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Autos.ca: 2016 Prius LED Headlight Review

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by Tideland Prius, Aug 11, 2016.

  1. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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  2. alanclarkeau

    alanclarkeau Senior Member

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    Interesting, the low beam didn't seem to change when high beam was switched on, like it added to it, whereas in the past, they'd be different filaments or different bulbs.
     
  3. kithmo

    kithmo Couch Potato

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    It's been like that for over 20 years over here in the UK, even with separate filaments, dipped beam staying on when high beam is selected. I first noticed it on my 1995 Ford Mondeo.
     
  4. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    It is only one light source for both, I believe.
     
  5. wrprice

    wrprice Active Member

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    Yes, I think it's shuttered. For comparison, the Gen2 HID bulbs physically moved out/in to expose more or less of the arc to the reflector.
     
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  6. Blizzard_Persona

    Blizzard_Persona Senior Member

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    I actually got to use my Auto high beams last night coming back from dinner with the family on some back roads for the first time and for the most part they worked pretty good...

    For some reason I did get a random oncoming suv to start flashing me and I checked and the high beams were off. So not sure if maybe it was an incline and the LED's along with the whole car were angled up or what...

    It's a pretty cool feature.
     
  7. thunderstruck

    thunderstruck Active Member

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    I agree with the reviewers comment about peripheral lighting lacking somewhat. While people typically don't think of Chicago as being a place where you have to worry about hitting deer, I live at the edge of the city near a number of forest preserves and they are a real hazard. Better lighting would be most welcome. Hoping someone comes up with a fog light solution where I could angle them out a hair for side lighting.
     
  8. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    It depends on the headlight design.


    Dual headlight:

    Each side has a dedicated source for low beam and high beam. This can be a combination of two halogen bulbs, or one xenon capsule (low beam) and one halogen (high beam) or one LED lowbeam and one halogen high beam or two sets of LED bulbs. In this scenario, the low beam will continue to illuminate when the high beam is on. The Gen 3 uses this design (dual halogen or optional LED low beam/halogen high beam)

    Single headlight:

    This design can be subdivided to two types depending on type of bulb used.

    If it's a halogen setup, then it will use a dual filament bulb (like the Gen 1 and 2). This means the current will run through either the low beam filament or the high beam filament. In this scenario, you will lose low beam coverage when high beam is on. (the light will be thrown down the road but it will be dark immediately in front of your car)..

    If it's a bi-xenon or bi-beam LED setup, then it will use either a shade or a motor to move the bulb up/down. A shade will provide a scenario similar to the dual headlight where you will maintain low beam coverage. If a motor moves the bulb up/down, then it performs like the single halogen headlight design where you lose near-field coverage. The benefit of a shade is that the bulb is run at high beam wattage so that you have brighter low beams (and a sharp cut off) like the Gen 4.
     
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  9. Vman455

    Vman455 Senior Member

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    In most bi-xenon or bi-LED setups, the bulb does not move. A motorized shutter provides the cutoff, and is folded down (remember, the beam is flipped when it passes through the lens) to expose light above the cutoff when the high beams are engaged.

    [​IMG]

    In a single HID or LED projector, there is just as much light output as in a bi-xenon or bi-LED projector with the cutoff shield engaged, running the same bulb or chip, and all OEM HID bulbs and LED chips run at lower wattage than incandescent headlight bulbs.
     
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  10. pakitt

    pakitt Senior Member

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    Thanks for the video!

    The LED headlights in Gen4 are like day and night compared to Gen3. I was going wow when I first turned them on. Nice, bright, pleasant to the eye, they are not blue, they are not yellow - they are a pleasant white with just a tiny tinge of blue.

    The design is a single light source that gets directed straight ahead or down whether high beams are active or not - a mirror moves (you can even hear it if there is silence) when selecting one or the other.

    In EU the headlights have auto-levelling (required by law). So whatever level they are set up normally right now, I cannot change it :) Nobody flashed me ever to say "hey, they are high", so I guess they are really set up properly.

    In the EU they also sell it with Auto-Headlight as standard - the feature is really pretty cool. Essentially it turns on and off the high beams, depending on the traffic, speed and light situation. If you are on a dark road, it will turn them on, as long as you are not following a car, or another one is coming in your direction. The system, at least testing it in no rain, works extremely well. I don't know how it will work in the rain. If you enter a city, or a section of road better illuminated, the high beams turn off. The system is tuned to be conservative, not aggressive, which is really fine.

    BTW: the lighting system has to be really good for the camera to work properly for the auto head lights and possibly even pedestrian recognition (which cannot really rely on the radar, more sensitive to metal than flesh/clothing). This is why they are so amazingly good. I must say, working in the industry, the design with a single source like on the Gen4 is really elegant and very good.
     
  11. JimmyPri

    JimmyPri Active Member

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    Great video, thanks for taking the time to do it.
     
  12. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Third gen LED's, or the regular lights?
     
  13. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Oh it's not my video lol. It's done by autos.ca editors/writers :).

    He had the LED headlights IIRC.
     
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  14. Anastaceyrose

    Anastaceyrose Member

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    Everytime I drive at night I get flashed by oncoming drivers.
     
  15. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Are your high beams on?

    If not, perhaps have it looked at by the technicians when you bring it in for service. You can also adjust them down yourself. I haven't looked at the Gen 4 manual closely on headlight adjustment but if it's anything like the last two generations, there's a small adjustment knob that looks like a beer bottle cap near the back of the headlights.
     
  16. Autoist

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    I seem to recall seeing a thread saying there are two adjustment screws... and both need to be adjusted in a similar fashion.
     
  17. pakitt

    pakitt Senior Member

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    On my Gen3 I had halogen lights. :)

    Do check if you have high beams turned on instead of regulars. I never got flashed once.
    Lights are typically set up at final stages of construction directly at the fab in Japan, not later at the dealer. So, unless something changed between that and the delivery (why?), you might inadvertently be using high beams.
     
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  18. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    There's a blue high beam symbol showing on the dash when high beams are on:

    upload_2016-8-29_9-55-36.png
     
  19. roadwarrior28

    roadwarrior28 Member

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    Remember North American models do not have Auto Leveling like Euro models do, it makes a significant difference in oncoming traffic.

    I would love to find a way to install auto leveling on my NA model.
     
  20. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    A couple of items have been dropped with LED headlights, from 3rd to 4th gen:

    1. Auto levelling
    2. Headlight washers

    The latter were supposedly due to the LED's not heating up enough to warm snow/ice? But that's no longer a factor??