Are HID headlight bulb systems legal in Spain?

Does anyone know any info on the above? The law is a bit sketchy on them in England.

Tricky one...

As I understand it HID's are fitted to some BMW 7's as standard.

If you are thinking about a mod kit however i would remind you that if you put your car in for an ITV test and the headlights are anything other than the car manufacturers original spec for the vehicle, the car will fail and you will have to re-present it within 15 days with the correct headlights. I fitted what I understood to be a genuine European certified blue tint Xenon bulbs to my Scenic, 2 main and 2 dipped because the original dipped are p*ss poor; the Andalucian ITV authority failed the car on headlights not meeting the original spec...

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I have just bought LHD aftermarket headlamps over here they are different from normal will that fail? A lthough I have seen modified cars with lights from other models over there.

I think I'd be inclined to keep any form of certification that came with the replacement headlights, especially if you are putting them on a RHD car. if and when you bring the car over to Spain you will have to re-register it onto Spanish plates and you must be able to provide all of the original certification for the vehicle, plus any modifications that have been carried out. An ITV inspection is part of the re-registration process. Its pretty well going to be a suck it and see exercise I'm afraid. It's not as if the ITV authorities have an axe to grind, they are run by the state, not private garages as in the UK.

Beyond that I cannot comment!

BTW just as an aside to the question of ITV certification, if the vehicle has a towbar fitted as an aftermarket modification, you must also be able to provide certification for the work done in fitting it, or remove it prior to an ITV check...another gotcha that I fell for on my cars first ITV check. 

Another gotcha...If your car has only a single rear fog light it must be transposed to the left hand side of the vehicle rather than the right.

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both lots of headlamps are E marked. So legal in Europe. Van has a tow bar on it from when I bought it so I will take it off.

 In reply to 'Foxbat' we imported a Mercedes Vaneo (car) this summer which had a tow bar and privacy glass! As the privacy glass was GB installed it was illegal. All other European countries provide a certificate which makes them legal here. Our tow bar was installed by 'Indespension' and as it had a plate detailing the max/min weights etc. it was deemed as legal. The whole registration process, which we did ourselves, thus saving about 600 Euros on needless assistance, took around 4 weeks. 

K 5ive;

Just found this link;  it may help.

Under the heading aboout legality, this extract;

Quote;

Are these Xenon HID systems road legal?
According to EU legislation HID systems standard factory fitted from the factory require a self levelling system and a lens washer to be fitted. However this is not specified for aftermarket kits. Our kits have passed all safety and emissions tests and produce the correct light pattern. We know they will pass an MOT (original bulbs can be reinstalled in minutes if required without uninstalling the HID system). We are not aware of any legality issues over the use of aftermarket HID kits when installed correctly and when the colour tempature is 6000k to 8000k but it should be worth noting that car headlights have to produce a white light so the 10000k and 12000k kits may be a bit blue / purple for legal road use.
All fitting and responsibility for the safe & legal operating of these lighting systems is left with the installer / owner of the vehicle not ourselves. Unquote

I like the proviso that  'original bulbs can be reinstalled in minutes if required without uninstalling the HID system...Seems to be saying that it might be necessary...?

This is probably to get around their following statement that;

Is this conversion kit reversible to my original factory halogen headlight?
It is 100% reversible to your original factory halogen headlight, but we're sure you won't ever want to do that once you have started using these!

...unless you have to for some other countries MOT / ITV requirement!

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Also this from the UK Dept of Transport...Interpret this how you will!

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Just looked at my tow sure tow bar and it is E Approved. If something has an E mark it is approved throughout Europe. Worried about the privacly glass on my Zafira though, just had this done. However it is not on the front windows so should be perfectly legal. Spains laws regarding modifying are very draconian.

Spains laws regarding modifying are very draconian...

Yep!

Hell you can even fail an ITV for having tyres fitted that have a higher speed rating than that originally specified by the manufacturer!

The main difference between a UK MOT and a Spanish ITV is that an MOT is an 'on-the day' roadworthiness check. You can have a perfectly valid MOT cert but still get pulled and prosecuted by VOSA for non compliance with any number of things.

A Spanish ITV test combines both roadworthiness checks and compliance rules, which is why when you present your vehicle for an ITV you must have all of the original compliance documentation, so that the technicians can check what they see fitted against what was originally specified. It might just pay you to approach Vauxhall for a copy of the Compliance Certificate for the Zafira for the year of its original registration...You will most assuredly need it for re-registation.

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i am so glad i came across this!

i hope you can help me with something too, i need to change main beam bulbs on my car and was going to choose Osram´s Night Breaker Unlimited H7 but now im confused because i dont want a ITV fail!

powerbulbs . com the website i look for bulbs say they are road legal but im not sure they are in spain?

Thanks in advance....

Michael

I fitted the Night breakers on previous vehicles with no fail at the iTV station.

Thank you for your reply. i now have the challenge of putting the bulbs in a opel corsa c.

ApparentlyI've got to take the bumper off to install new bulbs? I'll soon find out

Yes, I had a Combo which is the same and they are a real pain to change.

At my last ITV my car failed as it had different makes of tyre on the same axel.  Both exactly the same type and size and the same types had been fine the year before, but at a different ITV station.

I mentioned this in passing to the guy who services my car and he told me that the lights on my old battered Renault Scenic would fail at most ITV stations, even though they weren't a problem at Llorca.

It seems just another example of the way the locals happen to interpret their extensive rule books.

Wow that's ridiculous! To fail you on different brands is a but extreme. But its all new out here for me as I've always ridden a motorcycle in London.

The car itself is not due inspection for another year but i just want it to be 100% i have done most of the work on the car myself since i got it and its all standard only the thing i need is more visibility on the road. 

The roads here are fantastic to drive but i noticed the street and autopista are not well lit

Thank you for your reply. i now have the challenge of putting the bulbs in a opel corsa c.

ApparentlyI've got to take the bumper off to install new bulbs? I'll soon find out

Hi.

I don't know the left hand drive Opal Corsa C, but apart from left drive its pretty much the same as the Vauxhall Corsa, and also depending on your year.

You probably don't have to remove the bumper just to change a bulb, on one side you might find the battery, you might have to remove that to gain easy access to the back of the headlight, make sure if you do this check you have the radio code, otherwise put a set of jump leads from a friends car to your battery  terminals to keep the system alive...If it's this side.

If it's the other side the air-box could be in the way, remove this to gain easy access, this is quite easy to do.

On the subject of different make tyres on the same axle they are quite correct in failing the car if it's Spain safety laws, we don't in the UK....Yet, it might come. The reason being although tyres are made to a certain standard one make will / could behave quite differently to another make, so you put the road behaviour and possibly the braking distance out of balance, You only have to feel the weight of some of these tyres that are made in countries no one has heard of against a Dunlop or Michelin say. 

Same rules on tyres in France as well. Their traffic website says its to do with different braking distances on different brands which could cause loss of control. For example tyre on left braking distance 240 ft from 70 to 0, tyre on right braking distance 270 ft from 70 to 0. All due to the different rubber compounds used by different manufacturers (apparently).

As regards headlight bulbs my words of wisdom are to replace them at Halfords and spend the pennies extra for them to fit them. One of my bulbs failed on a recent drive through France and I pulled in at Dover Halfords to get them both replaced. I watched them fiddle for an hour before they were done and could only think Thank God this wasn't me trying to change on the roadside. Now that lights are on whenever the ignition is on, I think it makes sense to replace the lot, like windscreen wipers, once a year.

Headlights are not on whenever the ignition is on. It is the daylight running lights which are on and these are LEDS.