Shaded lights are getting me down

Could you explain what you mean by "shaded?" I, too, have noticed that the headlight beam drops off short of where I'd like to be able to see the road ahead. I believe that there was a post on which someone said that this can be adjusted, and I've been planning to ask about this when I get my first oil change.

 

The OP is talking about headlight cutouts. The cutouts are baffles or optics that allow light to fall on the road but not into oncoming driver's eyes. They are there for just that reason, and altering them out of specification is dangerous, rude, and illegal. Have your dealer check yours and make sure they are properly aligned. If so, you shouldn't change them.

Tom

 

maybe slow down a bit?

 

Headlights need adjusting.

 

I don't think his headlights need adjusting. I think that's just the way they are. I find that in most situations they are fine but sometimes I'm quite annoyed at how quickly they cut off. There are many times I would love for them to shine a bit higher, particularly along the side of the road.

I pass through a wooded area almost daily where it's common for deer to run across the road. With my old car, it was fairly easy to see the deer just off the road in the woods. With the Prius lights, I'm damn near blind to what's up ahead along the side of the road. There are often cars coming the other way so I can't always use the high beams.

Michael

 

I've also noticed that visibility is very limited on descents of short fairly steep hills. While you can see very well going down, you may have little idea as to what lays ahead in the road where it flattens out (without the hi-beams). There is a rather definite line at which light ends and darkness begins; the effect of the abruptness is to make seeing into the shadows very difficult.

Greg

 

The problem comes from new headlights being brighter and better. Old headlight designs were pretty bad about keeping light away from oncoming traffic, but it didn't matter as much since they weren't so bright. The new ones are brighter with sharper cutoffs. The brighter light means the shadows to the side seem even darker, so the effect is amplified.

Tom

 

The problem is that HID lamps generally need to stay on, so the
low-beam simply drops a shutter across the output to cut off
the top of it and avoid oncoming drivers' eye level. It only
sorta works, as curve and hill situations can still throw the
bulk of brightness right into where opposing traffic is and the
car has no way to know that's happening. If you haven't experienced
this with your own car then you've doubtless had someone coming
at you at night and you've been convinced they have their highs
on, but then it turns out they didn't and it was just the angle
of their car for a few moments.
.
If the designers of these systems had actually thought about
it, they would have designed optics and occluding flags that let
the top of the beam *gradually* fade off, like the pool produced
by the traditional halogen filaments and lenses. It still throws
a little light upward, and is what allows spotting those deer
off in the woods. It is completely possible to duplicate that
electromechanically with HID lamps, but nobody does -- they just
apply the sharp cutoff and think everything's okay. The DOT was
insane to actually give such rigs the green safety light.
.
_H*

 

We are lucky today, in a way - about 25 years ago the standard changed to finally allow aerodynamic headlights. Before that, there was a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard, FMVSS-121, which dictated the design of headlights. Originally they allowed only sealed beam 7" headlights with high and low in one light (the two headlight system) or 5" separate high and low (the 4 headlight system). Covers were not allowed, which required companies like Jaguar (with the XKE) and Alfa Romeo (with the Spider) to sell their cars without the aerodynamic headlight covers in the US. Finally they allowed the equivalent in rectangular lights, but they still had to be sealed beam. At the end, they allowed halogen lights, but they had to be sealed into the light, requiring replacement of the entire unit.

When FMVSS-121 was dropped, it opened the way for any shape of headlight, plus replaceable bulbs. This has been both good and bad. Many cars have poorly designed headlights (probably worse than the old days of sealed beam units). With little or no standard, companies get away with styling over function. Other headlights work quite well, much better than the old ones.

I have an old set of Lucas Square 8 fog lights (REAL fog lights from Back In The Day) that I plan to set behind the grille in my Gen II so I will have some REAL light to bring up on demand.

