Headlight realignment of UK car for IVA

Some cars you can adjust the headlights to comply.

Some cars you need to replace the complete headlight units.

Depends on the make model & year of your car.

yeah, thanks, mine are realign...just seems excessive .....but needs must :(

OK.

Sounds expensive to me.

Try another garage ?

try Andy at Yourcar Mar Menor he’ll give you a realistic price!

Great 😊 

Thanks very much John, appreciated

You can't use stick on beam benders.

The car will fail the Spanish ITV.

If you reread the post from John&Aileen you will see that the lhd headlamps were fitted in the UK, then surprisingly it passed a UK MoT and then on arrival in Spain the masks were removed, so it would pass an ITV if all other things were correct - e.g. reversing light.

You still end up sitting on the "wrong" side and with a car that has low resale value. IMHO you are far better selling your UK car before you leave then buying a Spanish car. Your safety and that of your passengers are more important than trying to save a few quid!

Chris at upsticks has a lot of experience here due to him offering car import assistance - it varies by car.  

You have to be very careful when having your headlamps re-aligned rather than replaced with LHD units.  For example, it is not just the direction the lights point t be addressed, there is a beam pattern which kicks up on the left in the UK to light the path.  This is a major problem with the ITV if that upkick is still there when the beams are adjusted to point right.

This is important when the lights are adjusted via the car computer - e.g., Mercedes (and others).  Although the engineer may be able to adjust the beams, the upkick on the left remains in place ever so slightly.  This fails the ITV if there is the slightest trace.

I'd expect my missus's SLC to pass even on UK settings - it is like having 2 tealight candles out front, can't see a thing at night! (kidding, it'll fail but the lights are useless anyway).