LED headlight adjustment

[Grc]

I was driving on some unlit stretches of the motorway and A roads yesterday and the adaptive LED dipped beams are a nightmare. They just don't illuminate far enough for you to see things when you are at motorway speeds. Any one else faced similar issues and found a solution for this? 

Is it possible to adjust the headlamps to a slightly higher beam throw so that you get a proper view at motorway speeds?

Edited 21 October, 2018 by Grc

[SorinB]

I'm having the same issue - the LED low beam is useless on the roads outside town. I don't see any difference in the beam distance between low speeds and high speeds (outside town). They are worse than my old megane2 from 2005 :(. What could be the issue (software, sensors failure?)

[Lupa]

I also agree that on a dark and rainy winter night driving 80-100 kmh with low/dipped LED beam when high beam isn't on because of other vehicles and traffic the lighted area is just too short. I can't react to pot holes on the road. Or I can but the maneuvers need to be too fast to avoid them which makes it dangerous if it is at all slippery or icy. I unchecked the rain adjustment from lights settings but that didn't help. I don't know if a speed above 120 kmh would make the low beam cone way longer as someone wrote. Although it is illustrated in Skodas own grapchis the speed for the highway cone should be over 90 kmh.  I can say there was no change at all when driving over and under 90 kmh.  It's sad that there were now matrix lights available with the mk3 Ocu. Also xenons were better as my previous car was a bmw with xenons and I had no issue with the low beam then. 

 

I took these screenshots in Feb 2019.

[silver1011]

The LED headlights are projecting just as far up the road than the halogens (and to a lesser extent xenon), but as mentioned LED has a very sharp cut-off i.e. perfect light output on one side of the imaginary line and pitch black darkness on the other.

 

With halogens there was a lot more light bleed over the line, so they probably did offer a little more visibility at the extremes of the beams reach.

 

There are lots of advantages of LED, but some disadvantages too.

 

Please don't manually adjust them higher, you'll likely dazzle other road users.

[Lupa]

Quote

The LED headlights are projecting just as far up the road than the halogens (and to a lesser extent xenon), but as mentioned LED has a very sharp cut-off i.e. perfect light output on one side of the imaginary line and pitch black darkness on the other.

With halogens there was a lot more light bleed over the line, so they probably did offer a little more visibility at the extremes of the beams reach.

I haven't actually driven a car with halogen lights in a long time. But you are right that the edge of the low beam is noticably sharp with the LED lights. Maybe it has been the light which gradually fades to the distance with the xenon low beam which has given the impression of being able to see further and react more easily.

 

 

Quote

Please don't manually adjust them higher, you'll likely dazzle other road users.

I don't have any intention to make any DIY changes. But I was wondering if there's something wrong with the lights as it is nearly impossible to detect any change in the light patter in low beam or if they could do something to the lights in the shop to lift the beam a bit. As it looks in the images in my previous post (allthought they are some sort of artistic impressions) that there should really be a big difference in the light cone (length) between the different modes And it feels that there really isn't. 

 

I like that the LEDs seem more powerful which the sharp edge underlines. Even more I like the idea that the ligts adapt to different situations, but it seems here that all this is actually bad as the pitch blackness starts so close in front of the car. 

[Lupa]

Oh yeah I found on anohther thread that the highway mode actually increases gradually from 90 - 120 kmh. This could possibly be so gradual, that I wouldn't have noticed it between 90-105 kmh which I was driving.

 

[Rodge]

As the so called "Highway mode" is presumably legal, it should be considered the standard position, which means that below 56 mph you are getting reduced range. On rural British roads you need maximum range down to at least 40 mph. It should switch to highway mode at 60 km/h, not 90!

[Lupa]

That seems a better idea if adjusting the low beam up would rise all other modes up too that would be bad, but maybe just bringing the highway mode speed treshold down like @Rodge  suggests would be a good solution. Could that possibly be changed with the vcds? And could the beam still lift gradually depending on speed?

[Tazdaz]

Just finished a 400+ mile trip half in darkness and my lights were always very high. Car is a 2017 vRS 245. 

