[OT] Stickers on headlights ?

[G.T]

Hi there,

Certainly a bit OT here, but I'm curious...
I often see, here in France, UK cars, with RHD and so on (no problem). They often have a kind of triangle-shaped stickers on the front lights. My question is : what are they intented for ? I noticed that not all UK cars I see down here have them.

 

[Chris (3)]

Certainly a bit OT here, but I'm curious...
I often see, here in France, UK cars, with RHD and so on (no problem). They often have a kind of triangle-shaped stickers on the front lights. My question is : what are they intented for ? I noticed that not all UK cars I see down here have them.

If you take your UK car to a European country you must use 'headlight re-director stickers'. Because over here we drive on the left, lights are beamed more towards oncoming traffic on the right. Whereas in Europe where most drive on the right, without the re-direct stickers the lights would beam to the right and not towards oncoming traffic. So the re-direct stickers help to direct the light to the left - at oncoming traffic.

Its just one of those many regulations, like you must have a country sticker on the rear of your car to show where you're from!

Cheers
Chris.

 

[Mindwipe (6)]

plus its cheaper than fitting french standard headlights for your trip abroad and then changing them back on your return p.s GT you'll have to fit them if you ever visit this shit hole i live in jeff

 

[Hugo Nebula]

If you take your UK car to a European country you must use 'headlight re-director stickers'. Because over here we drive on the left, lights are beamed more towards oncoming traffic on the right. Whereas in Europe where most drive on the right, without the re-direct stickers the lights would beam to the right and not towards oncoming traffic. So the re-direct stickers help to direct the light to the left - at oncoming traffic.

Other way round, surely? I thought lights shone _away_ from oncoming traffic to prevent dazzling other drivers and to illuminate the pavement.

 

[Chris (3)]

Other way round, surely? I thought lights shone _away_ from oncoming traffic to prevent dazzling other drivers and to illuminate the pavement.

D'oh! Of course! Sorry, my mistake!

Anyway, heres all the information you could need:

Headlight Beam Deflectors. With a UK based car the headlights dip towards the kerb, as you will be travelling on the right hand side of the road the lights would dip towards on-coming traffic. For this reason you must either block the part of the beam that dips or fit small lenses that actually deflect it towards the right hand kerb. My Headlamp Conversion Simplified page describes the reason and solution for this.

http://www.aer-net.co.uk/edr/headlampsnf.htm

Cheers

 

[G.T]

Hello,

lights would beam to the right and not towards oncoming traffic. So the re-direct stickers help to direct the light to the left - at oncoming traffic.

OK. Thanks !

Its just one of those many regulations, like you must have a country sticker on the rear of your car to show where you're from!

True it should be the case, but with EU plates, now you've got it on your plate. It doesn't seem to be the case in UK, though.

 

[Bob Minchin]

Hello,

OK. Thanks !

True it should be the case, but with EU plates, now you've got it on your plate. It doesn't seem to be the case in UK, though.

In the UK we are told that the GB on an EU plate is not acceptable in the EU and that the black on white oval form must be displayed.

Bob

 

[Reginald Overdose]

My experience as a resident of france is that nobody but us brits take these regulations seriously. The italian and spanish plates i regularly see here rarely display any indication to the non-expert what country they're from. The french will patriotically display an "F" on a tiny silver plastic cutout map of the hexagon - but thats usually all you get. In any case, the british motorist abroad in latin countries is immediately noticable, if not due to having right hand drive, then for our curious driving behaviour, such as stopping for pedestrians on a crossing, at traffic lights, never using the horn as one should (use of the klaxon is an art form). That huge GB sticker is, in Nice at any rate, just an invitation for everybody to overtake you on the pavement. Oh, and as for stickers on headlights, you might as well join a significant minority who side-step the problem completely by never using them ....

 

[Dirk Lucas]

In the UK we are told that the GB on an EU plate is not acceptable in the EU and that the black on white oval form must be displayed.

It seems they changed the guidelines, since nobody had those stickers anyway. Apart from the people going to Austria, but that's a completely different story.

cu,
Dirk

 

[Matt]

"Bob Minchin" wrote:

In the UK we are told that the GB on an EU plate is not acceptable in the

EU

and that the black on white oval form must be displayed.

The last thing I saw stated that the GB sticker is only required if you don't have a "proper" Euro plate - so those people who put different flags (or pictures) rather than the Euro Stars don't count - even if they do still put "GB" under the picture of an XR3i!!!

Matt

 

[G.T]

Hi Jeff,

plus its cheaper than fitting french standard headlights for your trip abroad and then changing them back on your return

(Of course).

p.s GT you'll have to fit them if you ever visit this shit hole i live in

Well, my headlights are so badly trimmed (yes, I should have another try) that I'm not sure I'd need them