Does anyone bother these days ?
My 2019 Vitara does not have any easy way of altering the beam height, so far as I can see.
On dipped they are a flat ish LED, but on full beam halogens.
On my last big road trip, September/October ‘23, I can’t remember whether the beam pattern affected oncoming traffic…
Should I bother with beam deflectors ? Driving Dieppe > Andorra > Malaga> Calp > Bilbao so quite a few kilometres, hopefully not many of them in the dark.
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Halfords and others sell beam deflectors which seem to suit most cars:
www.halfords.com/motoring/travel-accessories/car-headlamp-converters/halfords-headlamp-converters-151225.html
We've used them on the Xantia, both Berlingos and my Fabia. Seem to do the job. Not sure I'd want to travel long distances at night on unlit roads as they seem to compromise light output. They're fine in tunnels or going back home after dinner in town.
As we're regular visitors to France we try to keep a set in the car but missed it last time. Normally something I'd do in the ferry assembly area but forgot. Could still have got them on the boat.
Only remembered when we go to a tunnel on the autoroute and the 'allumez vos feux' signs made me say some rude words. Had to manage without as you cannot find deflectors for RHD in France, Turned the 'lingo's lights as low as they go and only got flashed by other drivers a couple of
I've put a set in both cars since we got back.
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Drive the car up to wall and check for any “kick up” to the left . If there isn’t any , you don’t need converting masks .
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Thanks Seville Orange :-)
Friends got pulled up by Les Flics in France for not having them. Other friends drive thousands of miles a year in France without.
I’ll buy some, and depending on any “kick up” will either fit or just keep with my documents. Ta.
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Just buy and fit the bloomin things.
They're way less than a tenner and avoid any possible issues with les flics over the existence/extent of any 'kick up' or, worse, insurers after an accident.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 27 Aug 24 at 20:43
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I wonder how the police know? Do they just pull you on the off chance and wait for you to prove that (like mine) you just change the car's setting to LHD which alters the lights.
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On my last couple of cars, you can change the side your lights dip from an option in the settings menu, and indeed change the digital speed readings to kph.
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>> On my last couple of cars, you can change the side your lights dip from
>> an option in the settings menu, and indeed change the digital speed readings to kph.
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Not on a basic Vitara you can’t.
No digital speedo either, even on the latest models. Consequently I bought a stick on digital speedo from Amazon, plugs into the cig lighter and can be altered between mph/kph, gives journey times etc. In line of sight on top of dash, RHS, unobtrusive, and the font changes colour when exceeding speed limit...although I don’t trust it to be accurate viz speed limit.
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I think the later vitara hybrid models have an option to display digital speed in the dash display.
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Then I stand corrected…friends of mine bought the later hybrid model as a runaround.
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Suzuki - Headlight beam deflectors - Bromptonaut
