I'm planning to relocate to France this year and take the 1987 Defender 90 with me and re-register it in France. The process looks reasonably straightforward, with just a couple of things to sort in advance. First, the headlights need to be converted (properly, no silly stickers) for driving on the other side of the road. I guess I can buy a new pair of headlights and just fit them once I'm over there, anyone know where I can source them, or indeed know of an easier way to achieve the same? Secondly, I need to get a Certificate of Conformity for the Defender, I guess by contacting Land Rover? The small problem may be that it was originally a 2.5l petrol and was re-engined a while ago to a 2.8TD (Isuzu Trooper unit), is this going to make it more difficult?

Cheers!

Steve

As far as lights are concerned, you should be able to just do a straight swap of the headlights with LHD-spec units. The RHD ones can't be used as the beam pattern will be the wrong way round. You could fit these while still in the UK and temporarily mask off the kick-up to the right (and sell the old ones on ebay). You'll also need to interchange the fog and reversing lights as they should also be on opposite sides to UK-spec. This doesn't need any new parts or modifications as there's wiring connections on both sides- the wires from the lights go into the opposite connection on the harness and the lenses get swapped over.

Other considerations- the km/h markings on the speedo don't show up too well at night (green numbers on green backlighting) so it might be worth getting a proper metric one as a long-term solution. It might also be worth fitting a small convex mirror to the left door mirror to eliminate the blind spot on that side, particularly if you have solid van sides. If found it a bit easier on my CSW as you can just look over your shoulder out of the left rear window.

" The small problem may be that it was originally a 2.5l petrol and was re-engined a while ago to a 2.8TD (Isuzu Trooper unit), is this going to make it more difficult?"

When you ask for the certificat de conformité, it will say on it that the vehicle is a petrol and when the vehicle is inspected it will fail because it is now a diesel and it don't conform. You might be banging your head against a brick wall trying to get French plates on it. If any body else on ere has any suggestions; please step up.

Didnt I read that their mots are every 2 years and are super duper strict?

CT's or (MOT's) are indeed every two years, I have never heard them called strict, however.

I brought a renault over and registered it in France and it was pretty simple.

The French system is beaurocratic slow and rigid so I can see the engine swap issue being a nightmare.

My Defender is UK RHD and on French plates with a COC from Landrover UK.

Good luck, I hope you can sort it.

CT's strict? Hell that's a laugh. My mate bought him self a saxo with a 6 month old ct. The rear suspension was the boot floor, the floor wasn't stuck to any thing on both sides and was going up down instead of the suspension.

Will look up the number for the guy in Landrover France who deals with C of Cs for you tommorrow. Seem to remember he was a helpful chap.
Not sure how the the engine conversion will affect things but put it this way, they didn't come out and inspect my defender when I re-registered it. Re registering is a governmental department concerned with french bureaucracy and the control technique is done by a couple of guys in a local garage concerned with what an engine is emmitting rather than what the engine is. They won't necessarily talk to each other.
As regards swapping rear fog light and reversing light don't bother. Last CT for me they didn't even bother picking it up as a “to do” whereas the same guys 2 years ago had noted it. The system here is that for non critical faults they'll notify you of it and it's then up to you to fix it but you don't need to get it reinspected.
I bought; LHD headlights in the UK before moving, and changed them myself once I got here by parking 6 feet from a wall and marking up where they focused, a centre point, and where they should focus one changed. Easy job sauf it was minus 5 degrees at the time. Ouch..
Moved here from berkshire myself -near newbury- and not regretted it for a single moment.

Sorry can't find a record of the person I talked to to get the CofC but if I remember correctly I just phoned LR France HQ in Paris and they put me through easily enough.

Someone is selling a pair of LHD headlights for a tratter in the for sale section

Might be interested in the RHD headlights

SteveJones said:

The small problem may be that it was originally a 2.5l petrol and was re-engined a while ago to a 2.8TD (Isuzu Trooper unit), is this going to make it more difficult?

Cheers!

Steve

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Forget it ! You can't register it in France as it's not got it's original engine, the only way round it is to wait until it's 30 years old and then register it as a classic car ! Same applies to all hard tops that have been changed to SW ! The certificate of comformity says exactly what vehicle it should be and if it's not your buggered !