Headlights

Status
Not open for further replies.

Andybtsn

Andybtsn

Andybtsn

Don
Joined
23 Oct 2005
Posts
44,433
Location
North Yorkshire
Hi guys,

I've had a '14 Insignia for around 9 months now and it wasn't until I drove my wife's '07 Focus I realised how pathetic the Xenons are in comparison. Can anything be done to improve visibility in the dark? The last car I had with Xenons was a Lupo GTI and I don't recall them being poor.

I thought you guys would give me a quick yes or no answer!

I'm having to use my fog lights just to give a bit of extra light, don't get me wrong, they show enough light but compared to the Focus they are very dim.

My eyesight is ok for the record :)

Cheers
 
Take it back under warranty - I had an insignia hire car wit Xenons the other week and the headlights were very good
 
So to clarify, you do have Xenons on the Insignia?

Has the lens itself got clouding or misting? This can usually be polished out.

Also, you can change the bulbs for the Phillips/Osram equivalent and see how that goes. Not very cheap though! I believe Mrk changed his out recently.
 
Have you got after market xenons fitted or the stock AFL xenons?

I've got the AFL xenons and imo they are the best and brightest headlights I've ever had.
 
Hi, I presume they are just stock Xenons. No way of knowing, I am getting an engineer out next week to reprogram my spare key so might see if he can check whilst at my house.

No clouding or misting as far as I can tell, I did have a good look last night.
 
Can only think perhaps the self leveller is broken and pointing to car down - any hire insignia I've had with xenon's has been good enough I haven't noticed the light output to be good nor bad
 
Andybtsn said:
I'm having to use my fog lights just to give a bit of extra light
Click to expand...

No

Fog lights are for letting other road users that you're there, they don't really provide any useful light for driving.

They shouldn't be used in 99.9% of driving as they blind everyone else.
 
bledd. said:
No

Fog lights are for letting other road users that you're there, they don't really provide any useful light for driving.

They shouldn't be used in 99.9% of driving as they blind everyone else.
Click to expand...

To be honest I've only used them a couple of times down the back roads to my house where I come across no traffic. It's surprising you saying that as I see more and more people utilising them, I wouldn't say they dazzle me in anyway.
 
Andybtsn said:
Slight exaggeration, I don't have too, it makes a slight difference though.
Click to expand...

It makes absolutely no difference except for lighting up about 6 foot infront if your vehicle. Which at any given speed you won't have the reaction time to respond to.

It boils my blood that amount of drivers who drive around with their fog lights on. Why is it getting more and more common? Their name kind of gives their function in life a clue.
 
Just because other people are doing it, doesnt make it right :p

I saw a car the other day with one sidelight working, no headlights and one foglight on the other side. People doing that should be publicly flogged.

Most fogs are very dazzling and shouldn't be used unless its foggy
 
paradigm said:
It does indeed make a difference, it makes you one of those "people" :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I've been driving for 14 years, I've never had to resort to using fog lights. I wouldn't use them on a motorway or anywhere that I would incur heavy traffic, I mentioned them to highlight the poor lighting of the car that they do make a difference to my visibility. But like I said, they've only been switched on a couple of times.
 
If the fogs make a significant improvement to the visibility then the xenons are definitely broken. I'd guess its probably the levelling system not working so that they're pointing too high or low
 
I doubt an engineer will come out to reprogram your key, more likely a technician.
(Sorry, but I hate when technicians are referred to as Engineers)
As mentioned, could be issue with self levelling, or power supply / earth. Should not take much to get it sorted.

As for misty / cloudy, if that is the case, it can be polished out, but this is only a short term solution as they will soon cloud over again. There is a thin UV coating on the lens and once it has deteriorated it, polishing just removes the haze caused by UV only to be degraded again as there is no more protective UV coating.

Fog lights are for use ONLY when (as the name suggests) there is FOG. People should be fined for driving with Fogs on when its not Foggy.
 
Andybtsn said:
Hi, I presume they are just stock Xenons. No way of knowing, I am getting an engineer out next week to reprogram my spare key so might see if he can check whilst at my house.

No clouding or misting as far as I can tell, I did have a good look last night.
Click to expand...

The AFL xenons move side to side when you move the wheel, when you first turn the lights on they will do a self check i.e move up, down, left and right.

Do yours do this? If they aren't and you have xenons then that's more then likely your issue.
 
Glanza said:
The AFL xenons move side to side when you move the wheel, when you first turn the lights on they will do a self check i.e move up, down, left and right.

Do yours do this? If they aren't and you have xenons then that's more then likely your issue.
Click to expand...

Cheers, I can't say I've noticed the movement when turning on the engine.

I've emailed the seller now to see what can be done :)

I just wanted to make sure that Xenons hadn't gone down drastically in terms of quality since I had them last!

I'll hopefully get it sorted asap.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom