Let's discuss headlights

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/03/30/headlights-iihs-insurance-institute-highway-safety-car-led/

Having trouble seeing while driving at night? It may not be your eyes. Headlights on most new cars are downright terrible, according to the findings of a new study. As a result, motorists aren't getting the illumination they need to see the road and avoid obstacles at night.

E36 M3, I drive mostly at night and thought I was doin' just berkeleying fine. I don't outdrive my lights btw.

Discuss

Some new car headlights are awesome. Some are terrible. If you didn't want to outdrive your lights on a 2010 Dodge 2500, you'll be driving 25 mph. Meanwhile, some of the new LED stuff is fantastic.

At least they're not all terrible by legislation, like they were in the sealed beam era.

I don't know what lights where in it but the absolute best headlights I've ever used where in my 1982 BMW 320is. My 1980 320i headlights were nowhere near as good. Nothing that I have driven since then can compare. I have a hunch they were Cibies but I never looked at them, I thought it was just a German thing until I got the 1980 and was disappointed.

In general I find that round headlights preform the best.

Keith Tanner wrote: At least they're not all terrible by legislation, like they were in the sealed beam era.

Give it time.

Mostly kidding, I am somewhat hopeful if a mandate was written in response to this (ala TPMS, backup cameras, etc), there is enough information out there we wouldn't go back to the dark days (pun intended).

The headlamps are the one thing I missed about the 05 Subaru STi. So much so that I retrofitted a projector unit into the xb that became the daily and fitted a 5000k equivalent LED unit (no angel eyes or other nonsense, just high outlet white light).

Flynlow wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: At least they're not all terrible by legislation, like they were in the sealed beam era.

Give it time. Mostly kidding, I am somewhat hopeful if a mandate was written in response to this (ala TPMS, backup cameras, etc), there is enough information out there we wouldn't go back to the dark days (pun intended).

There are some regs about headlights, I believe. I haven't looked them up, but it's not just left up to the manufacturers. Obviously they're not ideal, as Ford Explorers and Dodge pickups have illustrated. Those vehicles, with their headlights waaaay up in the air, do seem to have a harder time meeting the regs. Either you blind oncoming traffic or you have your headlights aimed so low you're just looking 30' in front of you. That's why Dodge pickup drivers run with the "fog" lights on all the time, they're actually a lot more effective than the real lights.

An early 80's BMW with good headlights would have been running a European-style H4 setup from Bosch/Cibie/Hella/etc, not the mandated sealed beams of the period.

Both the TSX and my E46 have excellent HIDs. Good throw, sharp cutoff. 2 big thumbs up for both cars.

They vary a lot. My F-150 had terrible headlights, but the Expedition's are great.

iadr wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: At least they're not all terrible by legislation, like they were in the sealed beam era.

Did you miss the Car and Driver instrumented test where the sealed beams dramatically outperformed all the mid 90's OE headlamps, except for the factory HID's?

I've always thought sealed beams performed well if the wiring was in good shape, which was usually a decent gauge on the old stuff. Unlike the more modern plastic light cars with 18 gauge headlight wiring that causes problems in 10 years.

Im so happy with my HID retrofits, SO much better lighting than my OE headlights. They werent bad to start with.

I always rather liked the headlights on my US spec 89 Volvo 240 wagon. Which reminds me, I need to readjust the headlights on my wagon.

My mom had a rental Fiat 500L. Worst new headlights ever. Even with highbeams on and fogs (not sure how that worked,) they still threw pitiful light. Had to drive really slow that night.

iadr wrote: Euro H4 pattern are crap- good for blinding you by lighting up signs for 3 km, and nothing else. Patten has to drop to the ditch NOT RAISE! Idiots! that designed those things. When did we last have a majority of non reflective signs? Takes a lot of gall for Americans to think their lighting was outdated, when Europe was 15 years worse then them!

most signs in Europe were not lit (still might not be) so you need to see them with your own lights. I have driven euro and us spec 7" round lights.. the Euros are hands down better than the craptastic sealed beams we got stuck with.

Surprisingly, for all it's designed in issues, the lights on my Disco do not seem too bad

I had H4 and H1 Bosch lights in my 82 Camaro, small square sealed beam replacements. The were berkeleying spectacular and useless on high, because I also had 100 watt bulbs in all 4. See about 2 miles, but it had to be in the middle of the bald prairie at 2am or traffic anywhere in front of me was blinded. Low beam, not so good, because the cutoff was too sharp and the nose was too low. I couldn't aim them high enough to see, and low enough to not blind oncoming, so I put sealed beam halogens lows in and kept the 100 watt H1s. Best of both worlds.

I have owned a variety of Dodges, and any one designed in the 90's had lights you needed to check with a candle to see if they were on. I have an XC90 with the HID lights, and they are ok, except at dusk. They hardly seem on, but when it gets fully dark they have a long gentle reach that works really well.

Headlamp design seems to me to be a thing that should be pretty well scienced out by now. Have the engineers tell the designers how much depth they need to make a decent reflector, design whatever, go out on a dark road, and SEE IF THE BERKELEYING THINGS WORK. Then, have someone drive 100 meters behind you and then coming towards you AND SEE WHETHER THEY BLIND YOU!

