(G) Headlamp Conversion (for mainland Europe)

The Stilo is just outside Paris at the moment and I'm getting quite a few French drivers flashing me at night. I've fitted some stick on converters but the stupid thing is I've little idea where to put them on the headlamp and they're obviously in the wrong place (tried a few different positions).

Has anyone got an image of where they should be placed (I think the position is marked on the OEM Fiat Headlamp protectors but I don't have those ) ?

Apart from that the Stilo is driving great!

stilojoe is selling a set, might give a bit of guidance from the pic shown

http://www.fiatforum.com/classifieds...ct=8758&cat=68

have a look there

They're probably just saying "Bonjour Anglais" as the French just love English tourists
Flash them back, they'll love you all the more

surely it cant be that bad if you can still drive it okay over here, or have they got more sensitive eyes

they might just love your car

be sure to get a few pictures of it there, near the l'arc the triumph, chante lisae, eiffel tower etc

Untill you get it sorted set your headlight adjusters to '3' and that will reduce the blinding affect.

i think it has something to do with the beam pattern stopping you blinding oncoming traffic... if your driving on the other side of the road, the pattern is wrong for oncoming traffic so they get blinded...

... or atleast i think its something along those lines.

Never driven abroad then josh the reason they are flashing him is the way His car headlamps are set up for the UK..

your passenger side headlamp is aimed high and to the left to pick up the edge of the road and signs and your drivers side is set lower and more of a fan shape to illuminate the road.. obviously when your driving on the "wrong side" of the road you left hand lamp is shining into the eyes of oncoming cars...

Do you have your hand book with you Argonought? on my punto there is a diagram in the book as to where to put black tape to mask out the light (surely the stilo is the same?)

Thanks guys

I`d already tried a similar position to that shown by Steely, so what I did in the end was get someone to stand in the position of an oncoming car and simply move the mask around until he wasn't blinded so much. Seems it needs to be a bit higher than shown on the protectors

There's absolutely no information in the handbook and as I've already said no markings on the hedlamps at all

I'll post an image when I get back in case it helps anyone else

If the headlamp convertors you're taling about are 'beam benders' then you typically just place them over where you can physically see the headlamp bulb for the main lights.

As stated above, most modern cars with clear headlamps don't have any markings on them as was common on cars with 'frosted' glass headlamps.

Has anyone ever priced up how much it'd cost to get a pair of European headlight clusters? I generally spend minimum 6 weeks a year working in Germany, and I'm planning on taking the car next time (when we're out there we're only 1 1/2 hours from Nurburgring ) so I'd like to get the actual clusters in there rather than messing about with beam benders.

Good plan, although how easy is it to remove the headlights? I know from experience on other cars you have to remove items like bumpers & grilles to get to some of the bolts securing the headlights (this is certainly the case on some Mercedes & VW models). On the other hand the current Ford Focus only has one screw to hold in the lights and a number of plastic clips.

Surely the European ebay sites e.g. ebay.it, ebay.de, ebay.fr are worth a try?

Just in case it helps anyone else this is where I ended up placing the beam converters (obviously it's the same position on each side). These are semi-translucent simple prisms but the position should be much the same for blanking masks.