Good spot!

Hi, I have a Kodiaq with full led lights,  they do have 3 positions, they are fully automatic and change by gathering data from as far as I understand the windscreen sensor and the radar sensor in the grill. This system is not the same as the automatic dip function where you select main beam and it dips when it detects another on coming vehicle or you enter a well lit area, or the light assist function which turns on the lights in poor daylight, this function is adjustable in the menu and has 3 settings , early , medium & late, rain assist is also in the same menu. Vehicle - Lights - Settings.
I have problems with poor lights when using Dip, they start off fine and self level but when getting to a dark stretch of road when it is not possible to use main beam I struggle to see far enough ahead as the lights do not appear to change their settings from urban and have a wide spread which gives no depth of vision. 
I have taken it back to the dealer twice, yesterday for 2 hours, I had to explain to them how the system works and all they said was there are no fault codes, and could I provide video evidence!!!!
I find this is very disappointing that the technical staff have so little knowledge of the vehicles they are working on it is not as if the AFS system is new it has been around for some time, this must be due to lack of training by Skoda which is a shame. Simply Clever! I don't think so.

I think the issue is that different people have different expectations. Could it be that your lights are working as expected, but that you're hoping for something different, or are used to the headlights from driving a different car?

 

A dash cam could be a worthy investment (less than £100 fitted), then you can easily share footage to see if your experience is similar to that of other Kodiaq owners.

Hi, Thanks for the input. I accept your comment and I have just bought a dash cam. getting back to the lights they definately do not adapt as they should, I have stopped on a dark unlit road and and there is very poor distance vision along the road the spread has changed to somethng similar to Skoda show in their promotion video for urban driving, it could be that they are not reacting as they should as they are working to some extent by changing the pattern but not as conditions dictate and as shown in the video. Thanks

You might be expecting too much from the way they adapt. There is very little change. The most obvious difference from the driver seat is to compare the throw of the left beam to the right. At high out of town speeds, they level out to be about the same throw. At lower speeds, the right beam (on a UK) car dips a bit more to give a shorter beam. 

 

It’s quite underwhelming. 

 

That said, I find the dipped headlights to be fine for driving unlit roads at sensible speeds. Main beam is fantastic on straight roads. 

I am in the same position as rudge.... Fine most of the time but sometimes I am not happy doing over 50mph on unlit roads as the lights fall short. Back to the dealer twice etc etc. Will try and go for a drive one evening with their tech man to show him.

Estimate three car lengths of light tops. Have resorted to winding them up under the bonnet. 

LED's compared to halogens have a very sharp cut-off, this can often lead to people thinking they're poorly adjusted.

 

I'd say the halogens on my Skoda Superb don't project any further than the Kodiaq, but there is a lot more light-bleed, albeit dim but it does create the impression they're projecting further.

All these 5 years I have owned the Skoda I have read tons of posts of too short low beam on Skodas. And this is true.

I had measured low beam on my Superb to be 35 meters only.

At the speed of 90 km/h car moves 25 meters per second. Braking distance to full stop is about 35 meters. Now imagine you noticed something (even worse, someone) to appear in your low beam. 1 second for reaction and then full brakes - and 60 meters are gone. Pretty fatal.

 

I had my xenons adjusted to appr. 100 meters at dealers.

Nobody is flashing me, if you ask.

The further along the road the light is projected, the brighter they appear to other road users.

 

It's a balance, providing enough light for the driver to see, but not aiming them too high so as to cause glare or dazzle to those sharing the same space as you.

 

In your example above, you may see the pedestrian sooner, but the car approaching you from the opposite direction might have a harder time seeing the same pedestrian against your brighter headlights. Either way the pedestrian gets hit.

 

Playing safe and shortening the light projection may be, in Skoda's opinion, the safer of the two options.

Hi , and thank you to you all for your comments. At the end of the day it's not the end of the world as you drive at a speed you feel comfortable with, however Skoda make quite a big thing of the AFS system in their sales literature ,videos and big claims about safety! they use it to sell their cars unfortunately the product doesn't live up to these claims which is disappointing. I am aware that some bulbs throw light further than others it's not always about how bright they are, but one would hope that if manufacturers are moving towards new technology it should be as good not better than what it is replacing ? 

Christianscouts post says it all really they are not as they should be all the time which is a little off putting, if the technology is not working 100% don't use it especially when it's something as important as lights, save it for the gimmicks.

If I remember I'll take the memory card out of the dash cam so you can see how far the LED headlights on our Kodiaq project along the road, to see if yours are indeed set too low or not working as expected.

Thanks Silver, as I said you drive at a speed which is safe and comfortable and that the lights are set to meet current MOT legislation, however the real issue here is that the AFS system is not reliable sometimes it's fine but other times it's not, which is my concern. I am not asking the retailer to raise the height what I am asking is that what I was sold actually works, as at the moment it does not.

