Continental motoring

I think I tried to use these once on my Spitfire (UK to NL roads) but although they said they were for round headlights, they lied, the beam benders are far too stiff for those types of lights and just fall off. COuld be useful for the volvo though. I wonder if they do benders for continental headlights?

Stu

[morsing]

4.99 for changing a lightbulb?? There was a survey in DK last year where they checked prices for changing a lightbulb. Problem is that on many new compact cars you (as in ordinary people) can't do it yourself. You need to remove the battery at least. I think they found an average price at around 50-60 pounds!!

You should remember to adjust the lights if you change the bulb which most people don't know how to do.

DRL has been compulsory in DK for more than ten years. I have never heard it would be illigal but I'm sure they're flashing you because they think you forgot to turn them off.

Cheers

[markas]

Hi all,

Stu i used to work in Amsterdam, Zeist and Rotterdam as well a several places in Germany and neter had any problems.

I have a green saloon are you sure it wan't me you seen as i always use the harwick/hook route.

As for the legalitty of the GB and NL on the plate, actually it is invalid due to the Geneva Convention how hand out the Country letters. You must carry one of those rather large stickers guys :-( i too have the gb/owner club plate, it ruins the paint work :-(

I always use the deflectors but i'll try that metro outfit. One year i couldn't be bothered so i used insulation tape to cover the required areas, right cheap skate that trip.

Mark

Nope the car I was mentioning was my own green estate, I always use the deflectors, as dazzelling and improper use of lights is a pet hate of mine (people with side lights and fog lights, or fog lights in anything other than adverse conditions)

Stu

I never knew you had to carry both, I don't do that I must admit. The Spit has a large UK sticker that covers the hole in the bumper :), but the volvo just has the NL badge on the plate.

You can't change bulbs now on modern cars? That's as bad as the old sealed beams that require the bonnet to be dismantled to change the bulb (Still don't know how to do it on the Spitfire).

Thankfully I hate compact cars and will always drive something that is at least not too bad (hopefullt) to change the bulbs. After saying that there is a nice large platic cover right over where you need to get to change the bulb on the V40.....

Stu

[cbyard]

Surely on a Spit you just remove the headlamp bezel from the front (one screw) then undo three small screws which retain the inner bezel around the sealed beam unit. The unit then drops out and can be unplugged from the wiring. It's just a big, funny shaped bulb, really.

If someone has updated to Halogen the process should be pretty similar except that then you just replace the bulb not the whole unit.

Chris (13/60 estate)

PS Also a 240 caravan tug with aluminium flashing tape beam deflectors.

PPS Tape isn't really a deflector, it just cuts off the left side beam kick-up on dip to give a flat topped beam pattern which doesn't dazzle, but isn't as effective to drive behind either.

But how do you get the screw? The Spit has plastic cowls that shape the front of the car.......

I guess I am going to find out in a couple of years when it gets renovated.

Incidently the whole practice carrying a spare set of bulbs (on the continent) becomes so much more fun when you are not carrying a small plug in bulb but a 7" sealed beam unit....

Stu

>Nope the car I was mentioning was my own green estate, I
>always use the deflectors, as dazzelling and improper use of
>lights is a pet hate of mine (people with side lights and fog
>lights, or fog lights in anything other than adverse
>conditions)

You must love living in Holland then, seeing as nobody in Holland ever drive around with foglights and dipped beam and side lights and 50 other lights on at the same time, do they ;-)

>
>Stu
>
>I never knew you had to carry both, I don't do that I must
>admit. The Spit has a large UK sticker that covers the hole
>in the bumper :), but the volvo just has the NL badge on the
>plate.

You do not, this is not true. You do not even have to carry a sticker denoting the country of origin provided that the car is registered in an EU memberstate. That the French have rules saying you must is their problem. The Germans have got it best, in my opinion. All number plates showing local authority where car is registered and the country code incorporated into the design. The French and the Dutch have the latter, looks good too. The Belgians, well, 80 of all number plate holders have the B on them and then a European flag and 80 of all cars have number plate holders... very Belgian if you ask me.

George

Anglo-Swede resident near Leuven in Belgium

'87 745 GLE Turbo Diesel Intercooler (D24TIC/ZF22, 200k)
'88 745 Turbo Intercooler (B230ET/M46, 270k)
'88 745 GL (B200E/M47, 200k)
'89 440 GL (B18K/M55, 90k)

The ones that really get me are the people who have these stupid blue LED washer jets. I know this is (supposed) to be illegal in the UK, I would have thought that is was over here as well, but if it is then no one is stopping the 100% car stores supplying them, or the car / lorry drivers from using them.

There was a program, Blik op de weg - look at the road / can on the road - where they used police footage. They stopped a trogladite in his Golf GTi with the Knight Rider LED's in the front, asked him to turn the off and carried on saying what a wonderful job they had done, meanwhile the trogladite was probably turning his LED's back on.

Other issues with the the Dutch police is that they seem to follow cars until they start to slow down, then do them for the most expensive thing, rather than stopping dangerous drivers when they see them. Claiming that it was too dangerous to stop them is the favorite reason for this....

Stu

[cbyard]

Looks like I sounded off prematurely... been looking at some spits today at TSSC SEM at Leatherhead- they're nothing like Heralds, except early ones which have a snap on rim which can be levered of with a screwdriver.

On later spits, the cowl is retained by three fixings- a stud at the lower outer corner which is fixed by a nut inside the wing and two bolts, one vertical under approximately the middle of the bottom of the cowl and the other horizontal going sideways into the cowl from inside the nose of the bonnet. Presumably all of these can be reached with more or less contortions from inside the raised bonnet. Once you've done that bit, you can see the thre screws holding the headlamp itself.....

Don't envy you much! :-)

Cheers

Chris