209 Xenon adjusting lights for driving in France

[clk320x]

Hi chaps,

I’ve been told it’s possible to adjust my xenons to drive in France using some kind of lever inside the lamp?

Last time I used the ‘beam bender’ stickers. The adhesive from them is STILL ON MY LIGHTS!!!! as it’s a ****ing pain to remove!

So I’d rather not go through that again, although at least I’d know exactly where to stick them back lol

Cheers
Abs

 

[Quackers]

I'm not sure on MB's but from memory on my M3 there is a little lever (I think it was) possibly under a rubber bungy type thing on the top side of the headlight.
Have you had a mooch around under there?
Or maybe have a look in the manual and see if it's mentioned.

And I think petrol with some elbow grease will get rid of the glue. But don't leave petrol on there in case it starts eating the lens

 

[clk320x]

I'm not sure on MB's but from memory on my M3 there is a little lever (I think it was) possibly under a rubber bungy type thing on the top side of the headlight.
Have you had a mooch around under there?
Or maybe have a look in the manual and see if it's mentioned.

No idea mate, I did have a look but there’s nothing obvious and with the lamps being xenon im hesitant to just whip open the covers and have a dig... (30,000 volts lol)

Cheers

 

[Quackers]

Understood
Do you have a manual to browse?

 

[Quackers]

Different car but might give you a clue (post no 5)
Headlight switching for Europe (LHD).

 

[clk320x]

Different car but might give you a clue (post no 5)
Headlight switching for Europe (LHD).

Cheers pal, I think for this trip I’ll just go for the stickers, seems a bit tricky! I hear on the newer cars it can be done from the dash (I’m not jealous at all )

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Call into a dealer, they may do it for free. Our local dealer used to do it for me.

 

[MercedesDriver]

CLK W209 Headlight adjustment

 

[Crazyfool]

You’ve got me thinking now. I’m currently planning a road trip to Barcelona via the south coast of France.

My 59 plate A4 S-Line had a setting on the Drivers Information System to adjust the lights. It drop the level of the light slightly. The other great feature was it would remind you you were driving on the other side of the road every time the car was started.

There’s nothing on my 14 plate E-Class. We took it to Northern France last year but it was all daytime driving so I didn’t bother doing anything about it.


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[Petrol Pete]

I had a Volvo (hire car..again) once in Europe and I was popping back and forth to the UK in it on weekends. In the owners manual there was a template to help the driver make 'black tape' stickers to put on the headlamp lenses. nice touch.

black tape is not ideal , beam benders are better, but a real pain if you are popping back and forth across the channel. can get expensive. Not to mention a royal pain in the butt peeling them off.

 

[Tiim533]

Cheers pal, I think for this trip I’ll just go for the stickers, seems a bit tricky! I hear on the newer cars it can be done from the dash (I’m not jealous at all )

Yeh it's dead easy

E-Class - Interactive Owner's Manual

 

[tonyspicer]

I imported a LHD W209, with Xenon headlights, into the UK five years ago and with minor adjustment it passed the MOT. It is apparently to do the the "flat top" beam pattern of the beam which is good for both LHD & RHD. The bigger issue was for each subsequent MOT my garage rechecked & adjusted the beam alignment because the rough roads cause xenons to go out of alignment. I travel frequently backwards and forewords to France and have no problem with having to adjust the beams.
Same applies for the LED lights on my W205.

 

[Crazyfool]

I had a Volvo (hire car..again) once in Europe and I was popping back and forth to the UK in it on weekends. In the owners manual there was a template to help the driver make 'black tape' stickers to put on the headlamp lenses. nice touch.

black tape is not ideal , beam benders are better, but a real pain if you are popping back and forth across the channel. can get expensive. Not to mention a royal pain in the butt peeling them off.

I don’t have the intelligent system, in fact they look like this.

I’m guessing I’ll need beam benders?


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[Mr Filipov]

I don’t have the intelligent system, in fact they look like this.

I’m guessing I’ll need beam benders?


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That would be my guess. On my 212 pre-facelift with ILS there is a setting in Lights in the cluster which lets you select the side of the road you are on.

 

[Crazyfool]

It looks as though I have every setting apart from the left/right adjustment.


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[GP801]

There is no lever on ours - late 2003. The beam is pretty flat with the xenons so personally I dont bother masking it. If you do want to get some of the RAC branded beam benders. They only have adhesive on the outer edge and come off really easily. I have used these on the 124 for the past 10 years. Despite being easy to remove they stick well - 9 months of the year in Italy.

 

[Peter103]

In my mb handbook it say xenons do not need adjustment when driving on the right, the beam is flat and straight. We drive to Spain twice a year and have never had a problem.

 

[ph47mf]

I don’t have the intelligent system, in fact they look like this.

I’m guessing I’ll need beam benders?


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I got the exact car.

I checked it one night and didn't affect oncoming traffic (parked on the other side of the road) so I drove to bruges without any deflectors. No one flashed at me and no issues.

 

[Crazyfool]

I got the exact car.

I checked it one night and didn't affect oncoming traffic (parked on the other side of the road) so I drove to bruges without any deflectors. No one flashed at me and no issues.

The car is going on for a service in a couple of weeks time so I’ll enquire.


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[Petrol Pete]

Just a note. As I was popping back and forth over the channel and constantly swapping hire cars every two weeks or so I tied saving money by buying beam benders off flea bay. the looked the part and I stuck them on as I have always done, drove to the chunnel in daylight. by the time I got there they had fallen off ! it had rained for about 10 minutes during the journey. Fakes, obviously.

I then had to buy massively overpriced ones at the Tunnel Terminal.