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Prius Head Lights

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by Gen 2 Tom, Oct 1, 2016.

  1. Gen 2 Tom

    Gen 2 Tom Active Member

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    Four months with the new Prius. I do a weekly trip to and from our cabin. Most of the 75 miles is 2 lane country roads. Nothing there, real dark at night. What a improvement the Prius LED lights are. The low beam, white LED headlights light up the road. The problem is, with the low beams on almost ever on coming car flashes there highs. Thinking my highs are on. Yea I to, know the new lights are bright, but they are aimed correctly. So last night I had the high beams on and the automatic low beam switching on. Perfect, every on coming car saw the lights switch, and no one flashed. I love the automatic high beam feature in my Prius.

    One other headlight event story last night. There's a stretch of road, 20 miles which follows the Delaware river. It has only one place to pass. The road is easily done at 60MPH even though it has bends. I'm in back of a car going 40 and hitting the brakes ever bend and oncoming car. I'm defiantly not a tailgater, nor an aggressive driver and rarely need to use the brakes unless I'm in traffic or stopping for a light. That said I do the speed limit and what ever they allow us over that. So I following this slow guy for a few miles and he turns his light off then back on. Then again. My low beams were on and I didn't figure out his headlight light signal had anything to do with me. I now wonder why he wouldn't put his rear view mirror on night. We now have a line of cars behind me, and the guy decides to come to stop, pulling the nose of the car to the side white line. The rear of the car is on the center yellow line. First time my red "BRAKE !" came on at 40MPH. Luckily I got around him.
     
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  2. RCO

    RCO Senior Member

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    With the greatest respect, if all this various traffic flashes you when on dipped headlights it is most likely that your lamps are very slightly out of focus. They recognise that you are dipping when they see you drop from main beams, but I'd suspect they were still somewhat dazzled. Maybe even cussing you into the bargain as LEDs are super bright. If it were me I'd either adjust them myself, or better still complain to your dealership and get them to reset them properly. If they decline, take the matter up with Toyota as they weren't correctly aligned in the factory.

    We all hate to be dazzled by by oncoming vehicles, so I'm sympathetic to your situation here and wish you luck.
     
  3. Gen 2 Tom

    Gen 2 Tom Active Member

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    I don't think there anything wrong. The low beam forms a perfect straight line across the back of a bus at a decent distance. Just like when all those blue tint lamps came out, now we have the new cars with white LED's. People just think they must be high beams. As I age the night vision has decreased. Not horrible yet, but these lights really help. I really like them.

    Anyone else have people flashing lights at you?
     
  4. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    There's a long thread on the topic:

    Constantly flashed while low beams are on | PriusChat

    I believe the cutoff could be adjusted down a little, then you won't be irritating oncoming traffic as much.
     
  5. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    At what distance & elevation above the ground? This detail is critical.

    As distance in front increases, that line should be slightly falling, or level at the very most. If it rises at all, it will glare into the eyes of oncoming drivers. This problem clearly showed in the illumination pattern on a wall posted in another thread several years ago. The cutoff line on the wall was clearly higher than the height of the headlight mounting on the car.
     
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  6. Gen 2 Tom

    Gen 2 Tom Active Member

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    Yes it falls to 0 at 100 ft or so. just guessing. 45 years of driving you know when the lights are correct. Just such a white light that many people aren't used to yet.
     
  7. mark27lim

    mark27lim Active Member

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    maybe you should have also flashed your high beams one time when he was switching off his lights to let him know that your brights are already off? unless the only other way would have to be driving with your lights off or on parking lights whilst following him. I'm guessing in usa you guys don't have the fogs and drls..


    iPhone ?
     
  8. 'LectroFuel

    'LectroFuel Senior Member

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    I think we can all conclude that the lights are angled correctly on all the Prii and the headlights are just very bright.
     
  9. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    How'd you come up with that conclusion? Someone in the thread I linked previously adjusted their lowbeam aim downward and people stopped flashing him as frequently, so another conclusion could be made off of that.

    Edit:
    I have HIDs installed, which are about 3x brighter than the halogen bulbs it replaced. I ensured that they were aimed properly, and no one has ever flashed me. Even halogen bulbs can be dazzling if they're improperly aimed, take a raised pickup truck with lights shining right at your eyes for example. So it's not the brightness of the light so much as the aim and cutoff that's important when sharing the road with other drivers. Be considerate.
     
    #9 xliderider, Oct 2, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 2, 2016
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  10. 'LectroFuel

    'LectroFuel Senior Member

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    Everyone has there own opinion. This topic has been going on since the beginning of the year!
     
  11. xliderider

    xliderider Senior Member

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    There's a thread about the LED headlights on the level 5 gen 3 being aimed too low out of the factory.

    It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that the gen 4 LEDs are coming out of the factory aimed too high.
     
  12. RCO

    RCO Senior Member

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    If they're as bright as everyone says they are, it shouldn't be a problem to see the road at night with dipped beams lowered by one or two degrees. That could make quite a difference for oncoming traffic

    Just sayin'... :sneaky:
     
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  13. Snow

    Snow Member

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    Are you usually getting flashed when you're on a hill and the nose of your car is aimed towards the sky? You can't prevent that from happening and aiming your headlights won't help as the car at the other side of the hill will still be below your beam.

    I never understood why people flash their brights at HID\LED headlamps in proper projectors. I would think the factory would aim them within the proper legal height. I have aftermarket HIDs in an aftermarket projector and aimed them within legal limits. I'm actually a little lower than legal, but I'm not going to sacrifice all of my viewing distance.

    The only time I flash are when people have HID kits in a halogen reflector. Those are illegal and are blinding 24\7 going over a hill or not.
     
    #13 Snow, Oct 3, 2016
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2016
  14. TriniTT

    TriniTT New Member

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    I think a lot of it also has to do with hills or incline/decline. With headlights that bright, others might perceive them as having the high-beams on, but in reality they are just inconveniently placed within the beam due to not being on a level plane. In that case there isn't much you can do.
     
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