Headlamp Glare

[lazybloke]

It's Groundhog Day!!!

Absolutely, for the sake of anyone who didn't read the rest of the thread, dazzling headlamps are a collection of problems, including:
1) idiots who are slow to react when they need to manually dip
2) automatic dip mechanisms being slow to react (I drive both our cars using manual dip because I'm not an ****hole)
3) matrix/self-levelling headlamps which fail to adjust correctly/promptly when cresting brows of climbs or when affected by camber and superelevation
4) Errors in the calibration of adjustment systems
5) Sensor problems (condensation, dirt?)
6) headlamp alignment issues
7) headlamp beams tending towards point light-sources (just think of the damage you can do if you focus sunlight to a point)
8) illegal headlamp upgrades
etc

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

This topic seems to be all over national and local BBC today. Department for Transport has commissioned some new research, they say. Philips Automotive Lighting suggest a kite mark on the bulbs, which might help their margins but would do almost naff-all to reduce the problem.

The bit of the telly that talked about this was based on the problem being people replacing the bulbs

but the main problem I see is new cars - so almost certainly the bulb supplied with the car

in which case a kite mark won;t help and it is the regulations about new cars - and MOT - that needs looking at

 

[johnnyb47]

There just about to talk about this on ITN news at 10

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I can certainly agree that the automatic headlamp dipping could cause a problem
I know my car is 5 years old - but the auto dipping system on it is just stupid
It is not too bad at dipping - but it is far too easy to cancel the auto system and not realise
and it doesn;t go to full beam when you need it to - hence you do it manually
which then cancels the auto system

I can believe there being auto levelling systems that work about as well
i.e. borderline terrible

Sometime you just need a driver to do it

which is not a good thing for self driving cars

 

[rogerzilla]

Auto levelling was required for HIDs but I don't think it is for LEDs, which almost every new car now has.

The problem with auto dip is that it needs to see the oncoming headlights before it dips, by which time the other driver is already dazzled. A human driver normally dips just before they come into view, as the oncoming beams can be seen well before the car itself. IME most auto features on cars don't work properly.

 

[Marchrider]

auto levelling just works when the car is first started (or at least it does with my wifes LEDs) it is simply checking the weight distribution of the car, see if anything heavy is in the boot. So it does not account or undulations on the road, the brow of the hill , pot holes, or poor road repairs

these high tech headlamps probably work correctly on a perfectly flat blemish free modern airport runway, but on the UK road network they are hopeless and as 95% of road users are saying they are blinding on coming traffic

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

So - from what people are saying - it sounds like the auto levelling is to blame as it is one of the "designed in a lab" systems that doesn;t always work in the real world

I don;t even know if I have one!!
I know this car has auto-dip - as I have said above - and it is just not good enough

I also always keep the headlight adjustment dial in teh dashboard set to be dipped a bit more than normal - so I might have and it is over compensating

I will have to find what folder I put the manual in on my computer and look it up


all this really does make me wonder more and more about teh safety of self drive cars!!

 

[Drago]

Auto dipping was superb in my Mini, which had active matrix headlamps and self adjusted the beam in several ways to avoid dazzle. I had great confidence in in it.

In the MG and my VW it's woeful, I was having to override it and manually dip so frequently it was easier to simply switch it off. TBH I'd expect that from VW, but the Chinese have a pretty good grip on electronics and optics these days and I'd have wanted better. Probably a sign of the MGs budget build rather than any lack of understanding of physics in Beijing.

VW on the other hand have no such excuse, but for decades the reality has failedmto come close to the carefully cultivated image. Sadly my choice was that or a Transit, and I didn't fancy being exiled to wet belt hell.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Auto dipping was superb in my Mini, which had active matrix headlamps and self adjusted the beam in several ways to avoid dazzle. I had great confidence in in it.

In the MG and my VW it's woeful, I was having to override it and manually dip so frequently it was easier to simply switch it off.

That sound like auto dip on mine
thing is I can;t properly cancel it - I can cancel it when I am going (flash the headlights - who though that was a good idea??)
but there is no "forget autodip - just totally forget it" entry on any menu

 

[Jody]

All LED and Xenon lights require self leveling (either via air suspension or sensors fitted to the suspension arms) and washers to be road legal.

Dipping on start is the car running self tests to make sure systems are working correctly.

 

[Drago]

Oh, that's weird. It's buried in the menus, straightforward on the MIn G dynasty (as I call it to Mrs Ds annoyance), buried fairly deep on the VW, and both are deactivated permanently.

Neither my old Mini, the MG or the van have headlamp washers on their LED headlamps.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

All LED and Xenon lights require self leveling (either via air suspension or sensors fitted to the suspension arms) and washers to be road legal.

Dipping on start is the car running self tests to make sure systems are working correctly.

No washers on our LED equipped VW.

 

[Jody]

No washers on our LED equipped VW.

Matrix LED's by any chance?

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Matrix LED's by any chance?

Nope.

Car is just 2.5 years old. Did the regulations change since we purchased it?

 

[Jody]

I'm not sure but might be a workaround the interpretation of rules

"For xenon they measure one bright bulb, for led headlights the manufacturer says they have to measure each led separately which are under the 2000lm threshold"

I've been out the retail side of the trade for a while so it's news to me that brighter LED headlights don't require washers.

I was reading a thread about matrix lights detecting dirty lenses and throwing a dash message up so there must be some interesting tech hidden in them.