LHD and RHD car parts from Dubai: what fits across, what is side-specific

Steering side follows the side of the road, and Wikipedia states the rule: in left-hand traffic cars usually have the steering wheel on the right, and in right-hand traffic the driver usually sits on the left. The UAE keeps right, so Gulf-market cars are left-hand drive, and so are the dealer stock and parts shelves built around them. The table groups the markets we write for by that rule.

Expect exceptions on both sides. Many cars in the left-traffic markets arrive as right-hand-drive Japanese imports, but a fleet vehicle or a conversion can be either, and the plate of the car, not the market, settles it. Rwanda keeps right and, according to New Times reporting seen only as search summaries, has barred right-hand-drive cars since 2005 while admitting some trucks and cross-border buses.

For the same model and engine, these parts normally carry one part number whichever side the car is driven from: filters, belts, spark plugs, brake pads, discs and calipers (left and right by wheel position), suspension arms, springs and shock absorbers, hubs and bearings, driveshaft joints, cooling parts, and the internals of engines and gearboxes. Nothing in them depends on where the driver sits.

That rule is our working rule, not a maker's statement. It rests on owner forums, one conversion-kit listing and an analyst reading of them, and no manufacturer catalogue we have read lays the split out. So the rule narrows the question, and the part number answers it. Any line whose number we cannot match to your car is left off the quote.

New aftermarket parts help right-hand-drive buyers more than most. They are catalogued by vehicle model and year, so a model that differs in one part has its own entry and a quote by number picks the right one. One badge also carries different engines by market: Toyota South Africa lists 2.4 and 2.8 litre GD-6 diesels for the Hilux, while Toyota UAE lists a 2.7 litre four and a 4.0 litre V6. So the engine code, not the steering side, decides which engine parts fit.

The conversion kit tells the story. One specialist's kit for turning a left-hand-drive MGA roadster into a right-hand-drive one lists a steering rack, a dashboard, throttle, clutch and brake pedals, and speedometer and tachometer cables. On the same point, three replies in a UK Mercedes forum thread say a left-hand-drive rack will not fit a right-hand-drive A-class, and one explains that the steering-arm connection is on the opposite side.

Headlamps are the part buyers forget. Wikipedia says a low-beam lamp is shaped for one side of the road: lamps for right-hand traffic dip to the right, and lamps for left-hand traffic dip to the left. In Europe it is a legal requirement to adjust or mask lamps temporarily when a car crosses to the other side, and some countries require lamps made for the correct side. A Gulf-market lamp for a car in Nairobi is therefore a part to ask about first.

Two more points come from forum posts seen only as search summaries: pedal boxes on a left- and right-hand-drive pair of the same car are described as totally different, and wiper arms differ. Both agree with the kit, but we treat them as lower-grade evidence. For every part in the table's lower half we quote by part number only and state the side on the line.

You send the number printed on the old part, or the number from your own catalogue, together with the chassis number or VIN. A person checks that number against the model and engine, then writes each line with the brand, the grade and the side. If the only match is a left-hand-drive number, the line says so and is not offered as if it were the right-hand one.

A right-hand-drive number may not be one the UAE market holds, because the dealer shelves here are built for left-hand-drive cars. We claim no stock for any right-hand-drive number. If a number cannot be found new, the line is left off the list and a person tells you on WhatsApp, rather than substituting the nearest left-hand part.

State the side of the car on every line. A converted car, a government import or a vehicle built for one market and registered in another can all differ from what the country suggests. A photograph of the old part showing its number, and a second showing which side of the car it came from, is the cheapest check there is.

In East and Southern Africa the fit problem is model mix more than steering side. Business Daily's KRA figures for the 22 months to October 2018, published on 13 December 2018, put the Toyota Probox first in Kenya with 14,188 registrations, ahead of the Corolla at 10,786, the Land Cruiser at 8,110, the Vitz at 5,468 and the Hiace at 5,353. They are old and cover Toyota only, but no newer count by model turned up.

Zimbabwe's cars are described the same way. Press pieces seen as search summaries call the Honda Fit and Toyota Aqua the most visible cars there, and no source gives registrations by model. The Probox, Fielder, Fit and Aqua are Japanese-market models. Our notes flag their small petrol and hybrid engines, such as the Aqua's 1NZ-FXE, as a weak overlap with Gulf-market engines, and the 1NZ and 2NZ engine families have their own page.

So for these four models we quote parts by part number as new aftermarket. You send the number from the old part or from your catalogue, and a person checks which new aftermarket line matches it. Each line states the brand and the grade, as for every part. The Hilux, Hiace, Land Cruiser 70 and Prado are the other half of the picture: they share engines across both sides, so they are quoted by model and engine code.