Headlamp deflectors

[hama]

Are these things necessary for the scirocco, I can't seem to work out the whys and whatnots surrounding the need for headlight deflectors.

I'm travelling onto the continent soon and want to be prepared. If they are necessary, does anyone have any experience with finding the right place on the headlamps to put the stickers?

[Rising_SiD]

It says in the manual that stickers, which of course can only be applied by a VW Technician , are available

[Nobby]

I live in France & come back to Blighty a couple of times a year in my French car

To be honest I don't bother with the deflectors and I never get flashed so I guess I'm not dazzling anyone, I drive an X-Trail so it's quite a high car,

The deflectors only block your dipped beam, so as long as your headlamps are correctly adjusted they shoule be fine without,
they just dip to the middle of the road instead of the gutter when you're on the other side of the road

[hama]

I eventually applied the deflectors, albeit mere seconds before driving off the ferry at Calais. They fell off days later but after a month of driving around the continent, no one flashed me so I don't suppose it's all that much of a concern.

[ffiish]

Has anyone had any experience with the Bi-xenons? Ordinarily headlamp stickers don't work as the lights get too hot, so some cars have a switch to change their orientation from RHD to LHD.

My previous car (a Mazda 3) the headlights where pointed so low it made no difference anyway (carp for driving on country roads!).

Just ordered a new Scirocco with Bi-xenons and would like to know what I've let myself in for!

[maisbitt]

Don't have Xenons, but according to the manual, driving on the continent (for UK drivers, or vice versa) with Xenons requires a technician to adjust your lights to the correct orientation. I suppose changing the light orientation is more important with Xenons as you're much more likely to dazzle somebody with those brighter lights.

[AL1874]

In have heard this before from various manufacturers in there handbooks and it is always correct for all models.

With the scirocco there is only one part number for the rear lights for RHD/LHD so the fog lights can be used for both mainland Europe and the UK.

However there is separate part numbers for scirocco headlamps (both bi-xenon and halogens) so this would suggest it is not the case as why would they go to the expence of porducing to variants.

But it would not hurt to ask the dealer to make sure.

[Richard A]

Well, just to add more confusion to this topic... I'm off on a little trip to central Europe in a week or so and called the dealer re. what to do with bi-xenons. They called back the following day to say that VW provide a kit for about £18 which is basically a pair of blanks to stick over the headlight covers. I was very clear about the fact that I had adaptive bi-xenons as OE, but all they could say was that this was the correct approach for my chassis number (which to me was not the same as 100% confirming that we were talking about adaptive bi-xenons).

Can this be right? I always assumed that with an adaptive bi-xenon setup, there was some sort of VAG.COM tweaking based approach.

The thing about bi-xenons on dip is that they angle up a bit on the left to cover the kerb (on a UK car) and then, as you look further to the left, the cut off line goes horizontal again. This is different to conventional halogen headlights where the beam angles up on the left and the cut off line carries on going up at the same angle, as you look further left. Having said that, when driving on the right, an oncoming lowish riding car would probably still get a significant dose of dazzling light from bi-xenons on a straight road.

I'm going to try and see if I can get through to a technical specialist at VW GB and get them to confirm that the stick on patch approach is really the only way to do this with adaptive bi-xenons. It does seem a bit regressive if standard bi-xenons are provided with a mechanical lever to change the cutoff, but the more advanced adaptive bi-xenons require a stick on patch, meaning that as with halogens, you don't get right handside kerb coverage when on the continent.

I know it's easy just to forget about it, but I like to treat others the same way I would expect them to treat me, i.e. not be dazzled, so I'd like to find a solution.

[Richard A]

Just noticed another thread touching on this --> http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... ent#p49364" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I still can't help thinking that the VW patches are for the standard headlamps... I mean, given that headlamp washers are mandatory (EU legislation) on bi-xenons, precisely because a covering of dirt on the covers is considered likely to refract the light in such a way as to dazzle oncoming drivers, I can't imagine that the stick on deflector approach is going to work.

Oh, well, I'll see what I can turn up tomorrow.

[trix]

ahem http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... non+switch" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Richard A]

Ah ha, didn't see that one. Thanks, Trix.

Also, just did a bit of re-trawling of the web and turned up this rather useful document (not from VW of course) -->

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/h5djr/elsa ... riving.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This even distinguishes between normal bi-xenons and adaptives. I'll add the link to the other thread too.