MY20 Headlights, thoughts!

[bruce e]

Wondering what others opinion is of the headlight level of illumination when driving on dark country lanes. 

In my opinion they do not compare favourably with the Auris

[nielshm]

Sure they are better. It takes a while getting used to the extremly white light vs the more yellow light on the Auris. 

Range is much greater, but becourse of the different colour, it might not seem like it, but things do get illuminated from a nice distance. 

The Auris light was very short om both high and low very. Low beam was really horrible and felt unsafe, if the road was dsrk and wet. Light simply got sucked in, and visibility was terrible. 

 

[rafletcher]

Modern beams are much more "shaped", adn so can seem less illuminating because the light spreads less. Present weather is atrocious for driving in too. I guess they're probably no better and no worse than many modern cars, after all we cant be blinding oncoming drivers. 

[Gerg]

On 12/18/2019 at 11:24 PM, bruce e said:

In my opinion they do not compare favourably with the Auris

I think this is a real opinion divider.  Most people, I think, consider LED lights to be useful upgrade from their older cars.

I don't have a new Corolla, but I've driven cars with factory-fitted LED headlamps, and I would agree with you, in general, I'm not so impressed. The LED illumination is intense certainly, but I am wondering if the lack of breadth of the light spectrum produced (I'm guessing here) leaves the quality of the illumination lacking.

I have experimented on our Auris with some LED bulb replacements (so not quite the same thing as you are talking about).  The beam pattern is accurately maintained with the new bulbs, but when I put 'normal' bulbs back in the beam is much less 'stark', and it is much more 'comfortable' to look into an area illuminated by the older bulbs.  This is extremely subjective, the other two drivers of the car hardly notice any difference at all.

I think the LEDs suffer from putting out so much light that where the beam is cut off, the extreme contrast then makes dark areas look really dark, which can cause the overall impression of poor lighting.  I'm sure I have read that this is a known phenomenon in the headlamp design world.

Internationally, the United Nations is funding investigations into whether modern car LED headlamps are now too bright, and causing dangerous dazzle to other road users.  I find it astonishing that this hazard has been allowed prevail for so long, and is so infrequently commented on, but then it is subjective too.  And don't get me on the topic of some Mercedes (and others) LED brake lights that are so pointlessly bright!  Although, medically, this complaint could be known as 'getting older'.

As an aside, a while back I was chatting to a SEAT car salesman; he mentioned that they had just broken an LED headlamp on a Toledo whilst pushing the display cars around the showroom, the new item had cost £1200 for the part, he said.  If I had had to pay that it would ruin my whole morning, no question. 

On your Corolla the clear polycarbonate headlamp face is seemingly held on with screws and clips, against modern convention.  The Toyota service man was unable to find out if this part was available separately (i.e. cheaply), in the event of damage from a minor accident, stone chips, difficult neighbours etc.

[AndrueC]

Mine seem to suffer from the effects of dirt more than previous cars. I've started cleaning them weekly and the improvement on Monday morning is quite marked. I remain sceptical about the auto-dip function - it seems to have a problem detecting cars above or below me. My previous car had the feature I was happy to accept that it 'knew best' but I'm far from sure with the Corolla and on a couple of occasions have cancelled the main beam myself rather than risk blinding someone. But so far I've only been flashed once and that was someone who was trigger happy since they were approaching from around a long bend and could only have seen the glow over the hedge.

[bewA]

I do a fair bit of rural (country lanes) driving as part of my daily commute and i don't have any issues.

I have a Design, so i don't have the bi-led lights that the Excel comes with.

[Chattacks]

Sorry, not Auris feedback but the lights on the Corolla are far better than they were on my previous BMW. Though its LED vs Halogen, I used to be in fear of dark driving before but now the Corolla gives me great visibility at night!

