Question for those with the LED headlamps

I don't think any of the US trim levels come with stock LED headlamps, so it may only be a small sample of us who have them.

Mine already appear to be positioned at the highest legal point but I'll have a look at the car tomorrow and see if I can see anything. To be honest I already find they tend to annoy people more than I'm used to - when a crest causes other drivers to be in the beam I've had people flash their headlights at me a couple of times.

I also notice when people push prams in front of my car (when stopped clearly), the kids are NOT happy.

 

Hi Mr Gee and Rob
My Kiwi C s-Tech is very similar to the Aussie I-Tech, and has LED headlights. My manual says that vehicles with LED headlights have an automatic headlight levelling system, adjusted according to number of passengers and loading condition.

 

Yep ours are the same. I could not see anything that looked remotely like headlight adjustments I've had in previous cars. This being said that whole area is so much more cramped and packed in than I'm used to.

 

I presume your cars don't have many km on them. I would ask the dealer to check & adjust the headlights. It's going to be a minute adjustment & the car needs to be level. This isn't something I would want to try with the car sitting in the driveway.

 

Mine are fine. I park in an underground car park that I trust to be level, so previously I would have tweaked them myself if I felt there was an issue, but in any case this is a standard inspection item (and is also a registration inspection item, when we have to do one), so I agree, any dealer should do it - if it's wrong it suggests they missed it.

 

Auto leveling works to solve a different problem and has nothing to do with the initial static setting/level of the beam. I'm not familiar with the LEDs in the c to be of any help except to say there is a way to adjust the set level. Here in the U.S? We have comply with DOT regulations regarding headlight level. I would check your regulations before attempting to adjust the headlights. FWIW some of the GenIII model Fives came with their LED headlights pointed too low to be useful.

 

Our equivalent is Australian Design Rule ADR 46/00.

Inspection regimes are different in different states, here in NSW once a car is five years old it must have an annual safety inspection before registration can be renewed. This is at least supposed to be checked. I'm sure it's also meant to be an inspection item on every scheduled service.

 

Are you sure it does nothing? Did you have the car facing a wall about 25' away so you could watch the headlight beam move when you turned the screw?

 

As I understand it the LED is much brighter so in Australia at least they are regarded as unsafe to be used as the high beam light source. Toyota has fitted traditional, lower intensity filament lamps ( yellow light) to provide light for highlighting the road and surroundings well ahead of the car.
The high intensity LED lights do continue to illuminated the road surface in front of the car when the high beam is switched on.
High intensity xenon lamps fitted to Audi and BMW etc cars have the same brightness limitation as the LED lamps but the Xenons use much more power when operating.

 

I'm not familiar with LED headlights elsewhere in the world, but there is no doubting that here they are very very bright - although by the same token they have a very well defined cutoff point which appears as a very clearly defined line.

To be honest - around the city they are great, though I have concerns when crests/ramps/etc. do cause them to shine into other drivers' eyes - I know from being on the receiving end of this that it is very difficult to see anything when this occurs.

In the country I'm not sure I'm convinced they are so great as I fear they negatively impact your night vision.

The other oddity is that they overwhelm the fog lights - you can barely see if the fogs are on or off in normal conditions, though this is probably a good thing as using fog lights when fog is not present is illegal here. Whenever I do end up driving in fog it will be interesting to try out, though I'm pleased to see this car will allow use of fog lights without the LED lights being on (just the parking lights), as I suspect this may be more effective in fog.