Dipped beams = too bright , auto wipers = arghh, rear saloon wipers = ?!?!

Have to agree with the current majority here, headlights seem to be getting brighter or there are more illegal setups in use or badly adjusted lights, HID's with auto leveling are the main culprits i feel, especially on the 4x4's, one of them behind you and all you can see is your own dash and your shadow cast upon it due to the intense light from behind.
My last car was a DS3 with auto dip rear view mirror, it was useless, my new car has a good old manually flip job that does a Far better job, but i no longer have electric folding mirrors to stop them blinding me.

To add to this... i have notice a lot of drivers lately, that seem to think that its fine to use High beam as long as the car in front of them is more than a 1000 yards ahead!!!
 
Rossi~ said:
Sharp cut-off on LED headlights is a pain on the Seat Leon. Lovely and bright where the beam is them empty black void pass the cut-off. Standard Halogens on the A1 were better, in a way.
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I don't find it too bad, although in heavy rain their range does seem to drop considerably. Full beam is glorious though.
 
Combination of a few things imo:

- Sharp cutoff with projectors allowing aiming the beam far closer to the horizontal than would have been acceptable with say, an old halogen reflector. Sharper cutoff meaning less light spill above the horizontal plane, therefore 100% acceptable to the letter of the law.
- Proliferation of crossovers/SUV's where the lights are mounted physically higher form the ground compared with a normal car.
- Proliferation of HID/LED, where there appears to be no legal framework governing light output power. In the old days all cars had 55w halogens - You can only got so many lumens onto the road with one of those, & everyone was equal'ish. I'm not sure how HID's (& LED's) became legal in the UK but have a feeling it was to do with EU type approval trumping UK legislation.

Anyone who drives a low car & doesn't find this a problem needs their eyes tested :p
 
In the MOT manual there are two different specifications to set the headlamp aim height, depending on how high from the ground the bulbs/lenses are mounted. Taken from the manual itself:

"2. For headlamps with centres not more than 850mm from the ground the beam image horizontal cut-off is not between the horizontal 0.5% and 2.75% lines.
3. For headlamps with centres more than 850 mm from the ground, the beam image horizontal cut-off is not between the horizontal 1.25% and 2.75% lines."

The percentage lines it refers to are marked on the scale of a beam tester.

(https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...ion-manual-for-class-3-4-5-and-7-vehicles.pdf - Page 32)

As for the bulb intensity or wattage of each individual bulb, this is not tested.
 
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d_brennen said:
I'm finding cyclists with flashing front LEDs quite annoying at the moment. Puts me right off texting
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I'm going to come under hate for this, but I actually find this the worst. When they're cycling on the path using their undipped light and some of them are un-needlessly bright. The worst are the ones who are just walking with their bike.

However, in reply to OP, I find the worst are SUVs, high vehicles and thus seem to blind me. However, I find that if they're coming towards me they're gone before I have an issue if at all if they're behind me I have a auto-dimming rear mirror which cuts all the issues, it's only my wing mirrors that provide issues - So I just don't look into them during it happening.

e; I should probably clarify my issues with cyclists are mainly I find them distracting.
 
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I'm not sure if overly bright head lamps are as annoying as being sat behind someone in a stationary queue at lights who sit on their foot brake all the time. Why do so many do that?
 
Duke said:
I'm not sure if overly bright head lamps are as annoying as being sat behind someone in a stationary queue at lights who sit on their foot brake all the time. Why do so many do that?
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Laziness with auto boxes. I must admit I never used to do it in a manual car but do it all the time with my auto. :(:o
 
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Depends entirely on the car you are driving. Sitting in a low slung sports car with a Range Rover or ML Mercedes coming towards you is a pain.

What is worse is night joggers with what feels like 100watt spot lamps on their head. I had to pull over one time just to inform them that I couldn't see them nor where I was driving as they were blinding me and if they went over my bonnet that is their problem not mine.
 
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I was going to post a thread on this but didnt get round to it. As others have said, its a bit of a nightmare especially driving around towns. Its primarily those SUV / crossover types that get me the worst due to the height. Landrover / RRs are blinding! I also get flashed repeatedly both in the A4 and F10.

Theres a few British campaigns going to get the authorities to do something about it.
 
Greebo said:
Laziness with auto boxes. I must admit I never used to do it in a manual car but do it all the time with my auto. :(:o
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adolf hamster said:
sounds about right, what's the point of an auto box otherwise :p
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:o Not going to lie, it's much more of a hassle in autoboxes to change :p

To be fair, I do it in pretty much all vehicles including manuals unless stopping at lights for a boring amount of time, excluding vans on hills, I hate hill starts in vans because I don't drive them enough and I'm not used to them :p
 
Duke said:
I'm not sure if overly bright head lamps are as annoying as being sat behind someone in a stationary queue at lights who sit on their foot brake all the time. Why do so many do that?
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I've always done this, even back in the day when I drove a manual - who uses the handbrake? :p
 
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