Until solved, switch the lights from Auto to On when dark. This will disable AFS.

1 hour ago, linni said:

Until solved, switch the lights from Auto to On when dark. This will disable AFS.

Really?  I thought the “auto” position merely let the car decide when to turn the lights on.

Yes, this one too. Activates auto lights and AFS.

I haven't been right through this thread, so I apologise if I repeat anything/everything that's been said. 

 

I've come from a Mk.3 Superb, which had the very snazzy (and often misunderstood) Smart Light Assistant - that's the one where the main beam is always on, but parts of it are masked off to prevent dazzling oncoming vehicles. It was very clever, but had its flaws.....

 

It also had the standard AFS swivelling dipped xenon/HID beam system which was very good. 

 

Anyway.... My Sportline also has AFS lighting, albeit LED. I think it's a system done on the cheap, as the primary LED beam does not swivel with the steering input. I really notice it as my last 3 Skodas' dipped beams swivelled. I find the lack of swivelling light irritating, and a step backwards. 

 

The AFS aspect is - from what I can deduce - an additional LED in each light unit (in addition to the pair of main beam LEDs) that dims up and down when a larger steering angle is introduced, and when reversing. The LED fog lamp is purely there for low speed turns, as has been the case for a decade or so. Also, the extra AFS LED lights up at lower speeds when driving through urban areas, to widen the beam pattern. 

 

I don't think this additional LED brings anything extra to the table as it's simply not powerful enough. Yes, you can see it in action, but you really have to look out for it. 

 

Oh, and 'Static cornering light' is the foglight that comes on when turning at low speeds, the 'Dynamic cornering light' is this silly additional LED. In my superb, adjusting this in the drive selection menu made the beam swivelling more aggressive. In the Kodiaq, I have no idea what benefit this setting has for the LED system. Maybe the dimming profile is more aggressive, perhaps? 

 

In general, the LED headlights are better than the previous xenon/HID units. The lack of swivelling beams is a step back IMO, unless there is a regulation that doesn't allow for swivelling LED beams due to the light intensity? I haven't checked to see if you can get them on any other car. 

3 hours ago, dstev2000 said:

The lack of swivelling beams is a step back IMO, unless there is a regulation that doesn't allow for swivelling LED beams due to the light intensity? I haven't checked to see if you can get them on any other car.

 

I agree and do miss the swivelling lights from my Mk3 Octavia... however, I'm not convinced there are any cars with swivelling LEDs - just better systems with more elements that turn on/off to achieve the same sort of thing (the Audi matrix system, for example).

 

The high-end cars now have these 'laser light' systems and night-vision, which supposedly make the difference when it comes to visibility etc.

38 minutes ago, WiggosSideburns said:

 

I agree and do miss the swivelling lights from my Mk3 Octavia... however, I'm not convinced there are any cars with swivelling LEDs - just better systems with more elements that turn on/off to achieve the same sort of thing (the Audi matrix system, for example).

 

The high-end cars now have these 'laser light' systems and night-vision, which supposedly make the difference when it comes to visibility etc.

 

Agreed, the matrix LED system on the XC90 is extremely effective. 

 

Here's some interesting stuff about LED lighting. It's probably a bit out of date, but the principles still apply today. I like Hella's technical pages: https://www.hella.com/techworld/uk/Technical/Automotive-lighting/LED-headlights-833/#

5 hours ago, dstev2000 said:

The AFS aspect is - from what I can deduce - an additional LED in each light unit (in addition to the pair of main beam LEDs) that dims up and down when a larger steering angle is introduced, and when reversing. The LED fog lamp is purely there for low speed turns, as has been the case for a decade or so. Also, the extra AFS LED lights up at lower speeds when driving through urban areas, to widen the beam pattern. 

 

This was shown back on page two...

 

Stumbled across this thread as trying to ascertain how the AFS works on our new Koraq.

 

Reason I was interested is because the first thing I noticed upon night driving for the first time was that it doesnt change direction of the lights as the steering wheel is moved. 

 

I traded in a Mk7.5 Golf GTI in for the Karoq, with no optional extras which had the LED bendy lights (DLA as VW call it) . Really useful feature and a shame the Koraq/Kodiaq doest have it. (No it wasnt a cornering light function, there was also an additional light for that with sharp cornering). 

Yep, it is confirmed, the LED dipped beam on the Kodiaq, and most likely the Karoq, adjusts up and down only, not left and right.

 

The sideways lighting is only acheived using an additional couple of LED's in the main headlight, in conjunction with the LED cornering foglights.

I have noticed that at slow speeds in slow corners first lit up these extra LEDs in main lights block and then according fog light follows.