Continental Headlamp Adapters

[m_13]

We've had our 04 Berlingo Multispace since 2004. 'Hagrid' was previously a demonstrator but once we drove him, we had to have him! He's done over 30k in two years.

 

We've been to France in him before but always bought stick-on headlamp adapters as we've driven a LHD drive car at my father in laws once we were there or have only driven in the day. Now we are going to France and Switzerland for a fortnight and in Switzerland you have to have dipped headlamps on at all times.

 

I've been trying to find out the best way to convert the beams to LHD for two weeks as the sticky adapters always fall off. Citroen have told me that they recommend £50 for a set of Headlamp Protectors/Continental Headlamp Adapters that are legal everywhere. However £50 is a lot of money. We have seen them on line for around £41 delivered but this is still a lot. They also say they are fiddly to fit and want to charge me an extra £17.45 to fit them.

 

Can anybody recommend what they do for travelling on LHD roads? Hagrid is so at home in France but I don't want him coming to the attention of the gendarmerie!

 

Thanks

[citroeneddie]

Go to your Citroen Dealer and ask for a template of the beam deflector from Citroen Technical Department. Then buy a sheet of stickey backed plastic and cut as per template. My Citroen Dealer will do this free of charge as I know them well. :o

[m_13]

Thanks for the prompt advice. We've recently changed Citroen dealers after having poor service but they are over 30 minutes away so I rang Citroen Customer Service instead. They have given me a case number and said that they will try and get Technical Services to send one out to me. Fingers crossed.

 

Now I just need to choose my sticky back plastic. I'm tempted by teak effect!

[Terry1100]

I did it with standard insulating tape.

 

I marked the headlight cover with an inedible (sic) pen last year to show the corners and simply repeated the process this year.

 

If you don'y get the template form Citroen, PM me and I'll copy it for you when I get home (mine only came through as a fax from my dealer so it's not pretty but it does the job)

[m_13]

Thanks for the offer Terry1100. Could I wait and see if arrives and perhaps get back to you on Wednesday if it hasn't?

 

We go on Saturday. Leaving things to the last week again!

 

My father in laws C3 has the fancy lights that don't need adjusting. His car is LHD but he never does anything when he comes over here!

[Terry1100]

In the spirit of Berlingoing, I've scanned the (poor) faxes I recieved and saved them on my website.

 

Dimensions and positioning is shown in case they print out at different sizes.

 

Nearside Mask

 

Offside Mask

 

References to Nearside and Offside are obviously UK. If you right click and "save target as" (in IE) you'll download the image rather than letting the browser render and resize it.

[citroeneddie]

Terry

 

Excellent help ( where did you get hearing aid beige from?) :blink:

 

Eddie

[Terry1100]

It was a line from a regular here a while back when this forum was busier (can't remember who).

 

We were discussing colours and the DVLA describes the very tasteful Sahara Gold as Beige :blink:

[m_13]

Thank you so much for the time you have taken and the efforts you have made in our quest to save £50 on headlamp protectors :o

 

I've downloaded and printed them out. Looking at the headlamps I can see they've still go the sticky glue from the last beam benders which unfortunately were in completely the wrong place :blink:

 

Hagrid is tasteful in silver but the other demonstrators we tried were all red. We love the 2.0 Hdi as it sips diesel but has plenty of umph. I notice that it's not available now which seems a shame. Is the 1.6 92 bhp as good as the 2.0 90 bhp I wonder?

[Terry1100]

We liked Arctic Steel but we didn't want to look too "his n hers twee" on the drive as the C2 is the same colour.

[tronboy]

Is the 1.6 92 bhp as good as the 2.0 90 bhp I wonder?

Smoother, quieter, eco-friendlier, even less thirst than the 2.0......

 

Somehow though just not as much fun.

[m_13]

We have now received originals of the templates in the post today - Citroen UK thoughtfully have printed the template section not to size and apparently not to scale either! Good job I noticed this and didn't simply trace them :lol:

 

Can I ask advice on what to use? I'm not entirely sure what the lenses are made of - glass or polycarbonate - and I'm keen for the benders to stay on for the two weeks and then come off fairly easily.

 

I've seen advice suggesting black insulation tape but that has been pooh-poohed by people who say black absorbs heat and the glue hardens and becomes impossible to remove. Sticky back plastic sounds like a good idea as I can have a couple of spares in one of the many storage areas. However, I'm concerned that after two weeks it won't come off.

 

I've seen a few posts elsewhere suggesting masking tape as it's designed to stick and then come off and is cream/white so doesn't suffer the glue hardening problem.

 

Sorry to ask for help again but what do you use?

[Terry1100]

I can speak from personal and recent experience and say that standard insulting tape was no problem at all.

 

It does not need to be cut to shape (three "rows" is enough) and, after two weeks it came off quite easily.

 

This is exactly what we did last year and had no problems either.

 

On the return journey this year we drove through torrential rain and that didn't bother it either.

 

YMMV, IANAL, IMHO, FWIW, ROFL, ETC

[tronboy]

I can speak from personal and recent experience and say that standard insulting tape was no problem at all.

Did the tape call you a prat, t***er, cretin, twonk, wa**.... as you unrolled it and cut bits off?

 

:o

 

PS: Masking tape glue hardens with heat and is a swine to remove. Any light scratching of the polycarbonate headlamp lenses will reduce the pitiful performance of the stupidly designed headlamps even further. Also, masking tape is only semi-opaque and won't block out enough light.

[Terry1100]

What I miss (and I'm drifting O/T here) is painting your headlights yellow for France.

[tronboy]

I'm with you there....

 

My 2CV has natty bulb-shaped yellow filters that clip over the halogen lamp to give that authentic old school French look!

[Guest forte]

my dealer told me when i bought it that u only need to adjust the dial to 3 therefore they are dipped enough not to bother the continentals.......havnt masked the lamps and havnt had frenchies flashing me when i approach!

[davin]

Just an idea I had.

 

Buy headlamps from Ebay france or Germany. Then change the whole unit.

I go abroad in my berlingo every summer and am considering doing it this year.

Just a thought

[Oxymoron]

Hi,

We've taken our Berlingo to France for a couple of fortnight holidays and although we haven't really driven at night, we have driven in the early morning and evening light and during rain storms, without using headlamp bean deflectors.

I simply adjust the headlights down to their lowest setting and have never been flashed by on coming drivers at all!...I think most drivers assume you're French anyway, driving a Berlingo!

:rolleyes: