Headlight beam deflectors

[MoneyPolice]

Hi all

I'm taking my 2017 Tipo 1.6 estate to France and Belgium in the spring. Any recommendations on the best (or easiest to fit!) headlight beam deflectors.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

What sort of head lights do you have?

Some for example the LED head lights on my wife’s mini don’t need them and it’s possible this is the case with some HID models.

My golf has head light protectors and these came with a set of specific deflectors designed specifically for the head lights I put them on the protectors and then just take the protectors on and off when they are needed.

Other than this a set of cheap stick on things are essentially all you need, they don’t ‘deflect’ they just block the part of the U.K. headlight pattern which would normally light up reflective road side signs, but in France would shine in the eyes of other drivers on the other side of the road, so they really don’t need to be anything fancy. The same approach can be achieved with a small piece of black insulation tape applied to the right part of the beam.

 

[MoneyPolice]

Sorry for the late reply!

According to the manual, I've got the 'polyelliptical' lights with the LED daytime running lights running in a chain along the edge of the light cluster.

I've attached a picture.

 

[varesecrazy]

Other than this a set of cheap stick on things are essentially all you need, they don’t ‘deflect’ they just block the part of the U.K. headlight pattern which would normally light up reflective road side signs, but in France would shine in the eyes of other drivers on the other side of the road, so they really don’t need to be anything fancy. The same approach can be achieved with a small piece of black insulation tape applied to the right part of the beam.[/QUOTE]

Agreed..

Word of caution-

I used black tape on a works van.. drove back from Genf overnight through a major storm.

Lens was supercooled outside..and well heated inside

Probably ok in a headlight lab....

But it cracked the lens along the line of the tape.. a tad embarrasing.. both lamps had a wedge profile crack near the centre


I had used the yellow 'beam benders' on French trips in my OLD tipo.

But the transit lamps were devoid of any lines for mounting guidance.. hence the tape

 

[s130]

So thinking logically about this. (note last year I used black tape on my 500X)

You have a beam of light with radiant energy that would normally pass through the outer plastic headlamp enclosure. Instead the light/energy hits the "black body" heat sink of the black tape and thus heats the tape. This creates a potential hard line of hot vs cold in the plastic lamp cover. Add cooling rain/snow then the boundary temperature differentials can be large enough to create a localised expansion fault line resulting in the plastic splitting/cracking.

So.

o incandescent bulbs generate 90% heat and 10% light
o halogen bulbs generate 80% heat and 20% light
o HID / Xenon generate 40% or less heat and 60% or more light
o LED 10% heat 90% light

So I would be guessing that with HID/Xenon or LED lamps AND a decent volumetric spacing between bulb/light source and the exit plastic interface then unless there are overriding artic temperatures and conditions then blanking with black tape should not be a big problem for LED or Xenon lights.

For next year I'll invest in some silver tape.

Also I'm going to do a hand temperature test on the surface of my 500X's headlamps just to get a feeling and gugue any potential issues.

Thanks for raising this potential issue varesecrazy