(G) Headlights - driving on the continent

I'm taking the Bravo to its homeland in July and was wondering what's best to do about the headlights so as not to dazzle oncoming drivers?

The headlights don't seem to flick up to the left (to illuminate road signs) as much as some cars, so wonder if anything is really needed, but assuming it is, are those 'beam bender' things any good or do I need to mask off an area of the lens cover?

have a look in the manual on my Grande punto there is a picture showing where to mask off the lenses with black insulation tape

I believe the Bravo handbook says go to dealer?! What I do with my Alfa is park it infront of the garage door with headlights on, then using one of those stickers, move it about until it cuts off the offending bit of the light, then stick it on. I only do this on the passenger side light as the beam from other one doesnt go that far over.

We are going over in May so will let you know if this works!

Whereabouts are you going?

Thanks Prov, had thought of trying that...

We're heading down for a quick blast around the French alps, then crossing into Italy for a few days in the Aosta valley, then popping over to Como for a few days in the lakes... We're also taking the cheapskate toll free route there and back so we get to visit Belguim, Luxembourg and Switzerland on the way down & back...

Sounds good. We're off down south, in between Rome and Naples where I have loads of family (co incidently is about 30 miles from Cassino where the Bravos are made!).

Ive done the Luxembourg bit before, but prefer France, roads are much emptier (and quite cheap from Basel to Calais if you go past Nancy most of the motorways are free, the only pay bit is from Reims to Calais)

You'll get headlight deflectors at dover with instructions on where to fit them. Only a few quid.

I had a play against the garage door. The tops of the beams are pretty flat already - they don't seem to have the bit most headlights do that angles up towards the left to illuminate road signs. Having said that, I have noticed that the dipped beams aren't very good at illuminating signs anyway. Are all Bravo headlights like this? I have upgraded the bulbs to Osram Nightbreakers - maybe that's had an effect on the beam pattern (can't think why though...)

Anyhow, what little irregularity there was was easily covered up by black pvc insulation tape, you just need to use loads of it as the lense covers are miles from the headlight lense... I ended up with three strips wide by about 5" long!

You can always move the headlights down to the lowest setting, which will help. Dont forget on Italian motorways its the law to have dipped beams on all the time

When I took my GPS over to France a short while back, I just put the lights to the lowest setting and left it at that, never got flashed at etc etc

Then just flick them back up again for country lanes or whatever.

I go over fairly often in various cars, and the best one was my mums 99 Audi cabriolet that had a lever to switch the beam to LHD type.