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European traveller - Bodlyfunctions - 25-03-2013 07:20pm
A question for those who have travelled in Europe (specifically France).
According to French law we must carry a spare bulb pack when driving in France. What bulbs do we need? With all the LED bulbs on the car what is required? Don't really want to go and buy a £150 xenon bulb before the trip!
Also I understand from my dealer that there is a way to adjust the headlights for driving on the other side of the road so as not to blind oncoming traffic. Anyone know how to do it?
Thank you in advance fellow Evoque-ers...
RE: European traveller - rchrdleigh - 25-03-2013 07:50pm
It is explained in the Owners Manual.
HEADLAMPS - DRIVING ABROAD
The headlamp beam pattern is suitable for driving on either side of the road. There is no need for any mechanical adjustment or external decals.
RE: European traveller - SINGHY - 25-03-2013 09:31pm
I have xenons and drove through France last summer, I bought a standard spare bulb and carried it with me because the law just requires you to carry a spare light bulb. So don't bother buying spare xenons and don't forget you also need to carry a breathalyser kit.
RE: European traveller - Bodlyfunctions - 25-03-2013 10:04pm
(25-03-2013 09:31pm)SINGHY Wrote: I have xenons and drove through France last summer, I bought a standard spare bulb and carried it with me because the law just requires you to carry a spare light bulb. So don't bother buying spare xenons and don't forget you also need to carry a breathalyser kit.
Thanks for the info Singy. The breathalyser law has been revoked now I notice. Still need a hi-via jacket and a hazard triangle tho
(25-03-2013 07:50pm)rchrdleigh Wrote: It is explained in the Owners Manual.
HEADLAMPS - DRIVING ABROAD
The headlamp beam pattern is suitable for driving on either side of the road. There is no need for any mechanical adjustment or external decals.
Exellent news! Was dreading reading the manual!
RE: European traveller - dynamicgirl - 21-05-2013 05:32pm
(25-03-2013 07:50pm)rchrdleigh Wrote: It is explained in the Owners Manual.
HEADLAMPS - DRIVING ABROAD
The headlamp beam pattern is suitable for driving on either side of the road. There is no need for any mechanical adjustment or external decals.
I have the UK spec adaptive Bi-Xenon headlights (AFS) and I can confirm - now that I have done a bit of research - that there are NO differences between the UK and EU spec AFS lights. On the lights (black plastic part that runs horizontal above the clear lens) there are a number of different codes, such as -
HCR (dip and main) beam headlamp, usually halogen or LED)
DCR (dip and main beam headlamp, gas discharge (HID, "Xenon")
RL (Daytime Running Lamp)
A (positional light or sidelight).
Underneath each of these codes there are either arrows or the absence of arrows, some of which show which side of the car the lights are situated on (<--- for left or ---> for right) and others pertain to the "traffic-handedness" of the lights.
Lights (dipped and main beam with codes HCR or DCR) suitable for traffic driving on the left side of the road will have an arrow pointing to the right underneath the corresponding code like this
---> (for UK, Australia, Africa and Japan)
Lights (dipped and main beam with codes HCR or DCR) suitable for driving in continental Europe and USA have no arrows.
On our Evoque lights (I can only speak of the Adaptive Xenon variant) the HCR and the DCR markings are shown twice each like this -
HCR
--->
HCR
(no arrows)
DCR
--->
DCR
(no arrows)
I have in the last week bought a set of EU spec tinted AFS lights from the Black Design Pack and they have IDENTICAL markings to the UK spec lights I have (under HCR and DCR they have the arrows pointing to the right, showing suitability for UK and Australian roads and they also have another set of HCR and DCR codes with no arrows, showing suitability for continental Europe). This has been driving me nuts as Land Rover told me that the EU spec lights were fine for driving in the UK with, but I wasn't happy to take their word for it and did my own research on the subject.
I found everything I needed here and checked the information given against both sets of lights I now have -
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/codes/codes.html
I know this will probably read like double Dutch to some people, but the main thing to take out of it is that the UK spec headlights and the European spec AFS lights have the exact same codings and markings as each other and both are suitable for driving on either side of the road, lol. Hope this helps some folks who wanted to know this for sure. Paula
xxEDIT I will update soon with some photo to show my findings.
RE: European traveller - jjgray - 28-05-2013 01:33pm
A lot of these answers are addressing the wrong question. The point is that the law requires you to carry a spare bulb.
(Xenon lights was one of the upgrades I positively didn't want, and this thread has added another reason.
European traveller - Stadt Panzer - 28-05-2013 03:03pm
I have never seen anybody or heard of anyone that has ever brought a spare bulb for Xenon lights.