Driving an M3 abroad

[westrow3]

I'm off to France in a couple of weeks and have been searching for how I can switch the high beam to work correctly while driving on the other side of the road. I saw on historic post elsewhere speculating that it happed automatically based on GPS, haven seen anything in the manual. Anyone know?
Thanks

 

[Rob R]

I have been enquiring about this since about March. No official answer. The unofficial but oft repeated answer is that the LED beams are so flat there is no need to change anything. Also, if complaints arise, lower the beams "one notch". Are these answers acceptable, or even consistent. No, but that's all there is.
Try that excuse out on a gendarme and let us know what happens!

 

[interbear]

I have been enquiring about this since about March. No official answer. The unofficial but oft repeated answer is that the LED beams are so flat there is no need to change anything. Also, if complaints arise, lower the beams "one notch". Are these answers acceptable, or even consistent. No, but that's all there is.
Try that excuse out on a gendarme and let us know what happens!

As a regular visitor to France this interests me too and my understanding was the same as yours, no adjustment required on LED lights.

How exactly can the beams be adjusted though, as you suggest? I just commented on another thread that I’m quite disappointed with the range of light provided by the Model 3 headlights when dipped, they are nowhere near as good as my previous Audi Xenon lights. Which seems contrary to many reviews I’ve read.

 

[KennethS]

As a regular visitor to France this interests me too and my understanding was the same as yours, no adjustment required on LED lights.

How exactly can the beams be adjusted though, as you suggest? I just commented on another thread that I’m quite disappointed with the range of light provided by the Model 3 headlights when dipped, they are nowhere near as good as my previous Audi Xenon lights. Which seems contrary to many reviews I’ve read.

In the service menu in car there is a headlight adjustment option. You can adjust each headlight beam (front right & front left) separately, in all 4 directions. I was getting too many oncoming cars flashing me so I took mine to an MOT centre. Turns out my beams were too high and the right side was pushing too far to the right (into oncoming traffic) as well. The adjustment controls are quite impressive but do this at your own risk and in my view it really should be done using the proper measurement tools rather than just on your own. Born has a good video on YouTube showing this in some detail. HTH

 

[Roy W.]

I'm off to France in a couple of weeks and have been searching for how I can switch the high beam to work correctly while driving on the other side of the road. I saw on historic post elsewhere speculating that it happed automatically based on GPS, haven seen anything in the manual. Anyone know?
Thanks

I’m off to France a week today.

A couple of months back I had the same conversation regarding headlight adjustment with Andrew, the service manager at Stockport. I’ve spoken to him a few times now and he seems an all-round nice chap!

He said that the M3 headlights need no adjustment for driving on the right. The beam is designed to be flat, and so the dipped beam works fine here and abroad.

He did suggest that I might want to put a small piece of black tape on each headlight, purely because they’d had reports of over-zealous gendarmes stopping a Model 3 and not accepting that the unadjusted beams are ok So I’m taking my roll of black insulating tape with me to apply to the headlights once we’re there.

 

[westrow3]

In the service menu in car there is a headlight adjustment option. You can adjust each headlight beam (front right & front left) separately, in all 4 directions. I was getting too many oncoming cars flashing me so I took mine to an MOT centre. Turns out my beams were too high and the right side was pushing too far to the right (into oncoming traffic) as well. The adjustment controls are quite impressive but do this at your own risk and in my view it really should be done using the proper measurement tools rather than just on your own. Born has a good video on YouTube showing this in some detail. HTH

Thanks for this, really helpful.

 

[Rob R]

I’m off to France a week today.

A couple of months back I had the same conversation regarding headlight adjustment with Andrew, the service manager at Stockport. I’ve spoken to him a few times now and he seems an all-round nice chap!

He said that the M3 headlights need no adjustment for driving on the right. The beam is designed to be flat, and so the dipped beam works fine here and abroad.

He did suggest that I might want to put a small piece of black tape on each headlight, purely because they’d had reports of over-zealous gendarmes stopping a Model 3 and not accepting that the unadjusted beams are ok So I’m taking my roll of black insulating tape with me to apply to the headlights once we’re there.

You couldn't take a picture showing where the tape goes, could you mate? I have no clue, last time I took a car to France, headlights were candles with silver foil at the back.

 

[Andrew_SE23]

My headlights were too low when I received my M3, IMHO. Night driving using headlights was very tense as I could only see 10 meters ahead.

My advice for someone who wants to change their headlights is:

Park on a flat surface in front of a wall when dark.
Look at the projected headlight pattern.
Select headlight search mode (the headlights each will move to a neutral position which is why it is important to remember your original position)
Alter to your headlights using the steering wheel scrollers.

 

[drewpost]

I just got back from a business trip to Amsterdam yesterday. No problem at all with being flashed. I had to manually change units to KM so the speed showed correctly (be aware this also changes your efficiency units to wh/km - don’t get excited like me thinking you’ve got insanely good efficient all of the sudden). Also slightly annoying is that each country border you cross, you lose LTE for a good 10-15 minutes as it transitions to the next country’s providers. Slightly annoying when streaming Spotify!!

 

[interbear]

In the service menu in car there is a headlight adjustment option. You can adjust each headlight beam (front right & front left) separately, in all 4 directions. I was getting too many oncoming cars flashing me so I took mine to an MOT centre. Turns out my beams were too high and the right side was pushing too far to the right (into oncoming traffic) as well. The adjustment controls are quite impressive but do this at your own risk and in my view it really should be done using the proper measurement tools rather than just on your own. Born has a good video on YouTube showing this in some detail. HTH

Thanks. Good tip. I’m not sure whether I want to have a play with that or not as there is no ‘revert’ setting if it goes wrong.

 

[Roy W.]

You couldn't take a picture showing where the tape goes, could you mate? I have no clue, last time I took a car to France, headlights were candles with silver foil at the back.

Yes, of course I will. I don’t think you need to be accurate. I’m just going to put one piece of tape on each headlight positioned so it doesn’t block too much of the light.

I used to use this technique on my old ICE cars, I got fed up of paying seven quid for a bit of sticky-backed plastic, so I copied the shape and position from the instructions in insulating tape!

We’ve been to France a lot over the years, so it must have saved me a fortune

 

[interbear]

My headlights were too low when I received my M3, IMHO. Night driving using headlights was very tense as I could only see 10 meters ahead.

My advice for someone who wants to change their headlights is:

Park on a flat surface in front of a wall when dark.
Look at the projected headlight pattern.
Select headlight search mode (the headlights each will move to a neutral position which is why it is important to remember your original position)
Alter to your headlights using the steering wheel scrollers.

Sounds like a very similar scenario to me, headlights too low so not enough range in terms of visibility. I went into the service menu and pressed headlights and it started some form of self-levelling without me doing anything at all. I didn’t make any adjustments using the scroll wheel. And, now, it seems my headlight range is improved. I’ll take another look tomorrow.

Why would this even be the case though, surely Tesla would set the lights at a consistent, acceptable level?

 

[Roy W.]

You couldn't take a picture showing where the tape goes, could you mate? I have no clue, last time I took a car to France, headlights were candles with silver foil at the back.

I didn’t bother with any tape on the headlights in the end. The lights seem fine driving on the right. After several days here and driving in the dark each night no one has flashed me because I’ve dazzled them.

I can also confirm that the TMC supplied with the Model 3 definitely doesn’t mind reversed polarity on the supply. I’ve tested it with both of the adapters I made - correct polarity and L/N reversed - and it works quite happily with both.