Don't know if anyone else notices this but my lights seem to 'drop off' pretty quickly. The range is very poor for xenons IMHO. What's other peoples views?

They are great on my L&K which I think is the same. I love the automatic dipping and cornering.

I find them excellent.

Hmmmm, I might agree with you on that. After the initial very bright ignition of the xenon bulb, the light output by the headlight definitely drops off immediately and I think it's getting worse. I was/am planning on purchasing some replacement OSRAM or PHILIPS xenon bulbs as I reckon it might be just be poor cheap and nasty OEM ones fitted. They gotta save the pennies somewhere no?

What I would like are the xenon lights as fitted to the top Audi's, Mercs and BMWs because I really notice how much brighter they are compared to those in my humble Octy III!

Nowt wrong with my xenons, afs is quality. Are they adjusting correctly when you turn and on startup etc? Could be faulty.

Interesting opinions coming in so thanks all! They are defiantly doing their pre-flight checks and are 'bending' while on the move. The drivers side (RHD) seems to be much shorter in range. It's going in for a service soon so will get them to have a look.....

Nowt wrong with my xenons, afs is quality. Are they adjusting correctly when you turn and on start up etc? Could be faulty.

Ahhhh, I just realised something. I am running in continental headlight mode (I have to as I drive a R&D car in a LHD country) so it might just be that as they are fixed in flat beam mode, I haven't fully expedience their true power.

Yes the lights do do their dance on start up, I have never experienced AFS as it is disabled in flat beam Euro mode. I am travelling back to UK Monday week so hope to do some night time miles and experience this wondrous magic AFS light bending/manipulation system you have mentioned.

I will revisit my opinion in two weeks time, but what I will say is that the lights even in flat beam have lost some of their flare.

As above, best set of Xenons I have had on a car. They are speed sensitive too aren't they, so go higher the faster you drive?

Do you mean your xenons are loosing an intensity over time?

 

Not sure about mine, I know they were very bright and occasionally cars coming from other way tend to flash thinking I had high beam on.

I'm not sure if it's intensity or height. The drivers side just drops off about 5-7 m in front.

I found my mk 3 xenons inferior to my mk 2. They just didnt seem to light up as far as the mk 2s. I popped into the dealers and they raised the height for me producing a longer travel. Now happy.

Had my Vrs almost a year. Previously had 2 L&K's both with Zenons. I felt that these seemed brighter than my Vrs. Put it down to slightly smoked lens or the heated screen/possible different tint. They seem bright enough from outside the car.

i would guess you will be able to manually adjust the headlight % (beam throw) on the headlight it self with a hex key? maybe you just need to extend the range a little ?

Compared to an Audi A4 in the car park this morning the VRS xenons are definitely a different colour hue than the Audi was. It was more blue, the VRS are more warm by comparison.

Whether that makes a difference in range outside who knows. I know these aren't as bright as the xenons I had on my 2004 legacy GT though.That had a brighter set than these but a halogen high beam which was pretty ineffective compared to the xenon low.

I also think the bi-xenons now while throwing out a big wall of light very well, don't have the distance a decent second set of dedicated high beam lenses have either in a 4 beam set up tbh.

Edited 27 March, 201511 yr by snala

I know these aren't as bright as the xenons I had on my 2004 legacy GT though.That had a brighter set than these but a halogen high beam which was pretty ineffective compared to the xenon low.

I also think the bi-xenons now while throwing out a big wall of light very well, don't have the distance a decent second set of dedicated high beam lenses have either in a 4 beam set up tbh.

I really wish Skoda would use halogen high beams on the Octy. (Like they do on some other models...didn't Yeti have them?) I had them on the Volvo, and they really extended the xenons range with the high beams on.

A few quick thoughts:

 

- I think the MkIII xenon are a bit less effective than the MkII which only used xenon to cover the dip, and 55W halogen for mains - the volume of light in total seemed more, and especially upgraded with Osram Nightbreakers were really good.

- On my Mk II the initial set up was far too low and needed resetting by the dealer - there is a MOT range to avoid dazzle on dip and they seem to be set at a very conservative 'pass' and can be adjusted up without failing.

- You need to set AFS or the auto-levelling to a calibration mode to change the settings - messing with the nuts on the light fitting (like I did) messes with it, because the sensors in the fitting will try to compensate for the fitting tilting until they reach the end of their travel. My lesson was let the dealer do it - mine did it for free as part of the service.

- remember AFS only works on Auto, and if its raining or the car is going slowly the light adopt a short range pattern.

I would suggest they are faulty. I am the odd one out in the office car park surrounded by Audi's, Mercs and BMW's. The vRS lights are far superior to any of the aforementioned cars including a new '15' pair of M3's.

Faulty bulbs I would suggest.

I haven't driven mine in the dark yet so can't comment!

I am on my second O3 with Xenons, and can't fault them on either car.

I find the head lights and the full beam excellent, and i do quite a few miles at night. I would sugest new bulbs or a trip to specsavers.

On my first night drive in my Superb I was quite disappointed with the range of the dipped xenon lights compared to those on a previous Passat. I asked the dealer to have a look and they asked me if anyone had tampered with them as they were not set right. This was a new car I had from the same dealer and I told them that's how they were when I picked it up. After 20 minutes in their workshop they were as they should have been, I can only assume there are limits they must be set within and mine were on the lower end of the scale, now they appear to be at the higher end of the scale. They produce a pretty good range on low beam, but are not set high enough to dazzle oncoming cars. 

 

I have to say they are not as bright a some of the new Mercedes (might be LED?) and a neighbour has a new Qashqai which are noticeably brighter.

 

Maybe a trip to your dealer would help.

Thanks guys. I will be getting the dealer to have a look in a weeks time! Failing that I'll book an appointment at the opticians!