What's with the new high-beam headlight thing?

[VonMagnum]

I think most people must be blind. I see bright headlights on all the time (and I don't mean the LEDs aimed badly, etc.) and they usually turn them off after I get closer, but it's like I don't have mine on when driving on these roads because they're just not needed. I don't need to illuminate the fields or lots or houses off to the sides. As long as you can see the road, that's all you need (save the exception driving along the woods in deer mating season, perhaps as you can see their eyes easier as they're more likely to jump out in front of your car then).

In some neighborhoods if you flash your high beams to get some idiot to turn theirs off you could get shot.

Isn't it great life is so damn cheap these days? If there's a HELL, it's going to be quite full.

 

[Phase 2]

It's illegal to modify the lighting system on any vehicle. It's also illegal to ride with your fog lights on when there's no fog or inclement weather. It's also illegal for your tires to stick out past an inch of your fender wells. But Cops do nothing about it.

 

[VonMagnum]

It's illegal to modify the lighting system on any vehicle. It's also illegal to ride with your fog lights on when there's no fog or inclement weather. It's also illegal for your tires to stick out past an inch of your fender wells. But Cops do nothing about it.

Well, I don't know about every state, but I saw this on Google when I searched (and no cop has ever pulled me over for leaving my on, which I find with my non-LED lighting makes it much easier to see the road close to the car, especially in rain/snow and seeing the yellow lines is most of the battle at night):

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/3991100-ask-trooper-it-legal-use-fog-lights-when-it-isnt-foggy

All I know is the ONLY time I ever remember being blinded by a fog light was when it was on a truck raised up in the air to monster level and had the light pointing right at my eyes. They're usually too low to the road and not as bright as a normal headlight, let alone a super blue one to bother me.

I have had a LOT of problems being blinded by super blues (not aimed right or don't have eyelids) and high-jacked up trucks with regular headlights right at eye level (if they weren't raised up, it probably wouldn't have been an issue).

 

[panteragstk]

It's illegal to modify the lighting system on any vehicle. It's also illegal to ride with your fog lights on when there's no fog or inclement weather. It's also illegal for your tires to stick out past an inch of your fender wells. But Cops do nothing about it.

That is all State to state. Where you live those may be laws, but not where I live. Not even close.

 

[panteragstk]

@Irvrobinson it's interesting that you see this on older vehicles. I notice it more on newer ones. Not even those with led/halogen lights, but newer in general. They just seem to have their lights aimed higher.

I have a 2015 vehicle and have been flashed for having my brights on when I don't so I guess I might be part of he problem. On my 2007 truck it never happens. I do live in deer country so seeing people with their brights on isn't abnormal, but sometimes it seems that they have them on in unnecessary situations.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Mn...lol

I hate when people don’t turn off their brights. Shiit hurts my eyes. I turn mine on and leave them until the jackhole coming at me turns me off too.

 

[VonMagnum]

I've been surprised to find sometimes their brights are NOT on (usually it turns out the vehicle is sitting high like a Jeep when I'm driving a car; headlights always look brighter when they are at eye level). I turn mine on to give them the what for and they flash theirs to show me they were NOT on. It's screwed up.

I've also had someone flash their lights at me with my 2011 WRX SE that has the ultra blue lights come with it. It has a motorized aiming control and I kept it all the way down. They still flashed their lights (they are very bright at close range so it could still look like a bright head light, but the brights are halogen). I'm not turning my headlights OFF. Frankly, I don't care for those Blue Ultras that much. The eyelid thing blocks them from seeing as far out as they can and honestly, I think they don't see as far as a regular non-blocked halogen. Yes, they're brighter within the range they do show, but it's so limited that a regular halogen beam is easier to see further with on a pitch black country road. I'd have to turn the brights on when I wouldn't have needed them on my 2004 WRX with halogens.

My newer 2015 Turbo Forester Premium has halogens. I have no trouble seeing far away. I do have trouble seeing close to the car (the 2011 WRX SE fog lights were purely for show; they didn't illuminate in any visible way what-so-ever compared to those ultra-blue lights. They were moderately useful on the 2004 WRX. They are extremely helpful on the higher sitting Forester so I leave them on all the time with the headlights as it produces a much better continuous beam from near the car to further away. I've never seen anyone flash at me because of them (unlike the WRX ultra blues that were aimed correctly).

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

I've been surprised to find sometimes their brights are NOT on (usually it turns out the vehicle is sitting high like a Jeep when I'm driving a car; headlights always look brighter when they are at eye level). I turn mine on to give them the what for and they flash theirs to show me they were NOT on. It's screwed up.