[bruce e]

“ think the LEDs suffer from putting out so much light that where the beam is cut off, the extreme contrast then makes dark areas look really dark, which can cause the overall impression of poor lighting. ”

Good point and probably accounts for my initial impression. Miserable wet roads don’t help. cleaning headlights regularly is now a must not forgetting the rear view camera lens, which because of its position (angle) compared to the Auris is much more prone to picking up dirt

[Timmon]

I think forward  beam is great, but notice that the spread is much less than my old halogen (17 year old ) car. In very bad driving conditions, I was trying to find somewhere in the New Forest a few weeks back. I needed to turn round, and wondered why I could not see turnings to the left until it was too late to slow down and use them. After a while I realised it was because the LED's cannot provide the beam spread that my old car did, so on a straight bit of road, you can see ahead well, but not to the sides, if that makes sense. In bad weather, it really makes a difference.

[Blue Canary]

On 12/20/2019 at 11:40 AM, bewA said:

I do a fair bit of rural (country lanes) driving as part of my daily commute and i don't have any issues.

I have a Design, so i don't have the bi-led lights that the Excel comes with.

What is the difference between the Excel's bi-LEDs and the LEDs in the lower trim levels? And is it worth paying for?

[ArkSez]

On 7/15/2021 at 3:41 PM, Blue Canary said:

What is the difference between the Excel's bi-LEDs and the LEDs in the lower trim levels? And is it worth paying for?

 I am also interested in knowing this. I don't really want the 18" alloys on the Excel and would rather have a Dynamic but I feel like I'm missing out on the bi-LED if I do

[Terry10]

Hi

Drove my Rav 4 excel in the datk for the fist time a couple of nights back and quite frankly found the dipped  beam to be downright dangerous. I could not see far enough forward to judge up/ coming bends and had to reduce my speed considerably to make the trip home safely.

I think the car has come out of the factory with the lights set far to low. I have looked online and it appears that I am not the only one with this issue.There are even a couple of utube videos showing how to adjust the dipped beam up.The other options is to take the car back to the dealership.
The headlight power is superb but on dipped you have the sharp cut off of light that in my case is far to close to the car

Anybody here got the same problem????

Terry

[Geoff W]

Doesn't the RAV 4 have the same manual headlamp beam adjuster as the Corolla? My 1.8 Corolla TS has a little wheel on the dash to compensate for the beams pointing up when you put a big load in the back.

I was disappointed with my dip beam until a realised that the car had been delivered with the manual adjuster set to maximum dip!

[Red_Corolla]

6 hours ago, Geoff W said:

Doesn't the RAV 4 have the same manual headlamp beam adjuster as the Corolla? My 1.8 Corolla TS has a little wheel on the dash to compensate for the beams pointing up when you put a big load in the back.

I was disappointed with my dip beam until a realised that the car had been delivered with the manual adjuster set to maximum dip!

Could depend on the model. The Excel has projection headlamps, which might also have self-levelling.

[Corollanutter]

On 9/8/2021 at 7:49 PM, Red_Corolla said:

Could depend on the model. The Excel has projection headlamps, which might also have self-levelling.

The Excel has the headlamp levelling switch too. Self levelling used to be compulsory when HID headlamps were fitted to cars. It doesn't seem to be the same rules for LED (unless the rules have changed).

[Red_Corolla]

1 hour ago, Chris Nutt said:

The Excel has the headlamp levelling switch too. Self levelling used to be compulsory when HID headlamps were fitted to cars. It doesn't seem to be the same rules for LED (unless the rules have changed).

Correct, and the xenon lamps on my Skoda have their own washer jets, which is (I believe) also a legislative requirement for that particular technology. They're good headlamps, but I wouldn't really say that they're better than the LED units fitted to the F30 BMW I had before. Those did not have washers.

I stand corrected on the presence of auto-levelling on Corollas. Thinking on the positive side, an auto levelling system requires ride height sensors, which normally attach to the control arms via flimsy plastic connecting rods. One less thing to break.

[Woofwoof]

On 7/19/2021 at 11:55 AM, ArkSez said:

 I am also interested in knowing this. I don't really want the 18" alloys on the Excel and would rather have a Dynamic but I feel like I'm missing out on the bi-LED if I do

The only difference between the bi led and regular led is design

same lighting

[Marxon88]

1 hour ago, Woofwoof said:

The only difference between the bi led and regular led is design

same lighting

100% correct?