Driving in Europe - Xenons

newbiecrg

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Hi guys, I plan to drive in Europe a lot with my S3. What do I need to do to change the beam from the headlights to suit driving in Europe? Do I need to buy specific headlights or I can just change the beam orientation?

Thanks
Pedro
 
You should have what are sometimes referred to as 'Tourist levers' on the back of the headlights, switching this lever over flattens the beam pattern and gets rid of the RHD 'kick-up' to prevent glare when on the continent..:icon_thumright:
 
If you find it let me know what it looks like please as I can't find mine.

I believe some have to be done via the VAG-COM?
 
These levers don't do the trick I'm afraid. I tried it on my Xenons in September, but all they do is lower the beams, not properly adjust them to provide the kick needed on the verge side. I tried many times in front of my garage door, looking at the beam patterns, on an empty road and also in Europe.

I found that the best option by far was to buy some of the sticky plastic deflectors for about £6.99 - they have a positioning guide for the A3 xenons in the list that comes with them. They worked really well and despite my initial concerns about heat from the lights and an inability to get them off again, I did 2000 miles, most with lights on and they came off easily - just needed a bit of glass cleaner to get the last bit of residue off.

Or you could go the official route by going to your dealer and having them re-align your lights for Europe at 30 mins labour each way, so about £100! This was Audi's only official option.

Point to note also is that our foreign police friends love to pull us over for the slightest irregularity and having no visible sign of making an effort with your lights can be one of them. At least with the patches, it looks like you've tried. Try explaining to them that you have twiddled with some lever in the light to sort it in French or German!

Look out for another similar post on here - Dave R posted a link to a pdf which shows where the levers are if you still want to have a go. However, if you have sausage fingers you might struggle as they are way inside the light housing.