I've also had someone flash their lights at me with my 2011 WRX SE that has the ultra blue lights come with it. It has a motorized aiming control and I kept it all the way down. They still flashed their lights (they are very bright at close range so it could still look like a bright head light, but the brights are halogen). I'm not turning my headlights OFF. Frankly, I don't care for those Blue Ultras that much. The eyelid thing blocks them from seeing as far out as they can and honestly, I think they don't see as far as a regular non-blocked halogen. Yes, they're brighter within the range they do show, but it's so limited that a regular halogen beam is easier to see further with on a pitch black country road. I'd have to turn the brights on when I wouldn't have needed them on my 2004 WRX with halogens.

My newer 2015 Turbo Forester Premium has halogens. I have no trouble seeing far away. I do have trouble seeing close to the car (the 2011 WRX SE fog lights were purely for show; they didn't illuminate in any visible way what-so-ever compared to those ultra-blue lights. They were moderately useful on the 2004 WRX. They are extremely helpful on the higher sitting Forester so I leave them on all the time with the headlights as it produces a much better continuous beam from near the car to further away. I've never seen anyone flash at me because of them (unlike the WRX ultra blues that were aimed correctly).

Yeah, I get caught flashing my beams once in awhile. I’m like, oops! Sorry dude. But then again when they kill their brights after I flash em, I’m like Yeah M$@&; F@&$?, I knew it! Lol. At least if they kill their brights that hopefully means their not on their phone. Hopefully... that’s another show though.

 

[Phase 2]

That is all State to state. Where you live those may be laws, but not where I live. Not even close.

HID lights are illegal in all 50 states.

 

[Irvrobinson]

HID lights are illegal in all 50 states.

What is your definition of HID?

 

[highfigh]

It's illegal to modify the lighting system on any vehicle. It's also illegal to ride with your fog lights on when there's no fog or inclement weather. It's also illegal for your tires to stick out past an inch of your fender wells. But Cops do nothing about it.

If only these were the most severe problems on our roads.......

 

[Phase 2]

What is your definition of HID?

From what I can find, any light that's Not approved by federal safety standards. Now I'm not an expert by no means on this subject Sir. But I do get your point on the use of those HID lights, in some States the laws are different what's legal and what's not. Down here most are used on trucks that are jacked up like monster trucks which is ok if they are used for off-road, I see those everyday around here why law enforcement won't do anything are because they pick and choose who to pull over. That's my best guess.

 

[Irvrobinson]

From what I can find, any light that's Not approved by federal safety standards. Now I'm not an expert by no means on this subject Sir. But I do get your point on the use of those HID lights, in some States the laws are different what's legal and what's not. Down here most are used on trucks that are jacked up like monster trucks which is ok if they are used for off-road, I see those everyday around here why law enforcement won't do anything are because they pick and choose who to pull over. That's my best guess.

In the parlance of the auto companies, HID headlights refer to headlights with xenon bulbs. For the past few years automakers have also been offering LED headlights in various configurations, and these are even higher intensity than the xenon lights. All of these are DOT approved, of course. Personally, I find the new LED headlights very annoying, especially on SUVs and trucks because they have a higher ride height. The LEDs give me long-lasting afterimages. I like the xenon versions, at least those with self-leveling mechanisms, and we have them on all of our cars.

Retrofitting LEDs into nacelles that were intended for halogen bulbs, and often have cloudy lenses, are very annoying. Technically these retrofits are federally illegal, since they're not DOT approved, but as far as I can tell no one is enforcing these regs in any state - especially California. And CA is also the state where I've noticed the highest proportion of drivers using their high beams all of the time. I especially enjoy when some of these bozos rig their brake lights to be on continuously, which means you can't tell when they're actually braking. I'm not in favor of financial fines for tampering with brake lights; I think televised public flogging would be a more appropriate penalty, and I think there'd be no trouble at all finding volunteer floggers. I would try to be first volunteer in line. [No smiley]

So far as I can tell, of the state laws I've sampled, none have specific technology laws about headlights, and the state laws focus on when you should or shouldn't have various lights of different functions turned on. Worse, in some states these regulations are written just as "recommendations", meaning they're not intended to be enforced.

