# Help with old car and ITV



## GerryJK (Nov 30, 2009)

Hello Everyone

Read the forum with great interest and learn so much.

Please can anyone help?

We have now completed renovations on our Delica car which is now some 17 years old (1995). (right hand drive but on Spanish Plates, which did ourselves some 8 years ago)

To drive it now it needs to be ITVd. However, the friendly EU has decreed that you should change the headlights on it to conform with their rules. You can no longer put stick on strips on the headlights. 

We have tried everywhere and we cannot get lefthand headlight for the car.

Do you think that we could possibly get the car through the ITV?


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

GerryJK said:


> Hello Everyone
> 
> Read the forum with great interest and learn so much.
> 
> ...


Well to my knowledge thats always been the rule. What I can tell you is that I had a 1995 car here for 6 years for which there is no such thing as a LHD headlight. So we adjusted them as far as we could to the Spanish side, and it got through ITV's every year. So yes, it's possible.


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## tonyinspain (Jul 18, 2011)

Whats a delica car never heard of it is it a kit car or a new model
Whats it look like 
Who makes it?
Cant help never heard of it


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

tonyinspain said:


> Whats a delica car never heard of it is it a kit car or a new model
> Whats it look like
> Who makes it?
> Cant help never heard of it


Google is your friend
Mitsubishi Delica, and the car I had was a Mitsubishi FTO


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

Mitsubishi Delica, 4x4, looks like a people carrier but is very good off road with the right tyres, we ran one for a few years when I was still actively a four season camper/climber/hill walker, great motors.

Look on ebay and you will find LHD lights.


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## Guest (Jan 20, 2013)

Stravinsky said:


> Google is your friend
> Mitsubishi Delica, and the car I had was a Mitsubishi FTO



FTO. What a sexy car that was.


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Danny&Claire said:


> FTO. What a sexy car that was.


Still is 
I sold it to a mate as I wasnt using it enough
I run the UK Owners Club as well, so if LHD headlamps had been around, I would have found them


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## GerryJK (Nov 30, 2009)

Thank you for the quick reply Stravinsky. You do a great job of running the UK club. Will try your idea.

Bob. I did buy headlights from Ebay, they were the wrong shape, even though I was assured they would fit the 1995 Delica. Costly exercise. As far as I could find out there are no LHD headlights for a car as old as mine.


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## tonyinspain (Jul 18, 2011)

Ahhhhhh fto sorry my ignorance i thought he ment a dacia


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

This is confusing...

Although I understand that you registered the car on ES plates yourself, you must have had to undergo the initial "registration ITV" 8 years ago.

I also put a UK vehicle through this process 9 years ago and had to change the headlight to an LHD spec unit.

During this first ITV, a homologation code is assigned to the vehicle, from there on in, you cannot make any changes to the vehicle without repeating the homologation process for the specific changes made.

So, if when you first registered the vehicle in Spain it was fitted with UK spec headlights, the vehicle should always pass the ITV. Have you actually tried to get it through as it is?

Some vehicles do not even have "handed" headlights (i.e. a kick up in the beam of light towards the nearside) instead using a flat beam which is compliant in all countries. Are you sure that this isn't the case with your car?

If you did "get lucky" and got your car through the process with its UK spec lights 8 years ago without changing them (or by putting on the sticky patches) then I'm afraid that you will have to change them because the authorities will never recognise this "error".

I assume you have checked that the units are not adjustable as is the case with some modern BMWs for example?


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## alex3025 (Jan 21, 2013)

I'm looking at bringing one of my DELICA'S over when we move but not sure what one will be easier to register I have a 94 L300 or a 95 L400 any help or advice


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## tonyinspain (Jul 18, 2011)

Alex both are ok L300 and L400 are widely used here so apart from import tax as ones newet than you should have no prob but saying that this is spain


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## Guest (Jan 21, 2013)

GerryJK said:


> Hello Everyone
> 
> Read the forum with great interest and learn so much.
> 
> ...



The guy who imported my car asked me to send him a photo of the headlights before deciding if I need to buy LHD headlights. 

Because of the headlight he told me I would be able to adjust them without needing LHD ones.

I'm a full blown clown so had no idea how to do it so he kindly did it for me. At no extra cost I may add. 

Anyhow, he said something about accessing the headlight itself and simply flipping a small steel plate to redirect the light to a more central/ right sided beam focus. 

It sounded mighty easy. 

I may not have described it very well but I hope you (or somebody else) does understand what I"m trying to explain.

Danny


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## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

I can't really understand the problem as all Mitsubishi Delicas were & are actually sold new here in Spain . All parts are available from mitsubishi dealers for both 3 & 400 models. You should be able to find some at a scrapyard where it would be cheaper.


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Danny&Claire said:


> The guy who imported my car asked me to send him a photo of the headlights before deciding if I need to buy LHD headlights.
> 
> Because of the headlight he told me I would be able to adjust them without needing LHD ones.
> 
> ...


It's something we considered. You have to unseal the headlamp unit and then cut out a section from the rear so that you can pull it around a few degrees. The garage thought it would be too hard, so the car went to the first ITV with UK headlamps and passed each year thereafter.


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## Guest (Jan 21, 2013)

Stravinsky said:


> It's something we considered. You have to unseal the headlamp unit and then cut out a section from the rear so that you can pull it around a few degrees. The garage thought it would be too hard, so the car went to the first ITV with UK headlamps and passed each year thereafter.



Well the guy that did mine does it regularly so I'm surprised the garage thought it would be too hard. 

Maybe try and find a recommended garage and ask them to do it ?

Sounds like you know what the process is though.


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Danny&Claire said:


> Well the guy that did mine does it regularly so I'm surprised the garage thought it would be too hard.
> 
> Maybe try and find a recommended garage and ask them to do it ?
> 
> Sounds like you know what the process is though.


It was hard because it was a sealed unit, so the procedure is to subject it to heat (sometimes in low heat in an oven) so you can break the seam. then after the job is done it has to be stuck together again


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