Are the front lights expected to do their dance every time the car is started? I have noticed that mine are doing the dance very rarely - actually most of the times they don't dance at all. Used to have VW Passat B6 several years ago and I remember the lights doing the dance every time I switch them on.

 

 

 

 

If it makes any difference - the car equipped with Bi-Xenon lights with SLA

Every time I start mine in the dark/twilight. It could be it only happens if light switch is set to Auto when you turn on ignition as I tend to leave the switch in the Auto position...

If it hasn't already completed the cycle it stops as soon as the car moves.

Yes, everytime the car is switched on.

 

If headlights r on Auto or On, and it's dark, then u'll c the dance.

 

Otherwise u don't c it, but the motors cycle everytime.

 

I have an SLA equipped Superb too.

Edited 28 March, 20206 yr by JR RS

I always keep the lights knob on "off" and my car ignition sequence is 1) start the engine 2)switch the lights from "Off" to "Auto". 

 

With this sequence the lights dance only in 10-15% of the occasions. The reason I'm asking for the dance routine is actually that from day one I feel that the quality of the lights is very low and I'm trying to figure out if there is any correlation between the lack of dance and the poor illumination. The issues I'm experiencing can be described as follow:

 

1) The low beams don't provide me with enough depth of illumination for my taste. I know that there are known issues where the lights get locked in the lowest position, but since my lights don't dance that often, I can say if they are getting locked. I have addressed this to my local dealer - they had the car during the day (when is bright outside) and according to them there is no issue and the lights are properly set (also they tested them on one of their machines there). Nevertheless, I still find the low beams not good enough and even dangerous to drive at night. In my humble estimate they light-up the road not more than 20-30 meters ahead which is not enough for me at all - especially when driving in mountainous winding roads.  My previous car Toyota Avensis had the ordinary halogen lights, and I can say they were much better then the Superb's lights. 

 

2) The SLA is quite lagging in adjusting the light beam when there is upcoming traffic. I clearly see the lights changing theirs position, but it takes quite long and most of the times I end-up blinding the other drivers and I get the deserved flashing. Don't know if this could be a problem coming from the camera or the SLA itself, but the reality is that it is not working correctly. 

 

3) There is no particular behavior of the SLA in general. When I enter the village where I live at night, I'm coming from a dark road into a very well lit street. In most cases the lights don't switch/change their pattern at all and the blue high beam light on the dashboard is still there, but let's say in 20% of the cases it turns off and I can see the light pattern has changed. Same is applicable on the other side of the village where there is a glass bus stop (no street lights there) - in most cases the reflection of the lights from the glass doesn't cause any change of their behavior. In very seldom cases, the lights switch to low beam due the reflection from the glass. I don't think that the weather conditions affect this, since for the sake of correctness of the experiment I have actually run through these two points several times one night just to confirm that I'm not missing something. 

9 hours ago, Remmy75 said:

I always keep the lights knob on "off" and my car ignition sequence is 1) start the engine 2)switch the lights from "Off" to "Auto". 

Err,. Why?

On ‎29‎/‎03‎/‎2020 at 13:07, Remmy75 said:

I always keep the lights knob on "off" and my car ignition sequence is 1) start the engine 2)switch the lights from "Off" to "Auto". 

 

With this sequence the lights dance only in 10-15% of the occasions. The reason I'm asking for the dance routine is actually that from day one I feel that the quality of the lights is very low and I'm trying to figure out if there is any correlation between the lack of dance and the poor illumination. The issues I'm experiencing can be described as follow:

 

1) The low beams don't provide me with enough depth of illumination for my taste. I know that there are known issues where the lights get locked in the lowest position, but since my lights don't dance that often, I can say if they are getting locked. I have addressed this to my local dealer - they had the car during the day (when is bright outside) and according to them there is no issue and the lights are properly set (also they tested them on one of their machines there). Nevertheless, I still find the low beams not good enough and even dangerous to drive at night. In my humble estimate they light-up the road not more than 20-30 meters ahead which is not enough for me at all - especially when driving in mountainous winding roads.  My previous car Toyota Avensis had the ordinary halogen lights, and I can say they were much better then the Superb's lights. 

 

2) The SLA is quite lagging in adjusting the light beam when there is upcoming traffic. I clearly see the lights changing theirs position, but it takes quite long and most of the times I end-up blinding the other drivers and I get the deserved flashing. Don't know if this could be a problem coming from the camera or the SLA itself, but the reality is that it is not working correctly. 

