Headlights for France -please help.

[chesterpiglet]

Fantastic information. I am a out 15 k from the geographical centre of France. A lovely little medieval village called Hérisson. It was recently voted 3rd best village 2021 in the whole of France by TF1 ( french number 1 tv channel) in a competition that took about 6 months of knock out rounds to complete. You obviously know France well so you know how many amazing villages there are. I only moved here end of October last year. Just got my Carte Séjour. Like I say, central France isn’t really considered a great tourist region and I get that, but we are 5k away from the biggest natural oak forest in Europe. For a small village there is a hell of a lot of entertainment here. We have an international theatre company based here, An Oscar winning song writer (think Commitments and Once) and erm ….Me! Lol. So anyone who has helped, Pm me if you are passing

Not far from me either, we are about 30km west of you in the Allier. You have a fantastic Brocante which I missed this year. It always makes me smile as Herisson is French for Hedgehog! I've been here 14 years now............how time flies.

 

[JohnyCat]

Not far from me either, we are about 30km west of you in the Allier. You have a fantastic Brocante which I missed this year. It always makes me smile as Herisson is French for Hedgehog! I've been here 14 years now............how time flies.

Next time you visit . PM me for a coffee or A beer. It would be great to meet you

 

[chesterpiglet]

Next time you visit . PM me for a coffee or A beer. It would be great to meet you

I live here too! I can't PM you until you get to 30 posts but will do then.

 

[BfgSLKMan]

OK, i can help here. I have a rhd UK car and this has been exported to Germany (permanently). I have the multibeam LED (full fat system) - is this what you have? ie the ones with the projector closest to the radiator grille not the high performance ones with the projector on the outside of the headlamp next to the wing?

If so this post will save you a fortune:

Contact Comand Online in Lightwater and get the car re-coded to LHD headlights. I won't quote a price on here as mine were done three years ago. It will take about 30 to 45 mins and essentially the car is plugged in Xentry and told it is now LHD. In the multibeam LED's there is no shutter only computer controlled LED's. The different part numbers refer to LHD or RHD coded units when they leave the headlamp factory. When you go back to UK you adjust to Left Hand Traffic and they go flat, which is the opposite of what you would normally do by setting to Right Hand traffic when you go to France. When you go for you French MOT you switch off the dynamic and they will kick up to the Right (as opposed to the left on the original coding). They will also replaced the rear light cluster with another fog light to leave you with two (no coding needed).

You can also ask MB to do this work and my local garage here in Germany was about 20% more expensive than Comand.

 

[JohnyCat]

OK, i can help here. I have a rhd UK car and this has been exported to Germany (permanently). I have the multibeam LED (full fat system) - is this what you have? ie the ones with the projector closest to the radiator grille not the high performance ones with the projector on the outside of the headlamp next to the wing?

If so this post will save you a fortune:

Contact Comand Online in Lightwater and get the car re-coded to LHD headlights. I won't quote a price on here as mine were done three years ago. It will take about 30 to 45 mins and essentially the car is plugged in Xentry and told it is now LHD. In the multibeam LED's there is no shutter only computer controlled LED's. The different part numbers refer to LHD or RHD coded units when they leave the headlamp factory. When you go back to UK you adjust to Left Hand Traffic and they go flat, which is the opposite of what you would normally do by setting to Right Hand traffic when you go to France. When you go for you French MOT you switch off the dynamic and they will kick up to the Right (as opposed to the left on the original coding). They will also replaced the rear light cluster with another fog light to leave you with two (no coding needed).

You can also ask MB to do this work and my local garage here in Germany was about 20% more expensive than Comand.

Wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to post a long and detailed reply. my problem is now actually solved! I think my lights are the high performance ones with Intelligent light system. And After following the advice on here and going through the steering wheel commands…Settings, Lights, change to Right hand driving, it has achieved what you have so helpfully posted. Your post could have indeed saved me a fortune and probably will save someone a fortune in the future. So thank you so much. Also, I was based at Minden with the Army, and went to university in Bremen For my year abroad. So out of interest where abouts are you? Thanks again

 

[JohnyCat]

So…..A big thanks to everyone who has helped. I had my pre- voluntary, French MOT inspection (full test just results not put on the system) cost me 70 euros and my car passed without any advisories (phew!). The adjustment through the steering wheel menu also solved the fog light issue. So I am just dancing. I can still remember my deep shock/dismay when told that it would cost me 4k plus fitting to solve and one week on now it will pass for absolutely nothing! I really would have taken it back to the UK to sell if that had been the case ( UK second hand car prices are great for sellers) I actually got quotes from a few reputable garages and Parker’s, Glasses etc and as a minimum, I would have got back what I paid for it. I can’t thank you all enough. I am retired, so 4 -5k is a big deal to me.
And as I said. It is my first Mercedes, and I love it. The lights are night and day better (pun intended) than any car I have ever had before and I love them. For the record the Intelligent System still seems to work fine after the change. I was out last night and as I entered a village, I left my main beam on as a test and they dipped automatically on entering and switched back to main beam on leaving. I didn’t test with an oncoming car but I would alway manually switch anyway. They also did the full adaptive movement on start up and to the road conditions. so I am overjoyed.
I learned a few things from all this. If I include Mercedes Montluçon, I got four different answers from main dealers…..(well done Newcastle as the only one to have the right answer plus we’re the cheapest to swap them out if needed 2500 fitted.)
This forum is a class above any forum I have ever joined.
And there is a lot of disinformation on the internet.
I hope this thread will help others.
For those in this situation, a group of friends that I saw last night, insist that my French MOT station is wrong and that you can apply stickers for the test. Apparently most MOT stations will tell you this, but there is apparently a document on ex pat forums that you can hand to the testing station which gives them the legal statute to check. I don’t know if this is true, but this is what I thought was the case before I was told otherwise. So I would check that out.
Obviously, in my case , the solution given to me is the best.

