Hi everyone,

I have just shipped my 2008 Honda Fit Sport (US) from the US to the UK where I will live for about 3 years. I'd like to register it and I am just noticing that I should have done some more research in advance - I was completely unaware of the complications regarding the headlight beam dipping.

Talking to various specialists on lighting conversions here in the UK, the conclucsion seems to be that the only way to get the vehicle registered would be to replace the current headlights by RHD ones to get the correct beam pattern. Now the first reaction I hear is always to simply use the headlights of the corresponding 2008 Honda Jazz built for Europe, but it seems the specifications are slightly different making the headlights incompatible.

So the questions would be if anyone knows of any RHD headlights which fit my car (or if anyone has other suggestions for how to modify the lighting to match UK regulations).

Thanks a lot!

 

You're in the wrong sub-forum.

You're mistaken about something.

A 2008 Honda Fit in the US is a FIRST generation Fit. The 2008 Fit/Jazz in the rest of the world is a SECOND generation Fit. This is also why you're in the wrong subsection of the forum.

Just get a set of RHD lights from 2006 or older Jazz (those would be 1st gen in Europe). Worst case scenario is you trim and "MacGyver" some of the front mounts.

An alternative to modifying the mounts and MacGyvering it, you swap the internals (namely the reflector bowl). That would ensure it mounts up. You'd have to bake, open em up, swap parts and then reseal them (find a DIY on retrofitting, most steps will apply here).

 

AH no the USDM fit has the longer nose and my make swapping the headlight assembles different.

What you need is the INTERNAL parts from a R/H drive model the hosing does not direct the beam that is the job of the bulb assemblies.

You can use any R/H drive bulbs from any 2001-2008 JAZZ that you purchase over there not in the states. Then just switch the bulbs and you will be good to go.

Do not forget about the fog lamp on the rear I'm pretty sure that will be needed also. And possibly self-leveling front lights.

Try signing up to this UK Jazz club they will know just what you need http://www.clubjazz.org/

 

Check out MotorHog - Car parts, Car Sales, Online Salvage Auction, Car and Vehicle Dismantling and Salvage

They have tons of used parts for the Honda fit/jazz. All you need to do is find a set of headlights(even broken ones) that have fully intact reflector bowls and swap them into your usdm headlights.

 

Thanks so much for the suggestions! That's immensely helpful.

It seems like the thing to do is to exchange the reflector bowl, I ordered some used RHD headlights and will attempt this. Presumably, I'll rather have someone with more experience take a shot, since I'm afraid I won't even have the necessary tools - neither is my last name MacGyver, unfortunately.

Has anyone really done something like this and can confirm that this is a fairly straightforward task?

In any case, thanks a lot!

 

Did you try what loudbang suggested? that being just a set of euro-spec H4 bulbs. Its possible the tiny little cup under the low beam filament is all the difference there is.

 

Thanks, I'll try that, the headlight I've ordered comes with bulbs intact, so I can test with the one in there...

 

I just picked up some cheap headlight bulbs in the store here (UK) and they happen to be these:

I changed them, but (as far as I can see in daylight), it seems they still dip in the wrong direction.

loudbang, are you sure this works without changing the reflector bowl? Or did I just get the wrong bulbs?

 

Nope, you definitely need to swap the reflector bowl. H4 bulbs are symmetrical, there are no special LHD/RHD versions.

Look at the bowls themselves: on the LHD version, you'll see a wedge-shaped segment in the right-hand side (looking at the bowl from the shiny side) of the lower half of the bowl. The RHD version will have this on the left-hand side.

This is what produces the kick-up ("step" or "angle") in the low-beam cutoff that you can see when you're parked in front of a wall. The LHD version does this on the right-hand side of the road -- not good when that's where oncoming traffic is!

The other difference in the bowls will be that the notches that line up with the bulb tabs will in a slightly different location on the RHD bowl so that the light beam lines up with that bowl segment.

Alternatively, you might be allowed to mask off the lens in the area where the kick-up part of the light beam shines through. This what UK drivers do temporarily when they take their cars over to mainland Europe.

 

4thCornerFit, what you say about the effect of the wedges on the kickup is the impression I had from looking at the bowl but wasn't certain. So thanks for clarifying!

I'll try to swap the bowl then.

 

Good luck on doing the bowl replacement; I just hope the bowls themselves are indeed interchangeable.

In hindsight, I'm thinking a better choice would have been to sell or store your US Fit, and pick up a UK Jazz to drive while you're there.

 

If you look at the rear bumper on this one of Matt91's Jazz in the UK below the tailight and license plate you can see the small red "fog light" just below where the hatch opens. I'm pretty sure you will have to add one of these also.