Night driving issues

[danowat]

First time driving my Prius at night last night, and I have two bones to pick with it, firstly the headlights are way too low, and no way to manually adjust as it had one of those ridiculous auto levelling systems, anyone got a pic of where the vertical adjusters are on a 2012 model? 
Secondly there is a small dome light that is continuously one that illuminates the gear knob, it not only lights the area (I prefer a dark cabin, and the dashboard is light up like a Christmas tree anyway, so more light is not welcome) but also reflects off the top of the gear knob! Anyway to turn it off without resorting to removing the bulb, or duct tape? 

[QuantumFireball]

Do you have LED dipped beams? I find mine are too high, and I occasionally get flashed because of this. There's probably some manual adjustment on the light clusters themselves but I've never bothered looking at it.

I also don't like that small light shining on the gear knob (which I think is what it's supposed to do). I keep meaning to look at that too, but I suspect the only option is to disconnect it. Same goes for the footwell light, which I think is a bit pointless.

[danowat]

Yes, it has leds, maybe the previous owner tilted them down to stop people flashing them! 

[johalareewi]

The LED lights on my plugin are too high as well. I asked MrT to lower them and they said they were as low as they could go.  They do have auto levelling but it seems to be hit and miss as to where they end up pointing and it doesn't seem to compensate for a full loaded boot (get flashed lots when loaded up).  Much preferred the manually operated trim-wheel adjuster on my old gen3.

[danowat]

1 hour ago, johalareewi said:

The LED lights on my plugin are too high as well. I asked MrT to lower them and they said they were as low as they could go.  They do have auto levelling but it seems to be hit and miss as to where they end up pointing and it doesn't seem to compensate for a full loaded boot (get flashed lots when loaded up).  Much preferred the manually operated trim-wheel adjuster on my old gen3.

+1, the auto system is a bit of a oddity, I noticed, while adjusting my lights, that the auto adjust tips the lights down over an inch when I sit in the drivers seat, which surprised me as I thought it would only tip them when someone, or a load, was put in the back seats, as putting weight towards the front of the car can't have much (if any?) affect on the lights pointing upwards.

I'll get a garage to have a look at the position of the headlights (as I think I may have tilted them too far up), they are really bright, nice white light, but can't see anything further than a cars length ahead, which isn't idea........

[johalareewi]

Did you find if there was a manual adjustment for the LED headlights?  

[danowat]

Yes, there is a bolt on the back of the headlight unit, not easy to get too, but it's doable, I did tip them up, but I think I've gone too far, so I am going to adjust them again using an aim board.

[QuantumFireball]

Yes, I also found the plastic bolt on the back of the units seems to adjust the height. Turning clockwise will lower the beam.

[johalareewi]

Will have a look. Now it is getting darker sooner i need to lower them a little to stop blinding other drivers.  I am amazed that they get through the MOT set as they are.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Seems I've been lucky with the LED headlights on my PiP. They're at just the right level and the auto adjustment seems to work very well, certainly a lot more refined than the auto adjust on the HID headlamp units on my previous car.

[HughL]

I have a different night driving issue: on my Gen 3, the spoiler seems to go slap-bang across the dipped headlights of anything behind me, leaving just a halo. This makes it hard to tell if there is anything there, especially if I've got the mirror on dip. Triple-checking the door mirrors before a lane change on the motorway is becoming second nature. Doesn't bother me too much as I've driven vans with only door mirrors for rear visibility and towed caravans, but it was a bit disconcerting at first. Prior to the Prius I had an Outback station wagon--great visibility, but ferociously thirsty.

[PeteB]

Have you tried moving the mirror?

Gen 2 and 3 Prius internal mirrors had an arm jointed at both ends, so you can change the height of the mirror by a couple of inches art least - maybe that would help?

Personally, I've found on Gen 2/3/4 Prius the rear spoiler works quite well at hiding the headlights of cars behind if they weren't too close so I rarely used the mirror dip lever on the previous two versions.

The auto dim mirror on my Gen 4 is ok-ish a lot of the time, but I'd happily swap it for the manual type.  You can only turn it's effect off, I'd like a control that can make it dim when it doesn't want to by itself.

[HughL]

Thanks--I've fiddled around with the placing quite a bit but will keep trying. Even adjusted my seat to try to get a different eyeline.

You're right; it does mean I don't need to flip the mirror so often, but anything further away then can be dazzling--the headlights on some high-performance cars are very powerful and on full beam from half a mile away can be pretty distracting.

Only occasionally driven hire cars with auto-dim on the mirror and then not in the UK; that's useful info for the future--thanks. Having to do it manually doesn't seem like a huge effort!

[johalareewi]

12 hours ago, HughL said:

I have a different night driving issue: on my Gen 3, the spoiler seems to go slap-bang across the dipped headlights of anything behind me, leaving just a halo

Mine too but I love it.  I never have to dip the mirror.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Love the spoiler on my Gen3, blocks out dazzling headlights nicely of any tailgating vehicles etc. Can easily see if anything is there is necessary, and thats even with factory tinted rear windows.

[danowat]

On 9/8/2017 at 10:39 AM, johalareewi said:

Will have a look. Now it is getting darker sooner i need to lower them a little to stop blinding other drivers.  I am amazed that they get through the MOT set as they are.

I am getting flashed on a daily basis now the nights are drawing in, I took the car to my Toyota dealer and they adjusted the beams to the proper light (they were'nt far out), but people still think I've got my high beams on when I haven't.

LED's are nice and bright, but don't half cause aggro for on coming drivers it seems.

[johalareewi]

Thanks to the help provided by the posters above my leds are perfect. No more flashing.