MOT guide:

"Vehicles equipped with HID or LED dipped beam headlamps may be fitted with headlamp washers and a suspension or headlamp self levelling system.

Where such systems are fitted, they must work."

 

[callum_bell]

From the Vosa guide i posted the link to

" Dazzle can also be caused if the lamps are dirty or aimed too high due to, for example, carrying rear seat passengers and/or heavy items in the boot. Vehicles with HID headlamps are therefore required to have a headlamp washing system (a wiper is not required) and be self levelling, which may be achieved either by the use of either headlamp or suspension levelling systems.
The presence and operation of these headlamp cleaning and levelling devices has been added to the test. Therefore, if a mandatory headlamp levelling or cleaning device is missing, inoperative or otherwise obviously defective, the vehicle will fail.
lighting kits. These kits convert conventional halogen headlamps to HID Xenon and they are [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]widely sold and fitted to vehicles used on the road. The Department for Transport considers [/FONT][/FONT]that after-market systems should be required to meet the same safety standards as that applied in respect of these lamps at vehicle Type Approval. Therefore, in order to pass the MOT [FONT=Arial,Arial][FONT=Arial,Arial]test, vehicles fitted with after-market HID systems would also need to be fitted with headlamp cleaning and self-levelling systems. Some high specification estate cars are fitted with a self-[/FONT][/FONT]levelling suspension system and this would be considered as adequate for the purpose."

 

[McGherkin]

To clear this up.

Fitting HIDs without washers/levelling does theoretically contravene the type approval BUT so do many things, for example everyone who has put an aftermarket exhaust on their car which is louder than the standard (almost all of them) also contravenes the type approval. However CS isn't inundated with people who have had their cars banned.

Why is this? Two reasons. Firstly, it's very rare for a copper to be clued up enough to say that a type approval has been contravened, because it would mean knowing how every car is type approved which is a silly amount of knowledge. Secondly, if they aren't blinding people/stupidly loud (for the exhaust example), they wouldn't care even if they did know.

The MOT test does not look at the type approval. Washers and levelling systems are currently only checked if fitted - they aren't required to be fitted and non-fitment is not a reason to fail the car.

HIDs WILL pass the MOT if they chuck out the correct pattern. Which they will if you're using projector units like the clio Xenons.