So, Anyone wanting a break when driving through central France to a tourist hotspot…The beers are on me

 

[BoristheBounce]

So…..A big thanks to everyone who has helped. I had my pre- voluntary, French MOT inspection (full test just results not put on the system) cost me 70 euros and my car passed without any advisories (phew!). The adjustment through the steering wheel menu also solved the fog light issue. So I am just dancing. I can still remember my deep shock/dismay when told that it would cost me 4k plus fitting to solve and one week on now it will pass for absolutely nothing! I really would have taken it back to the UK to sell if that had been the case ( UK second hand car prices are great for sellers) I actually got quotes from a few reputable garages and Parker’s, Glasses etc and as a minimum, I would have got back what I paid for it. I can’t thank you all enough. I am retired, so 4 -5k is a big deal to me.
And as I said. It is my first Mercedes, and I love it. The lights are night and day better (pun intended) than any car I have ever had before and I love them. For the record the Intelligent System still seems to work fine after the change. I was out last night and as I entered a village, I left my main beam on as a test and they dipped automatically on entering and switched back to main beam on leaving. I didn’t test with an oncoming car but I would alway manually switch anyway. They also did the full adaptive movement on start up and to the road conditions. so I am overjoyed.
I learned a few things from all this. If I include Mercedes Montluçon, I got four different answers from main dealers…..(well done Newcastle as the only one to have the right answer plus we’re the cheapest to swap them out if needed 2500 fitted.)
This forum is a class above any forum I have ever joined.
And there is a lot of disinformation on the internet.
I hope this thread will help others.
For those in this situation, a group of friends that I saw last night, insist that my French MOT station is wrong and that you can apply stickers for the test. Apparently most MOT stations will tell you this, but there is apparently a document on ex pat forums that you can hand to the testing station which gives them the legal statute to check. I don’t know if this is true, but this is what I thought was the case before I was told otherwise. So I would check that out.
Obviously, in my case , the solution given to me is the best.

So, Anyone wanting a break when driving through central France to a tourist hotspot…The beers are on me

Hi Johny,

I've just caught up with this story and I'm so pleased you were able to get sorted. It just goes to show how useless some dealers are.

I notice you mention Newcastle as the one you said got it right and your location on your screen name says Bernard Castle, Is that play on Barnard Castle by any chance?

Cheers

Nev

 

[markjay]

All's well that ends well

I can't believe that the Germans actually built a clever car that can't be driven seamlessly across the channel...... not rocket science.

 

[tode]

All's well that ends well

I can't believe that the Germans actually built a clever car that can't be driven seamlessly across the channel...... not rocket science.

His car was manufactured before Brexit, so must have had (and still have) the European Cerificate of Conformity. A good read through the manual would have helped, I feel.

 

[Rpp999]

glad your all sorted, as I stated in an earlier post with regard to the beam bender stickers, they are totally legal.

 

[JohnyCat]

Hi Johny,

I've just caught up with this story and I'm so pleased you were able to get sorted. It just goes to show how useless some dealers are.

I notice you mention Newcastle as the one you said got it right and your location on your screen name says Bernard Castle, Is that play on Barnard Castle by any chance?

Cheers

Nev

It is Barnard Castle. And just a spelling mistake. Auto- correct just insisted on "Bernard’ right now. Lol Thanks for the heads up.
I will go and correct it. Newcastle were definitely the best. I bought my car at Mercedes Warrington. Not a patch on Newcastle in my opinion but others experiences may vary. I left Newcastle a good google review and got a nice reply from the MD. Looks like we are neighbours in the UK….

 

[JohnyCat]

His car was manufactured before Brexit, so must have had (and still have) the European Cerificate of Conformity. A good read through the manual would have helped, I feel.

By me? Or the main dealers? With my car there is only very limited info in the manual which often refers to " access the infotainment menu’ which I had to google a while ago how to do it. I wasn’t sure if I was missing a manual. Anyway, I think that it is only fair to expect Main dealers in France and the UK to know what they are doing which is presumably why they charge 140 pounds an hour….Also some people have health issues.
In any case I would rather come on this site and make a whole lot of new friends than spend hours reading a car manual

 

[JohnyCat]

glad your all sorted, as I stated in an earlier post with regard to the beam bender stickers, they are totally legal.

I think in my panic I might have missed the info about the stickers or just assumed things had changed post Brexit. My wife in the UK googled the sticker situation for me and came back to me that she had read that they were no longer legal. I also expected the French MOT station to be right.
He was adamant that it had changed. I think that this is a really important point though to clarify. I will do this, because obviously this is a cheap and simple way for anyone with any car to conform to French standards. So I will get back on this with full details, because it is not only my Control Technique (part of a National Chain- I think it’s a franchise) ) that are refusing stickers, but many others. It might help someone else in the future. I am obviously impressed though that Mercedes did design a simple and extremely clever solution in their system menu.

 

[BoristheBounce]

It is Barnard Castle. And just a spelling mistake. Auto- correct just insisted on "Bernard’ right now. Lol Thanks for the heads up.
I will go and correct it. Newcastle were definitely the best. I bought my car at Mercedes Warrington. Not a patch on Newcastle in my opinion but others experiences may vary. I left Newcastle a good google review and got a nice reply from the MD. Looks like we are neighbours in the UK….

Yes, I spent a large part of my youth in Barnard Castle, my great aunt lived there, I owe her a lot, she definitely sent me down the right path of life.