 

I turned off light assist but was still getting flashed by vehicles on the other side of the motorway/dual carriageway and cars I followed were complaining in various ways, but some very clearly annoyed with my lights being high.

 

Is there a way to adjust them down? I was getting flashed every mile or so, so it is obviously too high. Before anyone asks main beam was off. 

 

On start up they do the little dance up and down. 

 

Cheers

 

Edited 1 September, 2020 by Tazdaz

[cheezemonkhai]

I had the same low dipped problem, which made driving country roads and night horrible.

 

After multiple trips to the dealer and showing that another old car with halogen reflectors has better Dipped beans than mine with xenon lights.

 

cue much messing around, checking and adjusting...

 

Dealer stayed one of the dipped beams was set too high, so the other was being kept lower as the car thought beams were at max height.

 

There were adjusted, and the lights levelled up properly for a good dipped beam. Now rather than seeing a few feet in front of you it is a good dipped beam.

 

I don’t get flashed either, so confident to say it was fixed properly.

 

Worth talking to the dealers again as I would imagine LED could suffer the same issue.

[ChoonDoode]

13 hours ago, Tazdaz said:

Just finished a 400+ mile trip half in darkness and my lights were always very high. Car is a 2017 vRS 245. 

 

I turned off light assist but was still getting flashed by vehicles on the other side of the motorway/dual carriageway and cars I followed were complaining in various ways, but some very clearly annoyed with my lights being high.

 

Is there a way to adjust them down? I was getting flashed every mile or so, so it is obviously too high. Before anyone asks main beam was off. 

 

On start up they do the little dance up and down. 

 

Cheers

 

 

Have a look by the headlight unit and by one of the sides, there's a hex sized hole where you can adjust the height of the beam manually. That's for xenons, mine used to illuminate the floor!!

[Tazdaz]

Car is currently in the garage. First call back to say lights are all OK and in line with MOT requirements.

 

The amount of times I'm getting flashed and how high the dipped beam looks against trees, signs etc whilst driving is ridiculous. Any tips on what the ask them to check? No faults on the diagnostic. 

 

 

EDIT: Octavia vRS 245 67 plate. 

 

 

Edited 10 September, 2020 by Tazdaz

[TheWanderer]

I get flashed some times, but I have beam assist and just leave the car to deal with road lighting and illumination. Don't give a stuff if they flash me, I just put my lights up to prove that they were low beam.

 

Tend to it more now that they've let the office muppets back out of lockdown. 

Edited 10 September, 2020 by TheWanderer

[cheezemonkhai]

On 10/09/2020 at 12:06, Tazdaz said:

Car is currently in the garage. First call back to say lights are all OK and in line with MOT requirements.

 

The amount of times I'm getting flashed and how high the dipped beam looks against trees, signs etc whilst driving is ridiculous. Any tips on what the ask them to check? No faults on the diagnostic. 

 

 

EDIT: Octavia vRS 245 67 plate. 

 

 

I got exactly the same.

Ask them to consider lowerIng both lights to minimum individually and then adjust them up as a pair. It will need to be plugged into the computer to account for the auto levelling

 

Mine had one light that was too high, so the other wouldn’t go high enough and yet they passed the beam test on multiple occasions.

 

My suggestion above is a guess based on what I was told on mine.

 

 

[Tazdaz]

7 minutes ago, cheezemonkhai said:

I got exactly the same.

Ask them to consider lowerIng both lights to minimum individually and then adjust them up as a pair. It will need to be plugged into the computer to account for the auto levelling

 

Mine had one light that was too high, so the other wouldn’t go high enough and yet they passed the beam test on multiple occasions.

 

My suggestion above is a guess based on what I was told on mine.

 

 

Thanks for that.

 

After a fair bit of 'discussion' all I've managed to get is them to leave the warranty ticket open and test drive it and see when it is dark during working hours in several weeks. They kept saying the level is an MOT pass and lights are designed to throw light farther but I still firmly believe it is too high. 

 

I take it messing with the manual adjusters under the bonnet won't work?

[TheWanderer]

The headlights are set up using a special equipment in the dealer workshop or factory, unless the car is involved in a accident that causes damage to the alignment, then leave them alone. 

