Safe Speed Forums

Just a quick question, you know how when we take our cars over to the continent, we have to stick little yellow things on our headlights to stop them dazzling oncoming drivers to our left, do european cars coming over here have to do the same thing?

There's a bunch of them parked on my road and I haven't noticed any such stickers. I'm wondering if that and the increades immigration from the EU would explain my increasing difficulty with getting dazzled by oncoming headlights these last few months.

(note: I'm not anti-immigration, just observing that there's more of it now)

Yes they should, I doubt very few actually do.

They should as in "it's a legal requirement" or as in "it would be nice if they were considerate enough to do that"?

I would guess it would be against the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 - ... lights .... not allowed to be used on a road.... to cause undue dazzle and discomfort.
It's something like that anyway. I notice it doesn't apply to reversing lights

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Andrew.

It's the local network of single carriageways where people get me with their bloody lights, it's enough to prevent me from being able to see the road, it's markings or it's edge at all! If a set of reversing lights were coming at me I'd have a lot more to worry about though, I guess

My parents car has French headlights fitted, as they live there, and when they have visited here they put the deflectors on - however, some modern lamps dont need them, and can be adjusted to suit.

My own car does not need them in France, I merely lower the beam just a fraction, and all dazzle goes!
I was told that this is because the headlamp glass no longer incorporates lens prisms, and so the deflectors which mask the prisms which light UP the nearside verge are not effective anymore.

Others might disagree!
I think the increased dazzle you have noticed is just down to a general atitude of not bothering to check or adjust anything in your car any more by many drivers. Front fog drivers are now endemic around us - a 4.5 mile journey will typically see 4 - 5 drivers with ALL front facing lights on EVERY day - and more when it is wet, which DOES cause dazzle!

I just cannot understand why the government does not advertise the fact it is antisocial, (like the old "I've been pinched" yellow box junction adverts) or detail a police car to pull them all over for a week or so and deliver the message PERSONALLY!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I'm not sure it is just down to the front fog brigade and people with misaligned headlights. The first lot are easy to spot so you'll have to take my word for it that I'm not on about them. The cars that have been getting me of late have always had both headlights at the same brightness, both of them blinding me. Normally with misaligned headlights only one of them does this.

I suppose it could be that thanks to manual height adjusters, people have both of them set too high as it lets them see better, but they've been around for ages and this is definitely a recent problem for me.

The other explanation is that I could be developing some kind of eye problem that makes me more sensitive to it. Does such a condition exist?

Are you referring to the height adjustment on the dash?
If so, I do not believe it is possible to aim the headlamps higher than what they should be Lum.


"Photo" sensitivity does indeed exist.

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

It is with a couple of sacks of sand in the boot.

Or 2 people in the back seats.....

The headlamp level adjuster on the dash is supposed to be factory set so that in the highest position, the headlights are correctly aligned with the car full of fuel and a driver in it. Most other load conditions tend to require some adjustment and the only adjustment possible should be downwards.

Unfortunately, these do a different job to the beam converters, Teh dipped beam is supposed to be low to the offside of the car and higher towards the nearside. It is generally achieved mainly by masking the bulb filamet (or part of it). The lens patterns doesn't do that much. Dropping the dashboard adjust can probably stop you dazzling other drivers but won't give the correct beam pattern. All you will be doing is dropping the "high" part of the beam to a level low enough not to dazzle - which means the low part of the beam will then be way too low.

LHD lamps could be used with beam converters on our roads (it is illegal not to) but I suspect the BIB can't be bothered trying to fine a foreign motorist. All the beam converters do is block off the "high" side of the beam so, effectively, you're left with two "low sides" - similar to adjusting the dashboard adjuster way down.

The other possibility, if the LHD cars are ones for whci RHD equivalents are common, is that the lights will have been replaced for RHD lights. There should be an arrow moulded into the lens or on the approval sticker showing which way they dip.

Some cars have a slidy thing in the rear of the headlamp that (I think) pushes a mask across the reflector that blocks the beam "kick up". For older headlamps with moulded front lenses I think the stick-on masks are the only solution.

..............or you can use a bit of insulation tape!