Brightness/ alignment of new cars/ LEDS head lamps

mdixson said:
Funny as its def completely black around the car in front with the matrix and cant say I've noticed it with one behind me
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But they can be bad even when dipped. I think some might be coming out of the factory maybe not set up properly which wouldn't suprise me. They are especially bad when driving something low.

Tall cars are always going to be worse when up very close, but the alignment should be the same for everything if using the proper template.

There needs to be most testing of brand new cars TBH. Maybe a cut down MOT.
 
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Nasher said:
But they can be bad even when dipped. I think they might be coming out of the factory maybe not set up properly which doesn't suprise me. I've seen some where one side seems ok and the other is too high. They are especially bad when driving something low.
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Perhaps a lot of stuff comes out from JLR factories incorrectly.. haha
 
Nasher said:
There needs to be most testing of brand new cars TBH. Maybe a cut down MOT.
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All new cars go through a PDI before handover, but, as usual corners are cut to increase the techs bonus.
I’ve done a million PDI’s for Toyota/Lexus and Mercedes and always checked headlamp alignment as part of it, but I was the only one who did.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
Still? That was certainly true in the 1970s and 1980s with “Friday Afternoon Specials” and electrical components supplied by Joseph Lucas, The Prince Of Darkness.
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Yep, still after all this time. You'd think they would have got it right by now.

And yea Lucas parts are cursed. If they are still using those it's likely where a lot of the issues come from lol. They are made in China now and many say they are even worse than they used to be. So much for a Premium car brand.
 
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Jonnycoupe said:
If you need to use indicators as references for road driving where milliseconds of response is perceived to be an issue then you must be doing something wrong.
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My reference to reaction time was in relation to brake lights.


ttaskmaster said:
It's only reasonable if you have a single light or cluster of LEDs, whereas the animated indicators use a strip with each segment of the sequence being bright enough to stand out on its own, which is why it works.
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Not always though, they're popping up on all sorts of makes and models and often struggle to be visible over the brake or headlights, as I've said. The simple fact is that that strip of LEDs would appear brighter if it illuminated all at once rather than in sequence. They're for bling, not to improve safety.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
Still? That was certainly true in the 1970s and 1980s with “Friday Afternoon Specials” and electrical components supplied by Joseph Lucas, The Prince Of Darkness.
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My disco was delivered new from a dealer with a loose and rattling exhaust heat sheild, along with multple other 'niggles' in build quality ... the heat shield later fell off twice and they sent me £100 compensation for the mess. So I would say its still true haha. But I love the car and would have another they deal with it all very well!
 
Nasher said:
They are made in China now and many say they are even worse than they used to be. So much for a Premium car brand.
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Specific models made in china for the chinese market.................. however all JLR cars are made in the UK or EU for our market AFAIK (jonnycoupe will correct me if i am wrong i am sure)

not my stats but a quick google shows this stolen shamelessly from speakev forum

Whitley - Powertrain engineering and Global Corporate ...
Gaydon - Principal design and engineering
Solihull - Builds F-PACE, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar.
Manchester - Software and IT
Castle Bromwich - XF, XJ, F-TYPE and XE
Wolverhampton - Petrol and Diesel engine plant
Halewood - Evoque, Discovery Sport

Outside the UK but in the EU:

Shannon - Software Engineering: automated driving, electrical architecture, next-generation telematics, cyber security, cloud services and benchmarking.
Budapest - New office. EU Supply chain managment, design.
Nitra, Slovakia - Defender and Discovery.

Graz, Austria - Magna Steyr builds the i-Pace under contract.


but yes with chinese factories for the chinese market - which seems sesnible to me.

BUT all that said...... since when was built in China a recipie for disaster anyway? loads of premuim cars (and other products) are built over there - often to a higher standard than western equivalents.

also with a PS of I am not defending JLR build quality or their customer service at all...... that is not the point of my post...... I guess i just get a bit tired of the whole "built in china = crap " stereotype
 
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Chinese manufactured cars seem better put together than a lot of Tesla's to be honest.

My Polestar 2 is built like a tank. And Lotus seem quite happy to have their Eletre produced in China.
 
Did Nasher edit his made up post again?

VincentHanna said:
Chinese manufactured cars seem better put together than a lot of Tesla's to be honest.

My Polestar 2 is built like a tank. And Lotus seem quite happy to have their Eletre produced in China.
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The Chinese manufactured Teslas though... ?
 
if the matrix light unit are now identical for european/lhd market are they naturally sub-optimal for uk roads (even if they are steerable) - because their is some directionality in the way the lenses&bulbs point -
and, say, they even have to reduce light output towards the right/oncoming for the UK
 
jpaul said:
if the matrix light unit are now identical for european/lhd market are they naturally sub-optimal for uk roads (even if they are steerable) - because their is some directionality in the way the lenses&bulbs point -
and, say, they even have to reduce light output towards the right/oncoming for the UK
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who suggested they were non handed anyway?

My car uses GPS to set the headlamp adjustment to suit the side of road for the country you are ine.

I would suggest you made your post up again didnt you? More ramblings... 'Sub Optimal', yeah lets go back to 'optimised' halogen bulbs in reflectors....
 
Nasher said:
Yea it's annoying. The high kelvin white light is very dazzling and reflects brightly off everything. Headlights need to be yellowish, a longer wavelength which cuts through bad weather and doesn't scatter as much. That's why they were like that in the 3-4000k range. Another example of things going backwards in car design.

On top of that the automatic stuff is rubbish, is just doesn't work effectively.
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No yellow beams are lethal, I have used yellow lenses/bulbs in old cars before trying stock halogen bulbs and again with retro fitted HID's/projectors, they're fine until there's fog/smoke/mist, then all you see is a white solid cloud infront of you, higher kelvin doesn't do this, that's why they don't use yellow.

Another scary thing is, things like deers/rabbits are harder to notice with yellow, I found they tend to blend into foresty/grassy/bank areas more under yellow light due to having a colour tint over everything you see, this in the rain makes things very dangerous, with white lights you obviously spot a grey/brown animal as there's no colour tinting everything you see.
 
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Yeah i think closer to daylight temperatures of LED is the benefit... 3-4000K of old was more a limitation of halogen rather than the choise Masher suggests.

I just dont know how you manage to make your posting so consistant. Fair play to the mash.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
I would suggest you made your post up again didnt you? More ramblings... 'Sub Optimal', yeah lets go back to 'optimised' halogen bulbs in reflectors....
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so, are they still handed ?
think about it - UK you have a kick up on car near-side - and those leds would have to be off in europe - so the lights wouldn't be as good
 
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