to drive in france do i need to adjust my non xenon, projector headlights on my A4 B6 , most people ive asked say dont worry about it but ill be driving at night. any ideas? cheers
Personally I would say yes. http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/general_advice.html#GB HTH Lhasa2008
Some projector headlamps have a little lever in the back that masks off the 'flick' on the left-had side of the dipped beam pattern, essentially giving a level vertical cutoff. My A6 has this, chances are yours might as well. It's a lot easier than fiddling with those silly stick-on prism things, or gaffa-tape (in extreme circumstances).
I went to France last year in a mate's Audi A5 (09 Reg) - there's a setting in that car's computer to set the lights for left or right hand side of the road driving, that you do from the control console. Check your handbook!
all of the above, but from testing a number of passats, there is no kick on the beam best play it safe and check the book
thanks for replies. i checked the book, it just says to take it to the dealer basically. so ive bought some deflectors from ebay for 4.50 just to be sure
There are a lots of guides for driving in France, and whilst it's true the Gendarmerie can't be right horrible buggers and demand on the spot fines (not on the spot penalties, they'll actually want Cash) If you can adjust the lights, happy days, my Honda doesn't so I fitted the sticker things even though I never drove at night for the sake of not getting a tug. Some guides say you need to take spare bulbs, if you have Hid's that could mean 80 a bulb, but you don't actually need to, you can and will be fined for having a light out, but there's no requirement to have spares on board. High Viz vests, you need one, accessible from inside the car I.E. having one in the boot doesn't comply. Some guides say two, some say one per passenger, but the law is 1, the rest are recommended. First aid kit, there's an old French law that says you have to help someone in who's injured if you find them on your travels (nice law, we should have it) but nothing that says you need a first aid kit to do so, they're again recommended. Warning Triangle, you need one, most cars come with them, if not you need one - two if you're going to Spain. And that's it, it's worth also taking your V5, Ins Cert and Licence, but that simply to save time if you get pulled over. And watch your speed, they hide their cameras and the Police hide too, the fines are high, also payable on-the-spot and they can and will give you points on your UK licence. They also don't advise the limits as much, there seems to be a rule for different road types advised with symbols rather than numbers, but it's pretty much 50 everywhere (KPH) unless is a very tight road through a town or village when they advise a much lower one, 90 everywhere else and 110 (in bad weather) or 130 (in good weather) on the motorway. I never worked out if the 110 limit was for when the road was just wet after rain, or whilst it was actually raining.
There's an AA shop outside the Travel Centre in Dover and I'm pretty sure there's similar at the Terminal Building at Cheriton for the Tunnel. Either way - they can advise what you need and then sell it to you. Pretty sure you need GB on the car too - sticker or new number plates??!!
Oh yes, you need that too! You can buy small GB/Eu stickers to go on the end of your plates to make them compliant too. TBH every man and his dog - Halford, Tesco, the ferry ports, actually on the ferry, the ferry company when you book and indeed the holiday company we stayed with offered us "EU driving packs" they're all basically a variation on a theme and cost 25 to 60 but you don't need half the stuff to be legal, the rest is all good sensible stuff, but the Tesco one aside they're typically a rip off and not worth the sum or their parts. Halfords (surprise, surprise) was the most expensive and offered the least value.
ECOSSE sticker. done (recommended over GB,the french like the scots) hi viz vest. need to do tool kit. done emergency triangle. done dont need dont worry about speed cameras, pretty much drive like a vicar these days anyway (9 points ) gonna have a look at the lights tonight. thanks
Few other things.. The Gendarme take a very dim view of you using laser/radar/speed-trap detectors, not sure if they're technically illegal or not, but I heard of them being confiscated or rendered permanently inoperable. The blood-alcohol limit is lower in France (about half), the best approach is abstinence. The roads are generally a lot better quality, and are less congested than in the UK. The national routes are mostly 110kph though they often restrict the speed around junctions. You generally need to stay a bit sharper with respect to the speed limits as they'll change more often over a given route. If you use the auto-routes (toll highways) they have time-stamps on the tickets when you enter and exit a section, giving both you and the authorities an idea of your average speed.
Found this I does not mention that detectors are totally illegal in France. Get caught with one and they issue with a large on the spot fine -basically you are admitting that you intend to speed! They then place your detector under one of your road wheels & get you to drive over it -not had personal experience of this, but it is very well documented on British Le Mans web pages. Oh, a note about the average time bit on the auto routes mentioned before, they always have rest stops before exit toll gates -this allows people to spend the time they have gained from hoofing it down the empty road. Its just mad that France has such an amazing motorway network that hardly gets used due to the tolls!
Its easy to get used to the good natured british bobby. i just took my lights out, opened the back cover and went to switch the lever over only to find it was already flipped, so the beam has been pointing in the face of oncoming traffic for 2 years at least, no ones ever flashed me yet !
It doesn't actually point the beam the other way, it just levels the cutoff. Image below is the standard dipped beam pattern: What the lever does is simply slide a bit of metal infront of the bit of the lens that allows the 'kick' on the left, essentially makes the top of the pattern level all the way across.
Eh it dose not either mention that they will make you drive over yor detector either? But I will agree the French roads are very well built and maintained.
