Driving in France with Xenon headlights

[chiefrick]

Morning,

I have a 2011 Audi A3 Black Edition with the xenon headlights, I am off to France in July and noticed in the book it says you need to take your car to an Audi dealer to get the headlights adjusted for driving on RHS of the road.

I have been doing some searches, and there is differing opinions about whether the beam deflectors work on these xenon headlights due to the additional heat from the xenon lamps?

Does anyone know whether the beam deflectors will work or had experience of this?

Thanks
Rick

 

[Boydie]

When you say beam deflectors, do you mean the yellow stickers you put on your headlights? I remember as a kid my dad putting them on our volvo's when we drove to france!

Speak with Audi and see what the process is to change them to RHS - maybe it can be done via vagcom??

 

[Gti Jazz Blue]

Certainly on the earlier 8Ps it was a setting in the module that could be done using VCDS (new name for VAGCOM).

Paul

 

[NHN]

You have to go into module 55 & into an adaptation channel & set tourist mode, this lowers the beam, doesnt switch it to lhd/rhd accordingly, audi may be nice the day you go in, but most would want an hours charge, hence another reason why vcds is good to have

 

[JonnyTDI]

Hi, drove to France and picked these up at The AA shop at Eurotunnel, and did not get stopped ... they say they work for Xenon ...

Buy Beam converters from theAA.com/shop

I have a 58 plate A3 Sportback with Xenons

 

[roman3000]

Personally I wouldn't worry about it. Plus its not like many peplople coming to the UK from Europe adapt their headlights.

 

[NHN]

Plus its not like many peplople coming to the UK from Europe adapt their headlights.

So effing true, really is lmfao nail/head

 

[PilotAudi]

Morning,

I have a 2011 Audi A3 Black Edition with the xenon headlights, I am off to France in July and noticed in the book it says you need to take your car to an Audi dealer to get the headlights adjusted for driving on RHS of the road.


Does anyone know whether the beam deflectors will work or had experience of this?

Thanks
Rick

Hi Rick

See you there maybe! We have tended to avoid driving at night! The days are long and you will not need lights until after 10pm (they are an hour ahead). If you are doing a lot of night driving you either chance it, pay Audi (unless they are feeling generous), buy the AA stickers or make your own with electrical tape... or our option take the other Audi that has the adjustment capability in the MMI. So simple I wonder why the A3 doesn't have it!

 

[NHN]

Yeah & why they cant make the lenses so they can switch sides is beyond me, they have the brains & technology to do this, but fail on many fronts & end up costing us the earth to resolve, IMHO they could save themselves a bundle by making headlights dual sided & selection based on coding, so no need to manufacture multiples if you get me, which is why they have changed yet again to making/supplying single version electronic modules for cars now instead of basic, mid & high line versions, there bean counters finally woke up to finances.

 

[h5djr]

Perhaps on the NEW A3 it will be a simple setting using the DIS as it is on some other Audi models.

 

[NHN]

Yeah probably will, but lets be honest it wont be a lhd/rhd proper swap will it mate, just lower the beam which to me is just poor, very.

 

[PilotAudi]

You are right the MMI Touring Mode on the A5 just drops the beams a bit.

 

[c_w]

Yeah & why they cant make the lenses so they can switch sides is beyond me, they have the brains & technology to do this, but fail on many fronts & end up costing us the earth to resolve, IMHO they could save themselves a bundle by making headlights dual sided & selection based on coding, so no need to manufacture multiples if you get me, which is why they have changed yet again to making/supplying single version electronic modules for cars now instead of basic, mid & high line versions, there bean counters finally woke up to finances.

To be able to change the beam pattern electronically from coding means additional hardware inside the headlight which is probably cost prohibitive and a bit OTT for a feature that 99.9% of the time will never be used. AUDI already went back to standard basic halogen headlights on most A3/A4s (where the previous A4 had projectors) so they obviously see them as a cost saving potential.

A mechanically lever perhaps on top of the unit might work to flip the projection, but I think justlowering the beam is enough!

 

[NHN]

I understand the requirements of the abilities to make a dual use headlight, but the adaptive headlights have up/down & left/right abilities already with more & more cars having xenons & more technical features as standard anyway, so it may become standard at some point in the future.

I'm sure with the tefal heads at vag can come up with something economical that allows just 1 use & therefore would save the cost of different versions manfuctured.

If they were to work out the cost of producing differnt types, against just producing the 1 type for a chassis, it may very well be even stevens or be better to make the dual version, given the more parts they buy for a given design, the cheaper it is as with any sector in the business world, there's a bigger picture to this than some of us care to look at, also have to consider the savings in logistics, electricity, etc etc etc, it would maybe drop by half or more if one company produced the 1 type, if you get my point & that percentage may cover the difference in cost to produce even if its not used in as you say 99.999% of cases.

Its a convenience option more than anything, which audi seem to be adding more electronically by each release, so we can change things ourselves rather than relying on a dealer.