 

Why do Brits drink warm beer? Lucas made the refrigerators.:target:

 

After market driving lights mounted in the stock driving lights position. Works great for me

 

My V with LED headlights was definitely that way and they were aimed right down in front of the car, I felt as if I were over driving them at 35 MPH.

Fortunately they are adjustable and it's easy to do. There is an adjustment in the center of each headlight assembly, it does both the hi and low beams on that side of the car. It has a bolt head (about 8 or 10 mm) in the center and a toothed circle around the edges. You can move the teeth with a screwdriver one notch at a time or turn it with the bolt. CCW raises the lights. Try it a little at a time (say 4 or 5 notches) while it is aimed against a wall. Then go out and drive the car and see how it looks. I think I ended up raising mine 12 or 16 notches. After I finished I took a long drive on a dark two lane road with other traffic to see if anyone flashed me to dim my lights, no one did so I think they are not to high. In fact I have had them the way they are for over 6000 miles and no one has flashed me yet and now I can see.

NOTE: On the back of each headlight assembly there will be two plugs, one for wires to the high beam lights and one for the low beams. The vertical aiming adjustment will be between and just a bit below the plugs.

I can't believe any state has a law that says your headlights have to be aimed down so far you can't see the road ahead of you at a reasonable speed.

 

In the past few years a lot of cars have come with a sharp cut off to their low beams.
This has been well documented in Consumer Report's car reviews where they state that as a deficiency. I have a 2007 Honda Civic EX and the cut off is even shorter than with our new Prius.
I'm not sure why they have done this. I do know that at times I have to go to my high beams, even on a straight road (and doing the speed limit), to view to the road ahead.

 

The cutoff is a product of the projector style headlights. There is very little you can do about them short of actually cutting the metal inside the projector lamp and altering it. And that is NOT something you want to do. Years ago, I replaced my headlights with an aftermarket set of projectors. The cutoff line looked really odd. Like this \____ \____ . The left edges weren't cutoff. After putting the lamps in an oven to heat the glue and get inside the lens, I was able to adjust it using a small piece of aluminum (coke can to be exact). If I desired, I could have cut that piece of metal also to allow for a higher cutoff. Not something I wanted to do though.

My advice is to take it into the dealer and have them adjust the height of the lamp to factory specs. It is possible to do this yourself though. Google headlamp aim adjustment for the legal specs to headlights.

 

I agree with Tumbleweed: it sounds as though the OP's headlight height aiming needs to be adjusted.

Mt G2's headlight aiming was WAY low when I got the car. I found the information here on the G2 forums on how to adjust them. I think that Jayman provided some of the info.

Anyway, after I adjusted them they were fine. Took about two full turns on the adjuster to get them to the proper height, though.

 

I don't like the cutoff ... it's too low. I posted something asking how to adjust the height of the headlights but keep forgetting to actully do what was posted there. It's still light when I drive home from work so I don't drive at night often enough for it to REALLY bother me. But it's starting to get dark sooner so I may have to take a look to see if the height adjustment fixes this. I am close to 5k tho too so I may just ask the dealer. I hate the low cutoff level & the blindspots in this car but I love the average 56mpg. I am affraid that I will get in an accident with this car tho because of the low cutoff level. There are a lot of deer on the country roads by Green Bay! My wife only drives with the high beams on at night ... makes other drivers really mad but she does not feel save with the lows on.

 

Those lights were for a right hand drive market (Japan and Britain). For Left Hand Drive (Us, Canada, Europe) they look the opposite. This gives you a cut-off on the oncomming lane but lets the light project further down the side of the road to be able to see deer, parked cars etc. All of the aftermarket lights I used in the 1970's were like this (including the Cibie Biode 7", which was designed for the Le Mans race).

I know about having a British-market light in an American car. I once had an Alfa Romeo Sprint Speciale in RHD imported from England. The first thing I did was replace the headlights since they were opposite cut-off. I drove it one night before the change, and BOY did I upset the oncomming traffic!