RHD Elise headlights

[goodwoodweirdo]

Hello,

can you help, I'm a Englishman living near Gent driving a blue S1 Elise ... I'm looking to use Belgium plates ! yes I know I'm crazy. I have new LHD headlights but are looking for the correct beam pattern... eg how far the car should be from a wall and the locations of the beam.

A few more jobs to do, then its off to the kouring....

Kind regards
Matthew

[Frederik]

Hello Matthew,

To be sure just go to a local garage or service center (*) and ask them to adjust it for you. ~10euro's and your problem is "professionaly fixed". The Belgian technical control (keuring) is a bit weird, very strictly and it need to be 200% correct to get a green paper (groene kaart).

(*) If you don't want to go to a 'normal' garage you can go to :
- Auto5 (http://www.auto5.be/contact.html)
- Midas (http://www.midas.be/NL/routeplanner.asp)

ps. Welcome!

Frederik

[Herman]

Hello Mathew, just follow Frederiks advice and go to any decent garage in your neigbourhood ,and they will adjust it for a few euro's.... make sure all is working fine and lamps are correctly fitted, on a s1 adjustment screws could be a bit corroded so use some WD40 on them before ...

on the other hand if you really wants to do it the old faschion method... heres some advice...

place your car on a flat and even floor exactly 5 meters from a wall (garage door etc) measure the exact center of your lights, and draw a horizontal line on the wall... to find the center of this line, mark a point in the midle of your front windscreen, and the same on your rear window... look from behind the car with both points nicely aligned, this way youll have the center of the car, mark this on the wall , now measure the width between both lamps center to center.. for example 150 cms... so from the previous center point, mark on each side the 75 cms (example).... on the marked point... indicate another point 5 cms below this point and draw another horontal line...

now high beam head lights must have a bundle (circle) of light centered on this point...
the low beams, are having a patern that consist of a nice flat line and a upwarts going line... the horizontal line should shine on the lowest drawn line, and the point where the light line goes upwarts must begin right on the lowest center spot.... if you have a incorrect and not horizontal light line, its because your lamp is incorrectly fitted... the 5 mt distance is nice to work with, however if you do this at 3 mts the centerlight point must be 3 cms below... this gives a 1% slope on your light bundle...
hope youll understand... but its far and far more convienent to go to a shop or garage... they have more precise equipment and its just a piece of cake to let do this--
rgds. Herman.

Ps. welcome... and will hope to see you on our forum tour at Ypres on Mai 21st.. and btw we do have some people from the UK participating also on this nice event.....

[goodwoodweirdo]

Thanks guys, it was just the intension to get the lights in approximately the correct location... however I’m now thinking of have Lotus Oostende do a full C service before I go to the Belgium Kouring !!! … I’ll get them to align the lights.

Still a few small jobs to do myself, eg swap the fog and reversing lights, LHD headlights, clean up the suspension and brakes.. etc etc …

Kind regards
Matt

[Frederik]

Below the middele of our forumhomepage you can find all the 'respectable' Lotus specialists in Belgium, feel free to make your own choice... I don't know what side of Gent you are living.

I think it is a good idea to service your car, and just ask them to check everything for the technical control (including the lights)... That's usual here, every year when I go to the TC the day before I made a small stop at my dealer and let him check everything.

good luck!

[Herman]

Just don't forget for the Belgian Mot (keuring) they need the speed indication in kms... A fire extingiuser, first aid kit, and warning triangle & jacket must on board, and the extinguiser must be normally in reach of driver... You must have a COC document, and your car must be corresponding to the info on this document (tires, car measures etc etc) they also measure the Co2 pollution , so its a good point to let check this also in advance... Tires must be all of equal types and brands and speed types, they also check your shock absorbers very precise... And have the chassis/frame number to be nice visual and cleaned... Dito for the COC placard... You will have a return ticket if you do not have the original steering wheel etc etc...
If its for fresch new titling, car must presented with previous owners numberplates on it... or Z garage/dealer (green) plates...
Hope i did not make you affraid with this advice, but after a complete check..... Car should be just fine i think...

ps: Matthew do you or did you own a Lotus Eclat '79 ?

[goodwoodweirdo]

ps: Matthew do you or did you own a Lotus Eclat '79 ?

Thanks for all the feedback... and yes indeed i once owned a Yellow Eclat !!! but decided to make the collection smaller and buy something that works !!!

well thats the idea anyway