C5 Xenon headlights

[h2ocooler]

Hi all
Does anyone know if the Xenon headlights on a 2002 C5 are adjustable for LHD?
I am taking the C5 to France (I bought it for my dad) and he needs to register it over there so it will need a French CT test but it has UK spec headlights on it, had a look around for LHD xenons but cannot find any.
Failing that, can I just swap the Xenons for standard Halogens or are the connections different?

One last hope was that Im sure I read somewhere that if I blank the beam pattern off on the left (not the beam benders but with Black tape) it will pass the CT with just an advisory on it, does anyone know it this is right???

Thanks for any info.
Rob

[Fake Concern]

Are they the "active" as in look around corners type? If so I can tell you that this type fitted to the C4 VTS need no changes for them to be used in left hand drive countries as they dip down & not left.

[waynedance]

They will be the normal non swivel sort.

[wheeler]

You can fit normal halogen lamp units in place of the xenons no problem, they are a direct fit, you just need to tell the BHI (suspension ECU) that you have changed them to normal lamps.
I done this very thing only it was to get a LHD model registered in the UK as it was too expensive to replace with xenons.

[h2ocooler]

No they are normal fixed ones.
Wheeler, I dont suppose you still have the LHD Xenon headlights do you?

[JohnD]

Hi all
Does anyone know if the Xenon headlights on a 2002 C5 are adjustable for LHD?

My C5 spends four months of each year on the Continent. Ever since I bought it in 2005 I've carried with me a letter from Citroen UK stating that no adjustment or beam benders are necessary to conform with EU driving conditions. In all that time I've never needed to show it to traffic police. But at the same time, 3 or 4 years ago I recall a young woman raising a topic on this forum about the Controle Technique refusing to re-register her C5 with its UK xenon headlights. I believe she eventually bought halogen lights from a French breaker and had them changed.

[Bob L'eponge]

I brought a UK bought car to France and can confirm that you will need to change the headlights to Continental ones in order to get a CT ticket as the beam / dip pattern is the reverse of what is required. The CT man did test the beam pattern for me for free after I had tried to adjust the original lights but in the end new lights were the only answer. Luckily replacements for my car at the time - a Fiat Marea JTD estate - were only just over £100 each from the excellent Oscaro parts site.

By the way, well done on doing this 'properly'. From what I have seen since living in France a large proportion of ex-pat Brits just drive their UK imported cars on UK plates with no valid UK VED disc, seemingly registering their vehicle - quite illegally - with a SORN notice in the UK and never bothering to obtain a French CT or insurance sticker either!

As I recall the registration process is quite straightforward, requiring an import notice (no tax will be payable), the CT ticket and then going through the usual registration process at the local Marie. A charge will be payable for the new registration. Legally, you need to get the car registered within 3 months of importing it. You also need to re-register it within 3 months if you change address. However this does not incur a fee and cars with the new registration plates that don't have a departmental number will keep their original number.

[h2ocooler]

Thanks for all the reply's,

As my dad live there all the time we have a month to register it or so we have found out the french police CAN confiscate it and crush it!!!!!!! he has a peugeot 406 at the moment and we went through the registration process with that, annoying part is the COC even though it is a bloody French car, we have been told that if the V% has an E number on it (which this one does) we don't need the COC but apparently the DVLA didn't include all the information required.

I did turn the lights on when facing my garage door and the beam does seem to be dead flat! will check later when its dark.

Im driving there overnight on the 17th and the CT is booked for the 18th so will see what happens, at worst it will mean another trip to change the lights (my dad is useless when it comes to spanner work!) Unless someone on here has a set of LHD headlights they don't want (xenon or halogen)

Rob

[wheeler]

Wheeler, I dont suppose you still have the LHD Xenon headlights do you?

No it wasn't my car, the owner of the car kept the headlamps in case he needed to swap them back in the future. It was about 6 or 7 years ago now anyway.
John D, I had an email from Cit UK saying the same thing years ago before doing this job but when the car was put on an MOT beam setter the lights would not pass a UK mot & did show a 'kick up'.

[JohnD]

when the car was put on an MOT beam setter the lights would not pass a UK mot & did show a 'kick up'.

Yes - I notice my xenons kick up to the left. But it can't be high enough to dazzle oncoming foreign drivers because I never get flashed by them, whereas when I used to drive the Xantia, even with the recommended masks, I often got drivers flashing me.

[h2ocooler]

Looked at the beams on my garage door at night and they have 4 (2 per light) kicks to the left, with a bit of experimenting the kicks come from the very BOTTOm of the lights, about 15-20mm up, I might try some black tape right across the bottom and see if I can blank it off, can only fail anyway...... I might be luck and get a nice tester although the last one got the hump as soon as he got in the wrong side of the car to drive it in

[h2ocooler]

Right i might have a set of LHD healights BUT that brings another question, As the Xenon lights do not have front foglamps built in (and non fitted elsewhere) will I have to:
1 enable them in the BSI (if so does anyone have an idea of where to look)
2 fit a new switch as the original one only has rear fogs.
I think if they are fitted they would HAVE to work for the CT and the Halogen headlights do have them.

[wheeler]

1. If I remember correctly when you change the setting in the BHI to halogen lights this takes care of the front fog light issue but may need a BSI setting changed as well.
2. The only difference between the switches on the models with & without front fogs is the picture on the switch, they are both identical electrically, a single flick up puts the fronts on & the second flick puts the rears on.
3. I know nothing about the CT test thingy but the UK mot they are not a testable item so even if they are fitted they are not checked anyway, as they are not a compulsory light I cant imagine they would need to be working ? most people don't even notice if they have fron fogs or not as they are not separate from the main light unit.
Like I say anyway, the front fogs deffo worked after the change on the one I did, just need programing.

[h2ocooler]

Thanks Wheeler, collecting the lights tomorrow and fitting them thursday, will report back on how it goes.

[h2ocooler]

Little update.
Took the car over to my Dads and fitted the LHD lights there, fired up Lexia and could not find an option to change from Xenon to Halogen, there was one to tell it that front fog lights were fitted, changed that and the lights work as they should.
On the way over there I had Unblock Diesel Filter, the anti pollution etc come up and limp mode, read the faults and it is turbo overboost, eolys addative, cleared them and drove it, few mile later and anti pollution came back (no unblock though) cleared them again. When he was taking me to St Malo they came up AGAIN. Told him that it might fail the CT with them on BUT it passed no problems, so he went to see about registering it (he did not have a certificate of comformity) and they said Oh you dont need it. Sorted, it will have shiny new French plate very soon.....
Now just got to sort the DPF.
Im going to check the vac system and replace the swirl flap actuator AND de-FAP it next visit, does anyone know where I can get a copy of ECU safe that??