Moved to Europe: how to fit LHD headlamps

S

Simost

Member
Has anyone else swapped headlamps over from RHD to LHD units (or possibly and more likely the reverse) - I’m keen to learn or hear from anyone’s experiences whether this is a driveway job, or as the local VW garage says: a £3k+ task?

We’ve moved to Germany, not sure if it’s permanent or just a year or two. We’re planning on keeping our UK RHD T6, but to get insurance here it needs to have mainland Europe (LHD) spec headlamps fitted. We have a 2018 Sportline with OEM LED lamp units, which for now we’ve enabled Travel Mode to reduce dazzle. I can source 2nd hand equivalents here, but wondered whether there are any different mounting points, cabling, or vehicle coding to be looked into - no doubt it’d never be as simple as a ‘plug and play’ headlamp.

Thanks in advance if anyone has any helpful contributions
 
AFAIK they will be a straight swap
You will need to remove the two power modules from the old headlights and fit them to the new ones but they are only a few small torx screws and a multi plug on each one
 
I would imagine you can easily resell the RHD units in the UK which will be a large contribution to your swap over costs. Good luck with it.
 
Update: 6 months later.

this job really is an easy plug no play swap out. Thank you for the guidance Pauly.
Having sourced some OEM Hella‘s here in Germany, which came with bulbs, but no power converters, it was a simple couple of hours to undo the various bumper clips and lamp bolts to switch the units out - and save about €2.5k from going into the hands of the local dealer.

My personal tip: to not bother to completely remove the front bumper, saving yourself the faff of unplugging fog lamp cables, headlamp wash feed pipes and the like. It is possible to place a couple of blocks (I used a couple of bags of compost) in front of the van to rest the bumper on and get enough room and access to remove the lamp units with ease.

No recoding of the van necessary. Van has been through the TÜV station, received its Certificate of Conformity and official German version of a V5 log book paperwork and now sports German number plates (which IMHO the rear white and blue plate looks better integrated on the van, which is Starlight Blue, than the UK yellow version). When selecting “Travel Mode” through the Driver display menu, the lights do adjust to be suitable for (temporary) driving in UK left hand traffic. Pictures show the before and after difference in the lamp light shapes for the UK (RHD) lamps and then the LHD German lamps.

1AA1D1A0-FD56-4674-87F2-D0F54B1463AF.jpeg

EA5AE626-2C29-412C-9C42-6D120D344E91.jpeg
 
Interesting as I am in the same position with having a UK T6 2017 camper but spending most of my time in Slovenia. Can I ask if you went with the OEM / VW units or other after-market units and what the cost of the unit were? I have the full monty LED headlights so I'm not sure how it maps to your situation.
 
Yes, same scenario, we also had full LED lamps.
I bought new Hella lamps that were quoted as OEM direct from a parts motorfactor here - autodoc.de for about €850 the pair - which did not include the power adapters.

It is an easy job to do yourself
 
pematthe said:
You can but is doesn't change the direction, it just lowers the flick so it doesn't blind oncoming traffic. Good enough for temporary, but not good enough for homogolation in another country.
Click to expand...
Exactly. @BeePee Look at the pictures I posted of the lamps shining on a wall. The left picture is the UK spec lamps for left hand traffic. The right hand picture is after lamp swap out with the right hand traffic spec lamps fitted. You can see, what’s described elsewhere as, a ‘ski ramp’ going up at the edges. Each set of lamps, LHD or RHD the ramp points in a different direction.

The ‘Travel Mode’ merely points your lamps toward the ground and is suitable only for temporary use, plus if anything it reduces how far you can see. To register a vehicle in another country it needs to be compliant with whatever standards they set. Where traffic drives on the right hand side, the lamps need to be designed to point or have a bias toward the right side of the road, vice-versa for the UK.
 
