Replace Xenons with standard headlight?

[rt172]

Does anyone know if it's possible to replace the Xenon headlights on a 172 with the standard non-xenon units without any major modification?

 

[Bryan]

i don't think so, it's a case of removing the xenon units and controllers, and fitting everything required for the standard headlights

why you looking to get rid of the xenons?

 

[rt172]

The driver side xenon is spotting aeroplanes, causing every fcuker to stick their full beams on at me. I've spent £70 on letting my local Reno dealer look at them and they say they can't adjust it for some reason and want to charge me another £140 to dismantle the front end of the car to 'take a close look' and after that they might need to charge me another £300+ for a new headlamp. I can get two standard lamps for £120 and seeing as the xenons are more hassle and expense than they're worth it's tempting to ditch them if possible.

Besides, I have Cup wheels, springs and shocks fitted - might as well ditch the fancy headlights too lol

 

[Bryan]

did you not buy yours as a cat d? i may be mistaking you for someone else though

i dunno why, i just prefer the xenons on the clio

 

[rt172]

Yeah, it's a cat D - another reason why I don't care too much what headlights it has. You're right though, the xenons do look better, but not £3/400 for one better!

So, can anyone tell me exactly what bits I need to buy to do this?

 

[Bryan]

no, my thinking was that the front was not replaced correctly and has caused the alignment of the lights to be out by a couple of degrees?

 

[rt172]

no, my thinking was that the front was not replaced correctly and has caused the alignment of the lights to be out by a couple of degrees?

I suppose it could be possible, but firstly it is only recently that I've had people flashing at me - I'm pretty sure they were okay when i got the car and secondly, Renault said that they couldn't make any adjustment to the unit at all. Reno have basically said the adjuster in the light is faulty, but they can't tell me whether it's better to try and fix it or replace it. Either way I'm left with a bill for hundred just to have pretty headlights!

 

[16v_jon]

they are easy to replace have the same connector straight swap, you can get them from £60 a pair on ebay

 

[Nick_R182]

off topic, but how much did your insurance differ as the car was a cat-d? Was it more or less or no difference at all?

 

[rt172]

Can anyone confirm what 16v_jon says? Same connector - straight swap? That'd be really handy if correct!


rollin on 17s - I'm insured with Tesco. I told them it was Cat D registered and they said it made no difference to them, however if it was ever written off again, they'd only pay out the price of another Cat D reg'd car, which is 25 to 30% less than an unrecorded car. I paid approx. 30% under the 2nd hand list price so in the unfortunate event of a 2nd write off, I shouldn't be out of pocket.

 

[16v_jon]

same connector mate i can assure you i have fitted HID's to my normal clio. im sure matt (j3ned) still has some HID units left his price was the £150 mark each if i remember correctly

 

[rt172]

Thanks Jon, I'll take your word for it then. I PM'd j3ned a few days ago but he didn't get back to me.

 

[Big G]

The xenon headlights can be adjusted manually - why don't you try this first instead of getting fleeced at the dealers?

 

[rt172]

The xenon headlights can be adjusted manually - why don't you try this first instead of getting fleeced at the dealers?

Already been fleeced at the dealers mate, but if you can tell me how to adjust them myself then I'll give it a try. All I can see that looks like it might be to do with adjustment is a white plastic allen key fitting which links to a white plastic cog, but I would have thought there would need to be seperate 'up/down' and 'left/right' adjusters. My faulty headlight is pointing up and to the right so it needs adjusting both ways.

 

[k3nnis]

Hi Guys,

Out of interest, are the xenons on the 172 featurd with auto levelling? i.e. when we go over humps etc will it adjust to the optimum height, i.e. not blinding drivers etc?
I have a 2002 RSC 172 MK2.

Regards,
Kenn.

 

[Big G]

This is for up/down:

I think this is left/right, but you'll need to try it as i didn't adjust it.

 

[rt172]

Big G - thanks very much - I'll give it a try.

k3nnis - yes, they are meant to be auto-levelling. I think even my mis-aligned one auto-levels as I can see it flicker slightly over bumps, it's just auto-levelling to the wrong level at the moment.

 

[rt172]

Damn, it's definitely fcuk'd! The passenger side light adjusts no problem with the white bits in the pics above. The driver side just turns and turns and nothing happens.

 

[182_blue]

i used to get flashed all the time, even from new, its a renault thing, just replace the casing, will be cheap enough

 

[rt172]

i used to get flashed all the time, even from new, its a renault thing, just replace the casing, will be cheap enough

No, it's properly out of alignment. If I point the lights at the garage door, the driver side is about a foot higher than the passenger side at about 5 foot away. I had a brand new mk2 172 in 2002 and got flashed every now and then, but I'm talking every other car flashing now! It's definitely, definitely bust.

I have noticed though that Eurocarparts.co.uk have a 'headlight level adjuster' listed for £35 so I'll give them a call to see if it's possible to fix the light before swapping them for non-xenon units.

 

[Ali]

Mine's marginly off too atm, apparently it's simple fix tho...

 

[Spammy]

So it really is just a simple swap? Nothing connected to the ecu that could feck around with things?

 

[rt172]

So it really is just a simple swap? Nothing connected to the ecu that could feck around with things?

Sounds like it. Want to buy two xenons, perfect working order?

 

[Spammy]

Its not for me, it's for my dad and he'll be doing the same as you

He's got one fecked light, £400 to replace that or £120 for 2 new lights that are cheap to replace in the future, you do the maths

 

[rt172]

Just to finish off this post....I've now taken the xenons off my 172 and replaced them with standard non-xenon headlights. They were a direct swap - unplugged the old ones and plugged the new ones in. The auto-headlight function still works fine too.

 

[Martin_172]

glad to hear you got it sorted out, dont you miss the xenons in the dark though?

 

[rt172]

Dunno, not tried driving it in the dark yet. Now I've got the lights off the car, I think I can see the problem with the xenons. The adjusters are plastic poles, one attached to a cog, the other to what i guess is the auto-levelling unit (and then a manual adjuster at the back of that). It looks like the ball-shaped ends of the adjusting poles have popped out of their housings. I think if I can pop them back in again i might be able to fix them. Spent an hour on trying now though and I've got one back in, but the other is proving trickier.