Lights up

[PETERT]

I have a skoda octavia 06 plate, many thanks to this forum for assistance in my abs problem, now I have a new queston a lot of my driving is done at night and I am getting flashed a lot by irate drivers thinking that I have full beams on even though the car is on dipped lights, the light allingment wheel has been in every position but still I get flashed my garage says that there is nothing wrong with the lights is there anyone out there with the same problem.:D

[dsr]

Me too.

[wardth]

I've got a HID kit to fit but have not yet done so......................for fear of causing an accident!

My lights drive people driving in the opposite direction NUTS and car people in front to literally leap out of my way!

The car has only done 1500 miles so I've not had them checked as yet - kinda hoped Skoda would have sent them correctly aligned from the factory!

I think there >may< be an inherant issue with the lights..............

[darrenw]

In 1000 miles, I've never been flashed with Philips X-treme bulbs.

[icarusi@hotmail]

I have a skoda octavia 06 plate, many thanks to this forum for assistance in my abs problem, now I have a new queston a lot of my driving is done at night and I am getting flashed a lot by irate drivers thinking that I have full beams on even though the car is on dipped lights, the light allingment wheel has been in every position but still I get flashed my garage says that there is nothing wrong with the lights is there anyone out there with the same problem.:D

When I've had a suspected headlight problem I've found a wall locally I can drive up to and see how the beams align. It's fairly easy to see if there's anything seriously out and also how well different bulbs perform if you replace one side at a time. You can also check by parking your car at night with the headlights on and walking a distance in front and looking back at them to see how much dazzle they may cause and where. Obviously this doesn't cover how bumpy roads and suspension travel may affect actual road use, but at least you'll know what the static situation is. There's not much you can do on left hand bends cresting a rise.

[gregozedobe]

If a lot of people are flashing their lights at you then you almost certainly have a problem. It's not rocket science - you can tell by simply looking at where the lo-beam cutoff shines on the car in front of you when you are travelling in a straight line on a flat, level piece of road.

The cut-off should be LOWER than the top of your headlights, so the top of the beam should end on the road about 100-150 feet in front of your car. If it is on the top of the boot of the car in front (or even worse, shining into the cabin) then your lights are too high, regardless of what your garage says.

My Octy came direct from the factory with the lights way too high (and they are the factory HIDs, so even more dazzling than the std halogens). Knowing that Octys come with the lights set way too high quite often, I specifically asked that they check them carefully at the PDI. I can only assume they didn't (either that or they were completely incompetent), as the first time I drove it at night they were obviously set well above the legal height.

It took 3 visits (with increasingly heated requests from me) before they were finally set to not burn the retinas of on-coming drivers. Now they are very good, I still have excellent visibility on lo-beam, but can relax and not worry about dazzling my fellow road users.

From what you have said it sounds very likely that your lights are set too high. And no, you can't rely on the factory to send them out adjusted correctly.

My advice is to find someone who can and will set them properly (and IIRC that includes putting the lights controller in "learning" mode before doing the mechanical adjustment)

[darrenw]

Assuming you've not got a boot full of anvils.