 

[Phase 2]

As always I look forward to reading Threads like this, Irv you been around a Long time on here.
I did ask a Cop friend once about the fog light thing his response was we know they are doing it we just don't go after them. That was outside a waffle house one night. But I get a ticket one day State Trooper for not putting my turn signal on a hundred feet before I turned lol go figure uhu. Thing is I did use my turn signal just not a hundred feet in his opinion. Do I trust law enforcement? Nope! On the sheriff's department alone down here five got arrested deputies for illegal things they were doing and that was told to me by a City Policeman, but it never made the news.

 

[Sheep]

Ok so I know I'm late to this thread, and It's been really fun watching everyone debate headlights and what they "feel" is how they work, but in reality it's much simpler.

Watch this video, they explain all the different types of bulbs and how they work, as well as the different housing designs.

I'll summarize a couple points below.

1.) How the headlight is aimed plays a major role, and is something that can be adjusted. You might see a car with one headlight blinding you, when the other isn't, this is likely due to a housing being replaced from an accident.

2.) Housing designs reflect the light from a bulb in different ways. Reflector housings (normal style) have the light reflect into a mirror and then shine out (usually just one reflection). Where the bulb emits light is crucial for this design to work. Sticking HID and LED bulbs into these housings without accounting for their different shape and emitting area will cause the light to lose focus, and glare. It will also drop the output in some cases. Projector housings gather the light in a parabolic mirror and shine it straight out, limiting it's output using a shied inside. These housings are less prone to glare as the cut shield always stops the light from above a certain point, but the bulb still needs to emit light from the right area for the unit to be effective.

3.) Not all bulbs are created equal. Halogen bulbs emit light ONLY from the filament, and they emit in a 360 degree pattern from that spot. HID bulbs use an arc to emit light, which is usually longer and wider than the area of a halogen bulb. This is why they glare so much in reflector housings - the extra output can't be controlled or focused properly. LED bulbs suffer from the same issues with cheap designs. They need the have LED chips that match the location and size of a halogen filament, while also being thin enough to appear as 1 light source with as close to 360 degree output. The newer, more costly bulbs are good at mimicking the halogen emission area, and can give good results when installed into regular housings, but the culprits you're seeing probably aren't dropping $200 on their bulbs.

So, new fangled lights aren't trying to kill you, and if someone crests a hill and you get an eye full relax, it happens to everyone. If you see a d bag with ebay HID bulbs phone in their plate, enough of those will run him a VI and a nice ticket.

SheepStar

 

[Irvrobinson]

Ok so I know I'm late to this thread, and It's been really fun watching everyone debate headlights and what they "feel" is how they work, but in reality it's much simpler.

[snip]

I'll summarize a couple points below.

1.) How the headlight is aimed plays a major role, and is something that can be adjusted. You might see a car with one headlight blinding you, when the other isn't, this is likely due to a housing being replaced from an accident.

Aiming as a problem was discussed early on in the thread.

2.) Housing designs reflect the light from a bulb in different ways. Reflector housings (normal style) have the light reflect into a mirror and then shine out (usually just one reflection). Where the bulb emits light is crucial for this design to work. Sticking HID and LED bulbs into these housings without accounting for their different shape and emitting area will cause the light to lose focus, and glare. It will also drop the output in some cases. Projector housings gather the light in a parabolic mirror and shine it straight out, limiting it's output using a shied inside. These housings are less prone to glare as the cut shield always stops the light from above a certain point, but the bulb still needs to emit light from the right area for the unit to be effective.

This point was brought up too, that reflectors were designed for different bulb types.

3.) Not all bulbs are created equal. Halogen bulbs emit light ONLY from the filament, and they emit in a 360 degree pattern from that spot. HID bulbs use an arc to emit light, which is usually longer and wider than the area of a halogen bulb. This is why they glare so much in reflector housings - the extra output can't be controlled or focused properly. LED bulbs suffer from the same issues with cheap designs. They need the have LED chips that match the location and size of a halogen filament, while also being thin enough to appear as 1 light source with as close to 360 degree output. The newer, more costly bulbs are good at mimicking the halogen emission area, and can give good results when installed into regular housings, but the culprits you're seeing probably aren't dropping $200 on their bulbs.

Same with most of these points.

So, new fangled lights aren't trying to kill you, and if someone crests a hill and you get an eye full relax, it happens to everyone. If you see a d bag with ebay HID bulbs phone in their plate, enough of those will run him a VI and a nice ticket.

"New fangled"? I haven't heard that term in a few decades. And they're not going to kill you? If you're blinded by these illegal lights it can cause fatal accidents. And as I remember you're relatively young. Wait until you're in your 60s or more to see how your eyes change, especially WRT recovery time from bright lights.

