[johnbatho]

Hi there, I am a new member having purchased my Tiguan 2.0 ltr TDI fourmotion in February. I have just visited my local VW dealer to arrange service continuity and as I am traveling to Spain in May I asked if they could recommend what beam benders were needed for driving in Europe. This apparently caused consternation as I was finally told nobody could answer my question and the best thing to do was join the Tiguan owners club and ask there. So here I am saying please could someone advise me on what to do. Many thanks.

 

[Chumley54]

What is a beam bender?

 

[johnbatho]

Hi Chumley54. Beam benders are engineered stick on patches normally for standard flat front headlights. On a UK car they deflect or stop the left dipped beam when driving on the right in Europe so that oncoming drivers are not blinded, full beam lights are not changed. My Tiguan has two lights each side with the outside light set back and a curved perspex cover fitted over the full system so I have no idea of how to deflect the dipped beam.

 

[Chumley54]

Learned something new today....But many cars have curved covers on the headlights. Many have projector type lenses. Seems like that is an outdated fix. Tiguans have bifferent lights just on model alone. Mine has Bi-Xenon, so one lense for both low and high beam. Low beam is actually the same lighting element with an internal shield, so any external adaption for the low beam would also affect the high beam. Also, my headlights have the AFS system, so they move their aim up and down and left and right....A fixed patch would also be a problem.

Maybe the lights could just be re-aimed for right hand driving (The correct side - LOL) for your trip? Not sure VW makes entirely different light assemblies for UK/Au versus the rest of the world.

However, I don;t really have that much info on the ROW cars, only US cars, so maybe someone else can chime in...

 

[johnbatho]

Hi Chumley54. Sorry for being so long but my owners manual tells me about the dashboard switch to put the dipped beams on the opposite direction. It goes into this quite considerably but I couldn't find it, but at the end it simply states that if this option is not available contact your VW dealer. I did this and finally found someone in the parts department who knows about this and has organised for me to have them fitted and aligned just before I set off for Europe next month. Many thanks for your interest and safe driving.