EU Headlights?

[Random]

Afternoon all,

I've just moved to Sweden, taking my LS430 with me (no it's not a particularly practical car here, but it's the only thing that belonged to my late partner that I still have) and I need to get the headlights replaced with EU-spec ones before the end of January for it to pass the inspection and be approved for long-term use here.

I've tried searching but not been having much luck. I don't suppose anyone here has an unwanted set of EU-spec headlights they'd sell me, or can point me in the direction of somewhere in the EU that I could buy a set? Most of my searches have LED to sellers in far-flung places which even if genuine would no doubt take ages to arrive. The car's not exactly the shiniest, so I don't really want to be spending thousands on getting a Lexus dealer to fit new ones, but it'll be that or the car gets scrapped if I can't find any used ones in time...

[scythe]

Do they need to be changed? I can't remember about the 430, but are the tops of the beams flat?

It's the little triangle at the edge that causes the problem, that's meant to light up pedestrians, and at some point lexus stopped the triangle altogether.

[scythe]

Also, I'm fairly sure it's not the whole headlight that would need changing, just the glass at the front.  The triangle is made by the impression on the glass, (if it exists) and that would be (looking at the glass from the front) to the left of the centre of the glass, and just below the centre line.

Someone here will know more than me!

: o )

 

[Boomer54]

24 minutes ago, scythe said:

Also, I'm fairly sure it's not the whole headlight that would need changing, just the glass at the front.  The triangle is made by the impression on the glass, (if it exists) and that would be (looking at the glass from the front) to the left of the centre of the glass, and just below the centre line.

Someone here will know more than me!

: o )

 

I am not sure about that. We all know that when you drive in Europe you can quite cheaply buy a converter so your lights don't dazzle etc being they are setup for driving on the otherside of the road. However, that does not apply if you actually take up residency in the EU. In that case your headlights have to comply with the EU standards and it appears at first blush that that is different.

[scythe]

Stephen is right, I think - I did say that someone would know more than me! I've done some googling and I suspect you need new lamps. Sorry about that.  Again, though, if there are ones available, this is a great place to have asked.

I've got the feeling though that one of the LSs I've had in the past was really easy to swap to LHD, just by pushing a lever on the headlamps themselves - though maybe that's really far back, and from my volvo days!

[Tickedon]

Best bet may be checking breakers yards and seeing if any have LHD headlights for the car that could be swapped over?

[NemesisUK]

1 hour ago, scythe said:

I've got the feeling though that one of the LSs I've had in the past was really easy to swap to LHD, just by pushing a lever on the headlamps themselves - though maybe that's really far back, and from my volvo days!

My Mercedes had these little levers in each headlamp but this simply dropped a little internal shield to mask the beam. One would still need to replace the units for permanent export. 

[BigBoomer]

Yup, needs LHD headlight for permanent export. You will need to search German/Dutch websites as that was where most LS430s were sold in the EU, (apart from the UK).
Otherwise, your best bet would probably be LHD countries in the Middle East or from the USA/CDN.

[Random]

3 hours ago, BigBoomer said:

Yup, needs LHD headlight for permanent export. You will need to search German/Dutch websites as that was where most LS430s were sold in the EU, (apart from the UK).
Otherwise, your best bet would probably be LHD countries in the Middle East or from the USA/CDN.

Any suggestions of which german websites I should be trying? I'm not ordering from USA or middle east, I have a deadline and I wouldn't trust the post to get stuff here in time.

[BigBoomer]

Autoteile.de is pretty good, but don't expect miracles as the LS did not sell very well at all in the EU, so parts are rare.
At the moment they only have one used left 04-06 headlight at €500, which is stupidly expensive for a used part.
They are only £590 each brand new from RockAuto in the USA.

If you need the parts fast, then my advice is still to buy used in USA/Middle East (eBay) and pay for fast shipping.
In the USA there were lots of LS430s sold so lots of spares available.

One final thing. The LS430 headlight has a clear lens, so just changing the lens has no effect on the headlight pattern.
To get the correct pattern you need to replace the headlights.