Convert Left Hand Driver headlights

[JoergM]

Hi all,

I am playing with the idea to replace my stock headlights. I found some really good ones on Amazon.com, but they are designed for the US market thus the light pattern are different to Australia. See here

Amazon

 

Amazon

On the other side I saw a Japanese WJ driver using the exact same headlights and someone told me that you can re-adjust those to be able to to use them in Australia.

Did anyone ever go thru that exercise? I am not sure how much these headlights are adjustable but I guess it takes some efforts if it is possible at all.

Thanks
Joerg

[layback40]

Good luck with trying to adjust. Its would not be a simple thing as you need to change the beam pattern & that tends to be determined by the design of the reflector.
If you are looking for good night country driving, best just get a set of good driving lights.

[jaffazoom]

Yep Layback40's right, no adjustment from left to right its all in the lens or reflector design. My merc handbook does mention how to place tape on the lights so you don't blind oncoming drivers in Europe when you go from left to right hand drive countries etc but that's a temporary measure. You could be like the ever increasing number of clowns that fit illegal led lights in their vehicles and just blind everyone on the road and claim that they are fine cause no one flashes them.

[JoergM]

Originally Posted by layback40

Good luck with trying to adjust. Its would not be a simple thing as you need to change the beam pattern & that tends to be determined by the design of the reflector.
If you are looking for good night country driving, best just get a set of good driving lights.

Thats what I thought too. I was surprised when someone said that this would be possible.... Well he was American and it is debatable what is their right or wrong sometimes.

[Adrian D]

Hold on, for projector headlights it seems like it's possible.

Here's a post on MX5 forums where somebody made a new beam plate to "convert" to LHD
https://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/yaf_po...HD-to-LHD.aspx

More info:
https://kensun.com/blogs/news/projector-vs-reflector

On my newly acquired MX5 I've got the same projector headlights. One headlight is RHD, one is LHD (and mangled from a crash), so I will attempt to convert the RHD projector to LHD.

As far as I know the Spyder headlights for the WJ have projectors, so in theory they could be converted.

[layback40]

Originally Posted by Adrian D

Hold on, for projector headlights it seems like it's possible.

Here's a post on MX5 forums where somebody made a new beam plate to "convert" to LHD
https://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/yaf_po...HD-to-LHD.aspx

More info:
https://kensun.com/blogs/news/projector-vs-reflector

On my newly acquired MX5 I've got the same projector headlights. One headlight is RHD, one is LHD (and mangled from a crash), so I will attempt to convert the RHD projector to LHD.

As far as I know the Spyder headlights for the WJ have projectors, so in theory they could be converted.

Some headlights could use a suitable beam plate to block out part of the light beam. That is, it could be made to work in a fashion. I doubt that you will get the the upsweep off to the side of the road. The reflector & diffuser would need to be for a straight beam. It would not be legal though.

[Adrian D]

Projectors are a different beast compared to reflector headlights though.
Of course the fun police could argue that they are illegal but until we open up a projector and see the actual blocker plate, everything is only theory.