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Switching headlights for driving in mainland Europe

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DPW-X5
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Switching headlights for driving in mainland Europe

Post by DPW-X5 » Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:53 pm

I'm thinking about taking a road trip to France in the summer.

How do I go about switching the lights so they work when I'm "driving on the wrong side of the road"?
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X5Sport
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Re: Switching headlights for driving in mainland Europe

Post by X5Sport » Wed Feb 20, 2019 8:18 pm

Do you have Xenon or LED lighting? If you do then they are flat beam patterned and you should not need to do anything other than NOT use the Auto light switch position. That will prevent the adaptive lighting incorrectly changing the beam and dazzling oncoming traffic.

Considering BMW are the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ I was surprised that my 2015 Škoda reset the beam based on the car’s GPS position, and changed the clock time zone automatically too. Not seen that on a BMW yet.......
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Re: Switching headlights for driving in mainland Europe

Post by DPW-X5 » Thu Feb 21, 2019 9:21 am

X5Sport wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 8:18 pm Do you have Xenon or LED lighting? If you do then they are flat beam patterned and you should not need to do anything other than NOT use the Auto light switch position. That will prevent the adaptive lighting incorrectly changing the beam and dazzling oncoming traffic.

Considering BMW are the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ I was surprised that my 2015 Škoda reset the beam based on the car’s GPS position, and changed the clock time zone automatically too. Not seen that on a BMW yet.......
I've got the Xenon lights, but I'm fairly sure they're "biased" toward the left on all settings.

The clock changes automatically when we switch between BST & GMT, so I'm hoping it'll manage to work out local time in France too.
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Re: Switching headlights for driving in mainland Europe

Post by gmc15 » Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:31 pm

On my F16 you can change the lights for European driving in the idrive under Settings/Lights. There is an option for European driving. Think the F15 should be the same. :thumbsup:
The clock doesn't change when you go to France as they are 1 hour ahead and the car doesn't recognise where it is.

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Re: Switching headlights for driving in mainland Europe

Post by DPW-X5 » Fri Feb 22, 2019 8:12 am

gmc15 wrote: Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:31 pm On my F16 you can change the lights for European driving in the idrive under Settings/Lights. There is an option for European driving. Think the F15 should be the same. :thumbsup:
The clock doesn't change when you go to France as they are 1 hour ahead and the car doesn't recognise where it is.
Thank you. I found the light settings last night, and was going to post some photos today.

Poor form for the car not to recognise another time zone!
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