W124 Headlights

[Tomkinsm]

The headlights on my 300CE-24 are for a left hand drive version (I think the previous owner must have used the car abroad for a time). I've always got through the MOT by using the stick on beam converters, but now I'd like to get the lights sorted.

Question - do I need to change the whole headlight or can I simply fit new lenses. The chap at my local German and Swedish shop did not know if the main headlight body is common or not.

Thanks

 

[Myros]

new lenses will be fine

as the reflectors are not handed and can be aimed all over the shop with the adjusters. GSF do the glasses, I had some from them last year. About £35 all in I think. It's fiddly though.

 

[Tomkinsm]

Great. Do you think I would need to re-adjust them or should it be fine just to swap the lenses?

 

[Myros]

You will need to re-aim them a bit

as they will be aimed over to the right a bit. As I recall the whole unit has to come out for you to get the clips off that hold the glass on. Get new seals as well while you are at it. It was well fiddly and required a lot of grunting and swearing to free off all the rusty/stuck bits. Set aside at least half a day.
The aiming is the easy bit. If you have a handy wall or garage door, mark the beam-falls and centre of the car on it now, and then when you re-aim, get the same height, but just move them over to the left to the same extent from centre as they were to the right.