As for some phone-in thing getting someone a ticket, not in the US that I'm aware of. As I remember, you're Canadian, right? All of these references are to US laws and enforcement, US Department of Transportation rules, and mostly lack of enforcement. If I'm correct and you do live in Canada, my experience is that traffic law enforcement in Canada is more effective than in most places in the US. Especially in US states west of the Mississippi. Some states in the US still have annual safety inspections, like New York, and headlight aiming and checking for proper bulb types is part of the inspection, but I'm told they still don't inspect fog lights or driving lights for safe operation. I'm not aware of any western states with mandatory safety inspection laws.

 

[Sheep]

This point was brought up too, that reflectors were designed for different bulb types.

"New fangled"? I haven't heard that term in a few decades. And they're not going to kill you? If you're blinded by these illegal lights it can cause fatal accidents. And as I remember you're relatively young. Wait until you're in your 60s or more to see how your eyes change, especially WRT recovery time from bright lights.

As for some phone-in thing getting someone a ticket, not in the US that I'm aware of. As I remember, you're Canadian, right? All of these references are to US laws and enforcement, US Department of Transportation rules, and mostly lack of enforcement. If I'm correct and you do live in Canada, my experience is that traffic law enforcement in Canada is more effective than in most places in the US. Especially in US states west of the Mississippi. Some states in the US still have annual safety inspections, like New York, and headlight aiming and checking for proper bulb types is part of the inspection, but I'm told they still don't inspect fog lights or driving lights for safe operation. I'm not aware of any western states with mandatory safety inspection laws.

You should watch the video. LED bulbs are flexible in how they arrange the diodes on the chip, meaning they can mimic the exact area a halogen filament emits light, just with different LUX and colour temperature. If you haven't been paying attention to car safety testing, headlights are now part of the Top Safety Pick Plus program, and every Halogen headlight has failed to produce what the IIHS deems a safe amount of light. Also contrary to some posts in this thread, the LED bulbs/housings are actually dimmer than HID bulbs, thatswhy a lot of factory equiped cars using LED are resorting to multiple units per housing.

About our tests

Learn how we conduct the tests that form the basis for our ratings.

www.iihs.org

SheepStar

 

[Irvrobinson]

You should watch the video. LED bulbs are flexible in how they arrange the diodes on the chip, meaning they can mimic the exact area a halogen filament emits light, just with different LUX and colour temperature. If you haven't been paying attention to car safety testing, headlights are now part of the Top Safety Pick Plus program, and every Halogen headlight has failed to produce what the IIHS deems a safe amount of light. Also contrary to some posts in this thread, the LED bulbs/housings are actually dimmer than HID bulbs, thatswhy a lot of factory equiped cars using LED are resorting to multiple units per housing.

About our tests

Learn how we conduct the tests that form the basis for our ratings.

www.iihs.org

SheepStar

I'm aware of LED headlight technology. Beyond the technology, I've also developed opinions about the cars with headlights that annoy me most as an oncoming driver. Far and away the vehicle that annoys me most is the Acura RDX with LED lights. I have to look away every time. Perhaps it's the RDX's ride height compared to my sedan, perhaps it is brightness, but they are very annoying even in low-beam mode. Perhaps it's because there are so many of them on road around here that affects my judgment too.

But that's not why I started this thread. It was to bitch about idiots driving with their high beams engaged at inappropriate times.

 

[Sheep]

I'm aware of LED headlight technology. Beyond the technology, I've also developed opinions about the cars with headlights that annoy me most as an oncoming driver. Far and away the vehicle that annoys me most is the Acura RDX with LED lights. I have to look away every time. Perhaps it's the RDX's ride height compared to my sedan, perhaps it is brightness, but they are very annoying even in low-beam mode. Perhaps it's because there are so many of them on road around here that affects my judgment too.

But that's not why I started this thread. It was to bitch about idiots driving with their high beams engaged at inappropriate times.

Which year RDX? The 2019 actually passed the headlight testing for the new model.

Also, a lot of new cars have Auto High beams, which turn off when they detect a car coming.I used mine on my Prius Prime this past summer and it works really well.

SheepStar

 

[Irvrobinson]

Which year RDX? The 2019 actually passed the headlight testing for the new model.

Also, a lot of new cars have Auto High beams, which turn off when they detect a car coming.I used mine on my Prius Prime this past summer and it works really well.

SheepStar

They look like what I see on the Acura web site for 2019s, but I'm not positive. Auto High Beam control is a great thing, unfortunately most of the bozos I see drive older cars.