 

3) There is no particular behavior of the SLA in general. When I enter the village where I live at night, I'm coming from a dark road into a very well lit street. In most cases the lights don't switch/change their pattern at all and the blue high beam light on the dashboard is still there, but let's say in 20% of the cases it turns off and I can see the light pattern has changed. Same is applicable on the other side of the village where there is a glass bus stop (no street lights there) - in most cases the reflection of the lights from the glass doesn't cause any change of their behavior. In very seldom cases, the lights switch to low beam due the reflection from the glass. I don't think that the weather conditions affect this, since for the sake of correctness of the experiment I have actually run through these two points several times one night just to confirm that I'm not missing something. 

 

@Remmy75 - have u had the headlight software fix done to ur car?

 

as @facet edge said, makes no sense what ur doing.  Leave the switch position on "Auto".

guaranteed u'll c the dance if set to auto, and its dark outside.

 

if aligned and aimed corrected, the Superb's Bi-xenons r very good in terms of illumination and lighting up the road ahead. 
i wasn't happy with the factory original xenons, so i upgraded them to Phillips xTreme Vision bulbs.
much better brightness now.

 

sounds like something is up with urs, on both counts - headlight software and alignment.  get it checked at ur dealer.

 

with regards to SLA functionality - mine has been great and is always good.  reaction times (1 to 2 secs) r good in various conditions (oncoming traffic, or following traffic).  i've never been flashed.  even when switching between urban (street lights) and country (no street lights) roads - its does very well.
masking is on point.

however, the only difference between the SLA in my car, and those found in factory-fitted Superb's with SLA, is that i retrofitted SLA headlights into my car, and used the Passat B8's Parameter file for the 4B module that controls the SLA functions.

maybe the Passat's "AFS_with_MDF" parameters r better "tuned" than that used by the default in the Superb.

Edited 30 March, 20206 yr by JR RS

My headlights do the dance every time the engine is started, regardless of switch position AND regardless of outside brightness.

 

It does it in the middle of the day, just with the actual bulbs off.

 

The only time it won't do the dance is if it's interrupted - e.g. get in, start up and drive off straight away. In this case the headlights will remain in their current position.

If the dance has started, they will immediately move back to where they were before you started the car.

Edited 31 March, 20206 yr by drewellis

Funny enough - for the last three days the lights were dancing every time I start the car.....until today when in 5 starts in the evening no movement at all......I'm getting so confused

The dance is pretty quick, could it be that the time between you starting the engine and moving the lightswitch differs slightly?

 

The dance should occur regardless of the switch position. Even if the lights are turned off they'll still do the dance.

On 29/03/2020 at 12:19, facet edge said:

Err,. Why?

 

Because I want to control the operation of the coming/leaving home lights, and because I prefer the lights to be off whilst the engine is off.

6 hours ago, silver1011 said:

The dance is pretty quick, could it be that the time between you starting the engine and moving the lightswitch differs slightly?

 

below r two videos of mine dancing, from start up with the light switch on Auto.

mine takes just under 10 secs to do the actual dance.

 

 

Edited 7 April, 20206 yr by JR RS

When starting the car, I always turn on the ignition and wait until all the warning lights go off (apart from the ones that don't go out until the engine starts, such as the ignition) and wait for the lights to complete their dance as well.  I understood this is best practice as it enables everything to be ready rather than be interrupted by the car being started?

On 07/04/2020 at 05:46, JR RS said:

 

below r two videos of mine dancing, from start up with the light switch on Auto.

mine takes just under 10 secs to do the actual dance.

 

 

Wow - your lights are quite bright :(:(:( are these the original bulbs and is this on high or low beams?

 

Regarding the dancing of my lights - if it ever happens, it usually lasts like in your video....but again I am so fascinated and jealous about the brightness of your lights.

8 minutes ago, Remmy75 said:

Wow - your lights are quite bright :(:(:( are these the original bulbs and is this on high or low beams?

 

Regarding the dancing of my lights - if it ever happens, it usually lasts like in your video....but again I am so fascinated and jealous about the brightness of your lights.

 

in that video - those r the factory original xenon bulbs.

since then, i've changed them for brighter Phillips xTreme Vision xenons.

 

the start up is always on low beams, but with SLA headlights, in addition to left right, it does the highbeam roller/matrix test too.  that's the U shape scenario u see, from the 4 sec mark in the first video.

10 hours ago, JR RS said:

 

in that video - those r the factory original xenon bulbs.

since then, i've changed them for brighter Phillips xTreme Vision xenons.

 

the start up is always on low beams, but with SLA headlights, in addition to left right, it does the highbeam roller/matrix test too.  that's the U shape scenario u see, from the 4 sec mark in the first video.