Continue till they work.

Apparently the new GM trucks suck in a truly epic fashion.

Seems that most of the HID guys get enough light for themselves... and me, and everyone else on the road and in the trees, and in the sky.

Oh yeah- one other thing- make an adjuster that works, and will continue to work once its been out in the rain twice.

I really like the LED aux lights I put on the motorcycle. They over power the HID high beam. 30Watts of LED power per side. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61wUPjEzcML.SL1300.jpg

This is one thing I never understood. Europe and other countries can get awesome lighting, but some bureaucratic office of people that have no clue what they are doing tell us that we can't have the same thing? With all the efforts to legislate all sorts of safety nonsense into cars, you would think that allowing better lighting so people could actually see at night would be a no-brainer.

On my last WRX and my Mazda, the cars came with halogen projector housings, which is a step in the right direction. I tried a HID retrofit in the WRX, which was better than the stock H11's but still left a lot to be desired. I didn't get a year out of them before one of the ballasts crapped out. I ended up learning that a H9 bulb fits when you cut a tab off the plug, so I tried that. It actually output more light in a better pattern than the HID's, but again, still not as good as I would like. I did the same H9 swap in my Mazda, and it's ok. I had to aim the lights down a bit because of the lack of reflectors in the bulbs, but it's worlds better than the stock H11's. Maybe on the Mazda, I can score a set of factory HID's for it someday.

My worst set ever was the '87 CRX. I added a set of driving lights in the grill which provided the distance light and used the stock headlights more like fog lights. There was a time when every car in the driveway had euro lights but now all you can do is upgrade the bulb and it really isnt worth the effort.

I replaced the housings on the 96 F250 when I bought it. Fresh plastic makes a huge difference even when running standard Sylvania lights. Down the road I'd like to put an upgraded harness/relay kit and run the high-wattage bulbs but it's not too bad now.

Side note, the sylvania bulbs I pulled out of the truck when I bought it were stamped with a 1995 manufacture date. Which means on a 230k mile, 20 year old truck THEY WERE THE ORIGINAL BULBS. I don't think it was driven at night very much.

iadr wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: At least they're not all terrible by legislation, like they were in the sealed beam era.

Did you miss the Car and Driver instrumented test where the sealed beams dramatically outperformed all the mid 90's OE headlamps, except for the factory HID's?

Apparently.

With the sealed beams, every headlight sucked equally. With the introduction of "aero" headlights, we got a range of suckiness. Some manufacturers did a great job. Some did a crap job.

One nice thing about that era is that the lights were standardized, so they can be upgraded easily. I have a large collection of cars that have 7" round sealed beams, and every one has been updated to proper H4s with a nice cutoff. Two have been upgraded further with full-on LED lights that are the equal or better of anything I've ever seen, including the high-dollar Hella HIDs in the M5.

The headlights on the new Miata are fantastic LEDs. They even self-steer on some models, lighting up the inside of the corner for you (insert predictable old man grumbling about technology here). LED lights are great, offering a color that's easy on the eyes, tight packaging, low power use and it's quite possible to design good optics for them. I think we're going to see a big spike in the quality of OE headlights over the next few years.

My commute involves some time on dark, unlit country roads with deer, so headlight performance is important to me.

Keith Tanner wrote: The headlights on the new Miata are fantastic LEDs. They even self-steer on some models, lighting up the inside of the corner for you (insert predictable old man grumbling about technology here). LED lights are great, offering a color that's easy on the eyes, tight packaging, low power use and it's quite possible to design good optics for them. I think we're going to see a big spike in the quality of OE headlights over the next few years.

We have those directional LEDs on the '14 Maz6. It's a really good system. Apexing on a dark road is really fun.

Speaking of LED's...

I've seen LED retrofit kits that are much like the HID retrofit kits people buy. Anyone ever try them on a Halogen projector with decent results? My guess is that it's probably a waste of money and time compared to the H9 swap, but I'm curious.

I've tested the HID kits. Not on any of my cars, thanks.

Duke wrote: Both the TSX and my E46 have excellent HIDs. Good throw, sharp cutoff. 2 big thumbs up for both cars.

Agreed. Interestingly, when one has an e46 that suffers from the burnt bowl issue, the principal retrofit process is to use TSX guts!

Keith Tanner wrote: There are some regs about headlights, I believe. I haven't looked them up, but it's not just left up to the manufacturers.

http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=6680b6c93f4ecb6fdad110d390d6c81c&mc=true&node=se49.6.571_1108&rgn=div8

The reg is complicated and not too easy for a lay-person to understand.

This is also why you dont see much of the APC taillight stuff anymore as they werent bothering to meet the regs and such. http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/2003/American+Products+Company+To+Pay+$650,000+Civil+Penalty+For+Sale+of+Lamps+Not+Meeting+Safety+Standards

(I can't recommend starting your own business to do aftermarket lamps unless you have serious technical chops. )