D4 high-beam alignment

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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

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Any progress yet?

ADR rule 77/00 Gas Discharge Headlamps at 6.3.2.3 provides 2 measuring points and minimum lux to the left and right on the horizontal line from the centre point of the low-beam cut-off lines (point HV on diagram Figure A in Annex 3) that the driving (high) beam must meet, when shone on a screen 25 metres directly in front. Whilst I don't have a lux meter, I'd be very surprised if the bi-xenon light produces enough light by itself to pass the tests. The halogen beams don't contribute any light to the test, not being on the same horizontal plane.

JLRA obtained the D4's ADR rule 77 approval in June 2009 as part of their original compliance application 41394 (the number on the compliance plate) and have not sought any further ADR rule 77 approval since, according to RVCS records which are provided by the RVCS web-site. The lights submitted could have been pre-production models but regardless, JLRA are in contravention of their compliance approval if the bi-xenon high beams now don't meet the horizontal lux tests.

I consider the lack of horizontal light is both a safety issue and a technical breach of ADR rule 77 and thus the approval to market D4s in Australia.

Hi All,
Carefully following the outcomes here. My D4 HSE has the Possum Spotting feature as well. Would like it fixed, as I too, consider it a fault.

discomaniac

The Vehicle Safety Standards section of the Federal Govt Dept of Transport is not currently interested in further investigation of possible non-compliace with ADRs because LR provided documents showing EC approval of the lights. However the NSW RTA Safer Vehicle dept is currently interested in the topic and are prepared to do their own testing if they conclude testing is warranted, regardless of any provided compliance documentation. If they find the lights do not comply with ADR 77/00 then they will take the matter up with the Federal Dept of Transport because of the overall vehicle ADR compliance. Fingers are crossed that the RTA also finds the lights don't comply.

But how does this affect those of us that have no issues with the lights?? We seem to be in the majority - are we then going to have to have our vehicles recalled/re-examined? Please relieve my worried mind (sorry - listening to Eric Clapton at the moment!).

Cheers,

Gordon

Gordon,
Can you post a picture of your high-beam lights shining on a wall at around 25m distance, considering that other 2010 RRS owners have reported the possum lights?

Hi Gordon

As with all recalls, only a minority of the particular product is actually faulty but the recall is still necessary if there is a safety problem. However, there are other ways of dealing with the problem and a recall program is not the only option unless it gets to the stage of the government ordering a recall.

Personally, I think it is very foolish of LRA to pretend this problem doesn't exist and refuse to fix the individual cars where this problem has been reported. By doing so they are risking their ADR certification (= permission to sell the car in this country) and potentially affecting all of their other customers. If it is just a minority of cars affected, wouldn't it be much better to take care of them quietly without involving all other owners and the reputation of the brand?

LRA are free to run their business however they see fit, but if inconvenience is caused to all their customers by a recall, that is the consequence of their decision to ignore a small problem until it escalated into a big problem. Responsibility does not lie with the owners who report the problem and won't put up with it being ignored.

The latest corporate spin from LRA is that my headlights are within specification. This is very interesting as they have not examined my car. My next course of action is to take the car to a reputable authorised inspection station and have them examine the lights and hopefully get a written report stating the lights are not aimed correctly and perhaps are even unroadworthy. I will then take the report to my dealer so they can pass it on to LRA. I haven't given up yet, there are still a few avenues available to explore. Will keep you posted.

I've just asked the RTA if there's anything to report yet. It might act as a reminder to get started.

I've got possum spotters too. Seems that they light up the trees really well, while the low beam is chopped and the light almost seems to stop 3m in front of the road you can see from the seats.

I look forward to the outcome of your query.

I own a disco 4 May 2010. My lights were of the "possum" nature as well. The halogens hit the top of the tree line at 250 metres. Well out of wack closer and basically useless. I received emails from LRA that stated thus (this was exactly 12 months ago)
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"Thank you again for your correspondence regarding the headlights of your Discovery 4.

We confirm that the issue has been reviewed by Land Rover Australia in conjunction with Land Rover UK. The headlamps have been identified as meeting Land Rover's quality requirements and being similar to other vehicles in the model line. When the headlamps are correctly adjusted they conform to all EEC and Australian Design Regulations for headlamp projection angles. The halogen lights are used as “fill in” lamps, to provide additional light to areas in the Xenon lamp pattern. They are not long range driving lamps and cannot be further adjusted.

You should have no cause for concern with the durability of your vehicle in the long term. However, should a condition arise with respect to the headlights we would review the issue at that time, taking into consideration the age, kilometres and service history of the vehicle.

Land Rover Australia remains committed to your vehicle in the longer term and you can be assured that we will support our products in an endeavour to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction.

We hope this clarifies the situation and thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We trust you will enjoy many happy and safe years of motoring.

Kind regards,"
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I then had the halogen bulbs removed and HID bulbs inserted and the different length of the bulb (Marginally longer) changed the angle of the light significantly. Still higher than I would have liked but with a greater field of white light lower than the halogen level was previously. This coupled with new HID IPF spots (as a wider beam is not now necessary with the bi-xenon and HID low and high) and I have comprehensive light for my outback night driving requirements.
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Sorry but in my dealings with LRA over the past 12 months and the results I have achieved, I guarantee you, you will not get a satisfactory result taking this path. You will need to have an outside party influence their decision making process.