Headlamp beam deflectors

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handyman
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Headlamp beam deflectors

Post by handyman »

Anybody know of a manufacturer or stockist of clip-on headlight beam deflectors for a RHD Xantia? I bought a set for my CX from Citroen many years ago, but have been unable to source for the Xantia.
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Post by Peter.N. »

The easiest way to do it is to put your hand in front of the headlight lens to see which part the LH dip is shining through and then cover it with sticky tape. (no, not your hand!)
MW
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Post by MW »

Somebody here might correct me, but I suspect that clip-on deflectors don't do the job any more because the Xantia's beams work on a different oprical principle. Certainly I've never seen them.
I used to use the old-fashioned 'quadrant' arrangement where you block two quarters of each beam off with an adhesive doodah, but now I've gone over to the universal converters which you get from Halfords for £3.50. I have to admit that, despite my misgivings, they work great. You get much more light than the quadrant type, and I've never been flashed by an angry frog in 10,000 miles of motoring.
The snag is, they look stupid when you mount them on a Xant, because they have to be at a really weird angle. But you can't have everything.
Ah, for the good old days when you could just toddle down to your dealers for a set of yellow bulbs that would automatically switch the dipped beam direction from left to right.... sadly, modern optics ain't like that any more.
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Post by madmanbob »

Good one that MW, a set of yellow bulbs that knew their left from their right. I didn't know that the colour would make that much difference.
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Post by MW »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Good one that MW, a set of yellow bulbs that knew their left from their right. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I'm going back a bit, mind you. 1972, to be precise. My Fiat 500 Topolino (bright red, compulsory sunroof, 65 mph flat out) had headlamps where the yellow bulbs would dip to the right and the clear bulbs dipped to the left. They'd just soldered the filaments on the yellow bulbs to a different part of the inside of the bulb, and that was it, job done.
Ain't life complicated nowadays?[8D]
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Post by jeremy »

I seem to recall that Renault 4 bulbs were twisted for LH/RH conversion.
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Post by citronut »

all you are doing by puting on the corect sticky patch is deleating the kick up as that is the part of the dip beam that upsets the frogys,yellow bulbs i dont think adjust the beam they just soffen it,best and cheapest thing to do is hold a black card or board in front of head light on dip beam you should see a flat line with an angled line comming up from it,the angled line is the kick up,now stick a wedged shaped block of plastic tape on one side along and i belive below the centre line of the glass ans see if it deleats the kick up if not place your tape the other side
regards malcolm
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Post by jeremy »

saw somewhere that the yellow lights were introduced to help the Nazi's identify French cars from their own but I think this is unlikely.
Its supposed to reduce dazzle - but why the French are the only ones using the things and their cars have dipping systems like ours.
Citronut is right about the kick up. You can sometimes see a small section of lens that produces it. (Usually below the centre line and on the off side of the lens.)
Jeremy
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Post by madmanbob »

jeremy, get up to date. only about 2 per cent of French cars have yellow lights these days.
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Post by jeremy »

Glad to hear they don't use yellows any longer. I had a feeling they were optional for tourists anyway.
Jeremy
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Post by Peter.N. »

Using sticky tape just cuts out the part of the beam that dips to the left so it doesn't shine on 'their' side of the road.
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Post by citronut »

thats what i said peter it cuts out the english kick up,so you end up with a flat beam patern
regards malcolm
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