Last edited:
Hi,
I will be in the same situation as you in the near future.
Can you, please, let me know how did you manage to convert the rear fog lights? Did you had the original LED lights?
Thanks
 
matteot6 said:
Hi,
I will be in the same situation as you in the near future.
Can you, please, let me know how did you manage to convert the rear fog lights? Did you had the original LED lights?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Erm... sorry, pass. No changes were required or requested by the TÜV testers to rear fog lights.
I bought the van from a main dealer it was an ex-demonstrator with all OEM kit -both front and rears are full LED
 
Simost said:
Erm... sorry, pass. No changes were required or requested by the TÜV testers to rear fog lights.
I bought the van from a main dealer it was an ex-demonstrator with all OEM kit -both front and rears are full LED
Click to expand...
I’ve just had a look. Both rear LED lamp clusters feature a rear fog lamp
 
Hello @Simost,
I came across this post from a reference in the VWCC forum - I need to urgently swap my RHD LEDs to LHD to import my 2016 Cali Ocean into Switzerland. I have found the lights on autodoc.de as you mentioned - thank you.
Can you please describe the tools needed to disconnect bumper etc and swap out the RHD for LHD LED lights, based on supporting the bumper as you suggest - I’m in Geneva and my main toolbox is back in the UK, and I don’t want to find I have taken it mostly to bits but then need the van to go and get tools to complete the job.....
I also have the automatic cruise control which uses the radar sensor in the lower grille - will that need to be recalibrated if unbolting the bumper etc for the lights job?
Many thanks, Mike
 
Hello Mike,

Tools needed: I can’t recall the definitive list, but it is definitely covered in many existing posts about bumper removal. There are a number of small Torx bolts which I think are all the same size holding the bumper (along the bottom edge) and inside of the wheel arches on. You will also need a plastic trim bolt removal tool to undo and hopefully re-use the pins that are used in some places. The sort that are pins that go inside a plastic bolt to expand into the space and clamp the bumper on. Example of what I mean are this sort of thing:
1614794868814.jpeg
Most of the bumper is actually held on / supported by plastic mouldings on the rear of it that clamp on/around the van structure. Other forum posts will help explain the process of wiggling and pulling the bumper free of these mounting points.

Our van also has a radar sensor and that isn’t involved or impacted by the partial removal, so doesn’t need any changes/coding. The bumper is cut out around the sensor which on our van is mounted onto some more internal cross members. I can’t comment on your van tho, so suggest you have a look first. The headlamps themselves are held on by some slightly bigger Torx bolts. The power cable removals at the rear of the lamps are fairly standard electrical connectors where you depress a clip to slide them off. Lastly, the power converters on the back of the lamp units are held on by 3 Torx bolts too.

Before I started the job I researched a few threads on this forum about front bumper removal which were really helpful. There are also a few videos people have posted to YouTube that make it look harder than it is which also in their own way are very helpful since they highlight some of the quirks to look out for. Every post I’ve seen mentions that the bumper removal is a two person job.. following my tip may save you time, but do be careful not to let the bumper tip over as you might end up damaging cabling and the finish of the bumper paint! Definitely don’t do it on a windy day..

Good luck!
 
Simost said:
Hello Mike,

Tools needed: I can’t recall the definitive list, but it is definitely covered in many existing posts about bumper removal. There are a number of small Torx bolts which I think are all the same size holding the bumper (along the bottom edge) and inside of the wheel arches on. You will also need a plastic trim bolt removal tool to undo and hopefully re-use the pins that are used in some places. The sort that are pins that go inside a plastic bolt to expand into the space and clamp the bumper on. Example of what I mean are this sort of thing:
View attachment 106525
Most of the bumper is actually held on / supported by plastic mouldings on the rear of it that clamp on/around the van structure. Other forum posts will help explain the process of wiggling and pulling the bumper free of these mounting points.

Our van also has a radar sensor and that isn’t involved or impacted by the partial removal, so doesn’t need any changes/coding. The bumper is cut out around the sensor which on our van is mounted onto some more internal cross members. I can’t comment on your van tho, so suggest you have a look first. The headlamps themselves are held on by some slightly bigger Torx bolts. The power cable removals at the rear of the lamps are fairly standard electrical connectors where you depress a clip to slide them off. Lastly, the power converters on the back of the lamp units are held on by 3 Torx bolts too.

Before I started the job I researched a few threads on this forum about front bumper removal which were really helpful. There are also a few videos people have posted to YouTube that make it look harder than it is which also in their own way are very helpful since they highlight some of the quirks to look out for. Every post I’ve seen mentions that the bumper removal is a two person job.. following my tip may save you time, but do be careful not to let the bumper tip over as you might end up damaging cabling and the finish of the bumper paint! Definitely don’t do it on a windy day..

Good luck!
Click to expand...
Hi Simost, really appreciate the detail of your reply - really helpful!
 
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