Hi, sorry for posting my second question in as many minutes!  I have a few things to ask...

I've noticed that my MkIV Focus doesn't have headlamp washers.  I then noticed that my good lady's new-ish car doesn't have them either, despite being one of those "quality" German marques.

Are they no longer a thing?  I'd have thought that in our Wonderful World of Health and Safety^TM they'd be a standard fit these days?

 

 

They were mandatory for cars with HIDs but not leds/halogens.

10 minutes ago, Guy Heaton said:

They were mandatory for cars with HIDs but not leds/halogens.

Ahh gotcha, thanks.  And manufacturers being manufacturers, if it ain't mandatory....

Don't sweat over it, just one more thing to go wrong. I had a Merc C class where both failed within 4 weeks of each other, never got them seen to as the car was regularly washed so were irrelevant...

6 hours ago, Guy Heaton said:

They were mandatory for cars with HIDs but not leds/halogens.

No, it’s based on brightness on dipped beam, not lamp type. 
 

Anything over 2000 lumens  

 

If they’re fitted they have to work to pass the MOT  

 

5 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

No, it’s based on brightness on dipped beam, not lamp type. 
 

Anything over 2000 lumens  

 

If they’re fitted they have to work to pass the MOT  

 

Must admit, I thought they were lamp types. On a previous car, I changed the bulbs to HIDs, and was told by the MOT station that they would fail next time (the law was just being changed) unless I installed washers. I never did and simply swapped the bulbs out every MOT (a 10 minute job) for the next 5 years or so till I sold her.

Just now, StephenFord said:

Must admit, I thought they were lamp types. On a previous car, I changed the bulbs to HIDs, and was told by the MOT station that they would fail next time (the law was just being changed) unless I installed washers. I never did and simply swapped the bulbs out every MOT (a 10 minute job) for the next 5 years or so till I sold her.

It’s because with HIDs they are generally over the brightness threshold. 
 

With LEDs it depends as they’re much more controllable. You can either dim them or shut off individual clusters. 
 

My Fiesta never had them but it only used half the clusters each side on dipped and all 4 each side for full beam. Where my Focus uses all clusters each side on dipped and high just lifting them up for high beam. 
 

But since October Ford have stopped fitting them to the Focus with the matrix style LEDs. I haven’t worked out if they’re shutting down a cluster or dimming them yet.