Thread: D4 high-beam alignment

Originally Posted by Beamin

Thanks Jesse B. Can you post the address you sent your letter to? I'll write a letter as well and I'd like to make sure it goes to the same place and hopefully the same person. We're unlikely to bury the guy in a mountain of mail but we may as well create a paper trail and get noticed properly.

My letter was addressed to the Customer Care Manager, LRA, PO Box 162, Toowong, Qld 4066. At that point I did not have a name. However, I have just now received an email response to my letter (which I actually sent as a pdf attachment to enquiries@landrovercustomers.com.au), and this was sent by Eden Howard. There was no indication as to what position this person was in.

Upon reflection, I should have posted the letter - though there is still no guarantee it would get to anyone in a position of any power.

The response was worthless - an exact re-statement of the previous missive about "complying with ADR's" etc. Depressingly disappointing, but not surprising. And that is sad (that it was not surprising).

My next thought is to find a tame vehicle inspector (someone who should know the ADR's etc) and run this past them - at least show them the pictures and the mathematics of the situation. But that is probably a dead-end too, given the LR have their compliance plates...

Land Rover actually call them "Halogen headlamps - High beam" so I would think the headlamp high beams should all be able to be correctly set.

They would certainly fail the ADR high-beam test as far as lighting the road at least 75 metres ahead. If the bi-xenon was unplugged there would be no light on the road.

Can someone confirm that the halogens in the D3 bi-xenon assembly are aligned more or less in line with the bi-xenons and not in up in the trees?

Originally Posted by Graeme

Hey Sniegy,
Is your vehicle fitted with the possum lights?

Hi Graeme,
Mine arent as bad as yours or the others, My L/H light is a little off.

Thanks Sniegy. So there is evidence that at least some halogens shine on the road.

Originally Posted by Jesse B

My next thought is to find a tame vehicle inspector (someone who should know the ADR's etc) and run this past them - at least show them the pictures and the mathematics of the situation. But that is probably a dead-end too, given the LR have their compliance plates...

I had a quick trawl through the ADRs this morning (deathly boring) and found a few requirements that these wonky lights probably don't meet. If you do have access to a vehicle inspector, point their attention to ADR 77/00 (gas discharge headlamps) at clause 6.3.2.3 in Appendix A which requires a certain amount of light at specific distances each side of the xenon pencil beam, on the same horizontal plane as the centre of the xenon high beam. This would seem to be the function of the halogen beam, but because it projects much higher than the xenon beam in the affected lights and leaves a dark gap each side of the xenon beam, these lights may not comply with the ADR.

Assuming for the moment that only some lights have this defect, this creates another ADR failure regarding conformity of production (clause 9 in Appendix A), which can lead to withdrawal of the ADR approval for the lights on all D4s. Having the ADR approval withdrawn makes the cars unroadworthy and illegal to sell in Australia.

However, if these possum lights are in fact a "feature of the vehicle" as claimed by LR UK (meaning that all D4 lights are like this) then they probably all fail the ADR compliance test and can't be driven or sold. Presumably this isn't the case, as the batch of sample headlights actually tested for ADR compliance must have passed for the D4 to be allowed onto the market. This suggests that only some lights are affected and that no ADR testing has yet been conducted on affected lights to raise the conformity of production problem.

Ultimately, LR is taking a big risk by putting its head in the sand about this problem. They could have ADR approval withdrawn, be stopped from selling D4s and face an embarrassing recall. Oh what a shameful feeling.

Originally Posted by Beamin

Ultimately, LR is taking a big risk by putting its head in the sand about this problem. They could have ADR approval withdrawn, be stopped from selling D4s and face an embarrassing recall. Oh what a shameful feeling.

Seems normal.
They still have their head in the sand over oil in the vacuum line of vehicles with VIN nos. outside the recall range.

Great work Beamin! That's exactly what's needed to ensure LR correct these lights. This was not picked-up by the NSW RTA technical person with whom I spoke about these lights. I was also not aware that ALL bi-xenons produce a pencil beam and thus require the side lighting.