D4 high-beam alignment

I have been pursuing this issue with the dealer for 3 months or more, since I first turned on high beam and wondered why my lights were pointing up into the treetops instead of somewhere useful.

The dealer has done his best to adjust the alignment to give a compromise between a useable low beam and high beam where it should be, but unfortunately the result is a low beam that is too short to be safe above 60km/h and a high beam that has the halogens lighting up the lower branches rather than the treetops, but still starting about 2m above the ground. I'll have to adjust them back up to restore a safe low beam, which will point the halogens back up into the treetops again.

He did take this up with the LR technical people and also with LR Customer Care, which I confirmed today by phone with the Customer Care people. They told me two things that I found pretty interesting and a bit surprising:

1. The issue has been raised with LR UK, who responded that this is "a characteristic of the vehicle";
2. I am "the only person who has ever contacted LR Customer Care about this issue"

Consequently, it seems important that everyone who has these wonky headlights and is unhappy with them needs to call LR Customer Care and let them know there is a problem that needs to be fixed. Their phone number is 1800 625 642. They are unfailingly polite and friendly, so don't be shy about giving them a call. They actually thanked me for bringing this to their attention.

As for the LR UK response that this is a characteristic of the vehicle, I find that a bit disappointing. Both the response and the characteristic. I haven't noticed them promoting this particular characteristic in their advertising and I've yet to see them make any attempt at all to explain the advantages and benefits that flow to owners from this novel feature.

Perhaps enough complaints to the Customer Care people might turn this into a "squeaky wheel" that gets some attention and prompts LR to find a fix for a "characteristic" that no-one wants. One can only hope, but a few phone calls wouldn't hurt.

I would say it is a fault in the design of the headlight unit.
That is a fault not a characteristic headlight unit is unsuitable for its purpose.
If enough folks complain LR may redesign the units.

The fault occurs only with some vehicles.

I don't understand why my dealer needs to see my lights again to take further action as the fault was blatently obvious at the 1st visit and LR should just approve their replacement. I'll get back when I can take a break from work and hopefully get it resolved, but will contact LR Customer Care in the meantime.

Adjusting the low beam down only makes for dangerous driving and the lights illegally adjusted. My halogens are back up in the tree-tops where they are counter-productive but the low beam is where it should be. Maybe the halogen globes should be removed temporarily so as not to be distracting.

Manufacturing fault rather than design fault?

I'm interested in Graeme's comment about this fault only being on some vehicles. Is there any pattern? Is it a model-specific problem limited to the SE, does it affect some SE's and not others, or does it occur across different models?

It seems unlikely that LR could make such a blunder with the design, but it also seems unlikely to end up with such an accurately reproduced and consistent problem from a manufacturing fault.

Graeme's comment that it only occurs with some vehicles suggests that there may have been a bad batch of lights, not picked up by quality control tests. This would be an encouraging result if it could be proved, as it means that the fix is simply a couple of replacement units from an unaffected batch.

The difficulty is that my dealer compared the headlight beam pattern on the other vehicles in stock and found they were all the same as mine. This was only a small sample size (I can't imagine they had access to more than 3 or 4 vehicles in total and this may have included different models/specs) but the photos I provided to show the problem were forwarded to LR UK, who responded to confirm that this is how the high beam is on all Discovery 4's and is a characteristic of the vehicle.

This response from LR UK doesn't seem to fit with the "bad batch" theory, or that it only occurs on some vehicles and not others.

Does anyone have photos of the low and high beam patterns of a vehicle that is not affected by the fault? Any chance of putting some up on this thread to compare, or send them to me? I'd like to be able to show LR some photos to compare this "characteristic of the vehicle" with examples of D4's that have a better version of this characteristic.

Jesse B managed to upload some photos in an earlier post in this thread (about post #37 I think??) so I'll give it a go too. I've never tried this before so here goes...

Attachment 25303
The first image shows full high beam (xenon + halogen beams) on a roadway. The xenon beam is correctly aimed but the halogen high beam points up into the trees instead of lighting the area at ground level each side of the zenon high beam. There is actually an 8' high steel fence on the right but the halogen beam misses it completely and just lights up the trees above it.

Then follows a series of comparison photos that were all taken from the same spot in a shopping centre carpark, 40m from the wall. The first shows low beam, which is properly aimed.
Attachment 25305

Attachment 25307
The 2nd in the series shows the same location with normal high beam (xenon + halogen). The xenon high beam is the bright white spot in the middle from road level up to the one-way sign on the wall. The halogen high beam is the slightly pink/orange beam from about the one-way sign up to the top of the Coles/Target/KMart signs along the top of the wall. You can see the black areas on each side below the halogen beam, which is where the halogen beam should be shining instead of lighting up the roof area.

The 3rd in the series shows some detail of the black area to one side on normal high beam.
Attachment 25308

Attachment 25309
The last in the series shows the same area of detail from the beam pattern thrown by the halogen high-beam alone, with the main xenon headlights turned off and using just the headlight flasher to turn on the halogen beams. You can see that this beam pattern is essentially useless and is the cause of the black areas on each side at ground level.

To give a proper perspective of what this beam pattern actually looks like at a distance of 80m or 100m while driving, I'm going to have to find a much higher wall. Any suggestions?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CaverD3

Manufacturing fault rather than design fault?

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I believe so. On Disco3.co.uk some people with D4s with apparently good lights thought that I and others were complaining about nothing until someone posted a pic of the bad lights. But to date no-one has yet posted a pic of good lights, perhaps because those people don't have an issue to persue and thus don't have any interest in helping others get their faulty lights replaced. The fault exists in both adaptive and non-adaptive versions of the lights.

Just been talking to LR Assist, who are going to "look into the matter" - supposed to be ringing back tomorrow, so I'll post whatever their response is. They need to talk to my dealer, and to their technical folk - I wonder if I'll get the same old "characteristic of the vehicle" nonsense? Fairly obvious that the poms don't have great furry brown things leaping out in front of them at night... Perhaps if they did they might see this as something other than a bloody characteristic!

You should be making that point about safety to LR.

Hi Beamin,
I appreciate your efforts to elucidate ;) this problem, but I think that using high beam at 40m is not optimal.

IIRC, one needs to switch to low beam when oncoming vehicles are 100m away (I'm happy to be corrected on this figure). Therefore, the main function of high beam is for distances greater than this. On your first image, you can see a dark region between the xenons and halogens, but again, only when close to the vehicle. If travelling at speed, you would be focussing your eyes further ahead and so identifying problems well before the "dark region" occurs.

On another point, I think that the xenons are great, but a little like pencil-beam driving lights. Therefore the infill of the halogens may not be designed for flat terrain, but for undulating (or greater) terrain. What appears to be "shining to the heavens" (my expression) is actually designed to provide better lighting as you descend into a dip. (This is one of the reasons why people who have driving lights actually fit a spread-beam in conjunction with a pencil beam.)

I'm finding the discussion quite illuminating, so let the discussion continue. ;)

Best Wishes,
Peter