Thread: D4 high-beam alignment

Hey Sniegy,
What's inside the boxes - halogens again?

Yes,


































& some bi-xenons too....

Thanks Graeme - excellent info indeed. What make & model of globes did you use? I had asked my auto electrician to fit some (very expensive) Phillips 5000k HIDs when he did my dual battery set-up a few weeks back, but he rang Phillips to check and was told "don't do it!". Apparently they expressed some concern about upsetting the rest of the "sensitive" electrics. I meant to follow this up earlier, but Life got in the way

The globes are Chinese ebay 55w, as are the ballasts. I'm a bit surprised that no 'headlight not working' message occurs as 1 only powers a relay and the other has no load at all. However that means that if there's a problem when I change to power the ballasts from the H7 supply, I can revert to just powering a relay. The reason the ballasts aren't powered now is because the ballasts aren't mounted close enough for the power leads to reach.

I haven't been out at night yet to see how the 3000K lights work, being rather occupied with a last minute enhancement to my height controller system.

Drunking the globes has only partially improved the possum lights, as while the beams now light the road verge and the trees beyond very well, the brightest part of the beam is still up with the critters. I await un-drunk globes and good light assemblies as they will be so much better again.

Originally Posted by GrahamB

Time for an update. My local dealer principal passed my concern to his new service manager who is going to take it up with LRA. I took the car to him so he could see the lights for himself. Still waiting for a response.
In the meantime, I emailed Dept of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and received a prompt response from the Senior Engineer, Vehicle Safety Standards Branch. I outlined my problem and he is passing it on to Light Vehicle Certification and Vehicle Safety & Recall section. I am waiting for their contact. There seems to be a lot duck shoving and passing the buck, but I am quietly confident of getting some sort of result from somewhere. I am not giving up just yet.

Graham

Hi Folks,

Any further updates on the misalignment issues and whether LRA is going to address this via a recall. Mine is showing similar light patterns with the halogens substantially above the xenon and leaving dark patches on each side of the road. Very distracting when driving, as the dark patches distract your eyes from the road ahead. The dealer in Melbourne has looked at the vehicle and stated that the lights are correctly aligned and have referred the issue to LRA, but no fix offered yet??

Allan

3.0 TDV6 HSE

Originally Posted by Beamin

From the little bit I've read so far I think 3000K might be a similar colour to the halogens, rather than the intense yellow of dedicated fog lights. Also, unless you rewire them to turn on separately from the regular high beams you will still have a flood of bright white 5000K light from the bi-xenon high beam generating glare in the fog anyway.

Only one way to find out for sure...

All the best.

Not fog, but I found the 3000K lights very good in rain, having driven for several hours in showery conditions. I switched back to high beam when passing trucks were still beside me and the lights shone straight though the spray. There was no reflection from raindrops at all. The wide beam lighting the road verges provided a more useful light than my HID driving lights did and I didn't have to worry about blinding traffic that popped out of nowhere. It had been a long day that started with a 4 hour drive and ended with another 4 hour drive yet the driving didn't make me tired. I'm very happy with the lights and getting the wasted light down from the trees can only make them better still.

Allan,

I thought this was just me...

"light patterns with the halogens substantially above the xenon and leaving dark patches on each side of the road. Very distracting when driving, as the dark patches distract your eyes"

I was pointing this out to my kids last night. We have only had the SE for 3 weeks and as we live where there are no street lights (thanks to our local government) this is very noticeable.

I await a resolution.....

David