metsvenand

Hi,

I have imported my 2006 Xb to The Netherlands. To clear it through inspection, I had to make some changes to the car. Some of these are needed to clear inspection in different countries in Europe too. Luckily, here they aren't as strict as for example Germany or Belgium. I was able to clear inspection with my car lowered, rims and sport tires, all the carbon fiber pieces, header and axle back exhaust,... But I had to install a silencer to lower the decibels of the exhaust. For the most part, the changes were minor.

I hope this will help people that are importing their cars to Europe. If any other questions or concerns you can PM me.

First off, The head lights:

The stock headlights have a yellow reflector in them and an yellow bulb for the turning signal. They need to be taken out. The reason is that if you have the parking/city driving lights on, they will be yellow. That's not allowed here. You need to have clear/white parking/city driving lights and you are allowed to have clear/white turning signals in the front . So, I decided to install a clear bulb and remove the yellow reflector inside the headlight housing. There is a topic here on scionlife that shows you how to do that.

Before:

After:

metsvenand

2ND part of the changes, are the rear bumper side reflectors. They aren't allowed to be red. I had 2 options:
1) To remove them, but then I had a hole in my bumper. No thank you!
2) Remove them and install amber reflectors.

Well, I did go with the 2nd option. A trip to the local parts store fixed the issue. They had an amber reflector with a double sticky tape on the backside to stick them on the bumper.

Before:


After:


You can also, remove the side reflector before you go to the inspection and re-install them after you passed. You didn't hear that from me, lol. I will not be held responsible, if the police stop you for that.

metsvenand

3rd Part is the absence of a rear fog light. You need one in the back and the front ones are an option.
The parts store had one that you can mount to the rear of the car with the use of a magnet and turn it on when needed. This is not allowed. You need a fixed light with a switch and an indicator light. The switch from the option fog light kit in the US is not usable, unless you make a separate indicator light. The easiest way is to get a JDM one or European accessory fog light switch.

Fog light switch:


My solution for the rear fog light:

What I did was, the bottom light on the driver side is a back up light. I did convert that into a fog light. You will still have a back up light on the passenger side.

You can also buy the JDM or an universal fog light fixture, mount it where you want it and hook it up to your switch. I didn't like that idea, because the extra cost for the JDM one or the ugly looks of the universal one.

Next post will be a write up of the fog light conversion and switch install.

Black_Sheep_xB

Wow man.. cool. Interesting to hear the regs over there. Nice to see that someone was willing to go through the trouble with the B. Does it turn heads when you cruise by?

burstaneurysm

I like the rear fog light solution.

metsvenand

It's unbelievable how many heads we turn and wows we get. Even from regular people to tuners, from young to older aged, women and men. The only dislike is where we life, there is a whole bunch of speeding bumps on the road, highway cruising can be frustrated with the automatic transmission, fuel and oil is expensive and the very high risk of getting speeding tickets. My wife got 2 already. One was 109km/h and the other one was 110km/h on a 100km/h road. With the correction applied to the speeding, it came down to 4 and 5 km/h over the limit, each costing us 20 euro ($28,00). Fun, isn't it, lol!!!

mijos87

lol i know how that is, i recently pcs'd here to the uk, and being that they have many different shaped cars here, they still stop point, ask, and take pictures of box... but when i lived in miami they were common sight, but the roads here..... well they suck, bumps, wierd angled corners... and all these stupid speed cameras! ive gotten 3 tickets so far 60 pounds each...