Where do I stand?

Warbeastrior

I bought a car from a garage just over 2 years ago. Had a number of issues with it off the bat but got it sorted eventually even though the garage in question were dragging their legs for a lot of it.

It was NCT'd just before they sold it to me and it passed. Fast-forward to last week and I was sending it for NCT for the first time myself. It failed on a bulb not being in right which was my own fault when changing a bulb recently.

I brought it to my mechanic to sort which he did but he highlighted something that really surprised me. He said that the left headlight is actually a headlight for a left-hand drive. He was surprised it went through x2 NCT's without it being noticed but said it can happen.

I left the headlight as it was and my car did pass the re-test when I brought it.

My issue is that the garage sold me that car with a headlight for a left hand drive car. My mechanic said a new headlight could cost upwards of 500e.

My car is no longer under warranty with said garage but do I have any case when they sold me the car with a wrong headlight in it?

Thanks for any input.

_Kaiser_

I doubt you've any comeback at this stage, especially if getting stuff done when it WAS in warranty was a hassle.

Your options here are leave it as is as it's passed the test, or replace the headlight with the correct part (either new or maybe second hand) if you want to do that.

Uncle Pierre

Your biggest problem would surely be proving that it was like that when the garage actually sold you the car, rather than a correct light being swapped out for an incorrect one sometime since purchase, for whatever bizarre reason somebody might do something like that.

Even if the garage had been a pleasure and joy to deal with all along, I really couldn't see them agreeing to do something like this two years down the road.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120767280#Comment_120767280

My guess would be it was in a crash (THAT might be something you could chase with the garage OP if your mechanic found any other evidence - but 2 years later is a problem as well) and replaced with an EU one from eBay or similar.

User1998

To put it simply, you haven’t a leg to stand on.

Its been 2 years, you can’t prove the car had a LHD light fitted when you bought the car, and you can’t prove that it was potentially crashed either

sniperman

if its not broke,dont fix it.......it passed the 2 ncts,so whats the problem,the light works

kdevitt

There may be no issue at all with the headlights - its entirely dependent on the beam pattern. It used to be the case that RHD cars had a headlight beam pattern which dips to the left (to light up the verge) and LHD had the opposite - which causes obvious issues when either are driven on the opposite side of the road and the beam pattern points towards oncoming traffic. Lots of cars now have a flat beam pattern though - it points straight - so LHD and RHD cars might have different partnumbers, but the same beam pattern. Plenty of other headlights can be adjusted from LHD to RHD as well.

As someone else said above, I wouldn't worry about it unless you fail the NCT on it - but if you do, I'd imagine you have zero comeback with a dealer who sold you the car 2 years back.

Warbeastrior

Thanks all for the input.

I'll leave it so as it doesn't seem to be causing any issues.

the.red.baron

What car is it? A lot of new cars the lights are the same for left and right, it's a setting in the car decides it, cheaper

bazz26

It's also very possible that the headlight unit had to be replaced at one time and the previous owner may have sourced a second hand replacement unit from the likes of ebay. A large amount of car parts like headlights advertised on ebay tend to be located in Germany or Eastern Europe in my experience.

GavPJ

How does your mechanic know it is a headlamp from a LHD car?