I know this has been discussed in the past across some forums, however the NCT documentation appears to have been updated in 2023 and includes some interesting changes.
As a backstory my E39 has bi-xenon headlights fitted from retrofitlab.com. The previous owner fitted them, and I have to say they are fantastic at night. Sharp and clean against the ditch, but by no way blinding. My E39 has both leveling and headlight washers as standard, so assume they were an older style xenon before the previous owner fitted these ones. I have no issues with NCT with them.
As a side note, my previous daily was an E36, and my biggest complaint was the Halogen H1 lights against the modern light technologies just weren't cutting it at night.
We also have an F31 touring in the family. This does not have factory xenons but the standard Halogen headlights. Although improved over the E36, they're still not great. I found a kit from the same brand as what's in my E39, retrofitlab.com, to suit the F31. However, the F31 does not have factory headlight washers fitted, so assumed this wasn't an option to fit without some NCT troubles. The parts required to fit the cleaners is quite substantial.
However....
Having checked the latest NCT manual, it seems there has been a change to the headlight cleaners section:
Attachment 9344
As these are aftermarket kits designed to replace only the low beam projector, and keep the factory housings, it's still a bit of an unknown whether they would be a pass or not.Quote:
Headlamp cleaning devices are mandatory to be fitted with HID lamps with the exception of bulbs specified to produce 2000 lumens or less, retrofitted systems and vehicles which were not
originally manufactured (type approved) for Europe
Anyone have any recent experience with cars that have xenons but not washers passing NCT? Or even with these retrofitlab ones fitted?
Thank you