 

I have never observed in such depth the initial lights calibration, neither have done it against a wall where I can see all the steps....What I have seen is, that sometimes is that lights move around a little bit and that's all. I will need for sure to check against a wall this and recorded it ....... Maybe over the weekend I will do it and see what the reality is. 

On 30/04/2020 at 05:57, JR RS said:

 

in that video - those r the factory original xenon bulbs.

since then, i've changed them for brighter Phillips xTreme Vision xenons.

 

the start up is always on low beams, but with SLA headlights, in addition to left right, it does the highbeam roller/matrix test too.  that's the U shape scenario u see, from the 4 sec mark in the first video.

 

Well, I managed to record the behaviour of my lights and it seems completely different.....

 

In the first video the car was parked , the lights switch was set on "off". Started the car, moved the switch to the first position "Auto" and you can see the lights just went on without any dance. I have repeated this 4-5 times and the outcome was the same. 

 

 

 

The second video was done immediately after these 4-5 attempts. This time, I had the lights switch on "Auto" before starting the car. As you can see, there is some lights dancing upon ignition, but to me it it seems is no where close to the one you have on your car. Especially the side-to-side roll which is almost hardly noticable and this U shaped shadowing is completelly missing........ I will definitely need to go to the dealer since this annoys me a lot. 

 

 

That's weird behaviour - especially given u have SLA headlights.

Urs does not behave like either SLA or DLA.

When u drive at night, is ur headlight actually masking with high beams on?

 

Below is footage of mine showing the SLA rotors/shutters in action.....

 

https://youtu.be/gd_y-yimVx0

On 04/05/2020 at 13:47, JR RS said:

That's weird behaviour - especially given u have SLA headlights.

Urs does not behave like either SLA or DLA.

When u drive at night, is ur headlight actually masking with high beams on?

 

Below is footage of mine showing the SLA rotors/shutters in action.....

 

https://youtu.be/gd_y-yimVx0

It does the masking, but as I explained before, I think is slow in terms of reaction and almost all the time, the cars on the other side of the road are getting blinded and almost 90% of the time they flash their light at me. 

 

Went to the skoda dealer again yesterday, and they claimed there is no issue.....

Mine MY19 car does "dancing" same way as Remmy75 one. And sometimes oncoming cars flash the lights for me also. But I don't know is that because they are actually blinded by my lights or are they thinking that I didn't switch, because whole road didn't get darker.

15 hours ago, Remmy75 said:

It does the masking, but as I explained before, I think is slow in terms of reaction and almost all the time, the cars on the other side of the road are getting blinded and almost 90% of the time they flash their light at me. 

 

Went to the skoda dealer again yesterday, and they claimed there is no issue.....

 

Something is definitely not right with ur headlights.

One, ur startup shutter & roller test is not right, and two, ur saying the SLA is slow and ur flashing oncoming cars most of the time.

It's a shame & no surprises the dealer said they found no issues. 

It turns on.

It turns off.

Wat is problem?

 

 

13 hours ago, Vahur said:

Mine MY19 car does "dancing" same way as Remmy75 one. And sometimes oncoming cars flash the lights for me also. But I don't know is that because they are actually blinded by my lights or are they thinking that I didn't switch, because whole road didn't get darker.

 

As above for Remmy75

@JR RS : To be honest I'm so tired of arguing with the local dealer, but at the same time I have reached to the point where I'm not comfortable to drive my car at night due to the poor illumination of the road of my lights. If I have to drive at night , I take my wife's car just because of the light. The only way I feel comfortable is with the the high beams on - but given the fact that the SLA is not working properly, is still not enjoyable ride.   

 

I have visited two different ones (still owned by the same parent company), they are all saying no issues with the lights, so I'm really lost what to do 😞 

I know you both have the same spec (bi-xenon & SLA), but can you be sure your headlights are the same?

 

It might be worth checking the part numbers on your headlights?

 

Skoda have been known to alter specs and features, even within certain features that discreetly alters their performance, especially across model years.

 

If the part numbers of your headlights Remmy75 are the same as those of  JR RS then from the videos alone I think your dealer would have to take note and try to explain the differences.

 

I appreciate Germany is left hand drive, and Australia is right hand drive which will affect the part numbers by one digit but they should still be comparable...

I have made an appointment with another dealer tomorrow and will show them the videos as well to see the differences, so hopefully they can do something about it.

SLA headlights part number end with B.

 

SLA headlights will have the following format - 3VX94101YB

where X can be either 1 (LHD) or 2 (RHD)

where Y can be either 15/17 (left side) or 16/18 (right side) 

 

mine are 3V2941015B & 3V2941016B.

 

prior to the retrofit, my non-SLA headlights were 3V2941015A & 3V2941016A.