 

The little dance they do is to set up the height and alignment using the suspension and it checks it whilst driving. The lights are altered automatically depending on load as well. 

 

If you're that worried about it take it to a dealer and get the alignment checked and corrected, don't attempt to do it yourself, because if you do and it does cause an accident through your tampering and/or misalignment and a subsequent police accident investigation proves that they were incorrectly set up or tampered with, you could possibly find yourself in seriously deep legal trouble. 

Edited 12 September, 2020 by TheWanderer

[cheezemonkhai]

I wouldn’t do it as you need alignment tools and the computer.

 

As above you can get it very wrong, With potential consequences so best to use a dealer. 
 

I was at the point of getting rid of the car it was that bad, but mine were xenon, low and causing a lack of visibility that was dangerous.

 

I’m not sure if they’re actually too high as the levelling system should deal with that.

 

- Are yours the matrix LED?

If so I think you can adjust the point at which they form their version of “dip”.

personally I think the things are terrible when they come towards you, but that’s earlier models.

 

- You have got the lights in RHD mode not travel mode? This used to flatline the lights do shouldn’t be a problem, but not sure if LED give a LHD pattern instead.

Also don’t forget LED are very white, again i hated having an LED car coming towards me or behind. 

With the first LED cars, it used to look scattered (like a xenon in a halogen fitting to me) . Not sure if you it was an early design oops or just getter my used to them, as it’s rare I notice it now.  I remember Audi cars being particularly annoying to me even though I had Xenon lights.

 

- Have you asked the garage to check the self levelling system is working? I assume LED still has this. If not then you need to manually adjust the lights based on load.

 

 

Edited 12 September, 2020 by cheezemonkhai

[TheWanderer]

Dunno what sort of LED lights I've got, all I know is they're very good and bright and I'm quite happy with them.

[Tazdaz]

19 hours ago, TheWanderer said:

The headlights are set up using a special equipment in the dealer workshop or factory, unless the car is involved in a accident that causes damage to the alignment, then leave them alone. 

 

The little dance they do is to set up the height and alignment using the suspension and it checks it whilst driving. The lights are altered automatically depending on load as well. 

 

If you're that worried about it take it to a dealer and get the alignment checked and corrected, don't attempt to do it yourself, because if you do and it does cause an accident through your tampering and/or misalignment and a subsequent police accident investigation proves that they were incorrectly set up or tampered with, you could possibly find yourself in seriously deep legal trouble. 

 

The car was at the dealers and they say the system is fine when car is static and measured to MOT requirements. More than a necessary amount of "discussion" to get them to do something and all I'm getting is the diagnostics say everything is working, nothing we can investigate further without evidence. 

 

The way it is now any witnesses will say my lights dazzled them! But I'm to continue driving until they can test drive themselves as my word is not enough for them. 

 

This is not just a couple of people flashing me and complaining. It is every single time I use the car at night. 

 

Light assist off so it is not the high beam slow to turn down, set to left hand traffic. Everything I can think of I've checked.

Edited 12 September, 2020 by Tazdaz

[TheWanderer]

Take it to another dealer and lodge a complaint with Skoda CS.

[ScoutCJB]

Could it be an issue with one of the sensors either front or rear that detect weight in car / inclanation?  My wifes old cooper S had Xenons that self tested fine on start up and no dash errors but she used to get flashed occasionally and when driving the beam seemed a little high from time to time.  I looked at front sensor and you could tell it appeared crudded / slightly corroded.  A few days later the bar snapped.  I replaced the entire sensor and it was fine after that.

[Tazdaz]

Dealer finally adjusted the lights down and they are noticeably lower and how I would expect dipped beam to be!

 

They took it for a test drive and agreed they are high and likely dazzling oncoming traffic. Also compared to another car of same model and year they had in and the difference was huge, although turned out the other model was set too low!

 

 

[Powerred]

Glad I found this thread. Mine are set far too low, they aren't at the same level which makes me think somethings up. Ive had cars with LEDs and HIDs before so I know what to expect. Looks like a trip to the dealer (to get fobbed off) is in order!