MY2022 Corolla Icon Tech - poor dipped headlights

[Guido Brunetti]

We've got a MY22 Corolla Icon Tech, the model with the new touchscreen only infotainment system, delivered in April 2022. The performance of the dipped headlights is noticeably worse than our 2019 Icon Tech. The dipped beam seems to be very aggressively chopped off in a saw tooth pattern that ends very close to the front of the car, seems like no more than a couple of car lengths. It makes night time driving very difficult when we encounter cars coming from the opposite direction. There's virtually no illumination of the nearside kerb. Is this usual?

[APS]

Sounds like you have LED lights. They have a much more clearly defined edge. As far as I'm aware they cannot be adjusted by the driver. You may want to take it back to your dealer to have them verify that it's within specification (in terms of adjustment).

[TonyHSD]

Have you checked the lights rotary switch been at position 0 ? 
I can see many Corolla drivers at night with exact that issue, so bad that just driving next to them you can see they literally has no lights on the front, very sharply pointed down. Most of the cars I seen were ph (Uber) cars. 
 

[Devon Aygo]

The issue has to be alignment or levelling as the headlamps on a 22 plate Icon Tech are the same units as the 19 plate, as mentioned above make sure the headlight levelling switch is set to "0" as any number higher is dipping the lamps towards the floor and the higher the number the lower they are dipped.

If this makes no difference ten ask your dealer to check/confirm headlamp alignment.

[JayCee88]

13 hours ago, Guido Brunetti said:

We've got a MY22 Corolla Icon Tech, the model with the new touchscreen only infotainment system, delivered in April 2022. The performance of the dipped headlights is noticeably worse than our 2019 Icon Tech. The dipped beam seems to be very aggressively chopped off in a saw tooth pattern that ends very close to the front of the car, seems like no more than a couple of car lengths. It makes night time driving very difficult when we encounter cars coming from the opposite direction. There's virtually no illumination of the nearside kerb. Is this usual?

Glad I am not the only way experiencing this. 
I heard that the projector lights are much better. Shame Toyota don’t fit them to all Corolla models. In my opinion the reflector headlights are not fit for purpose. 
 

edit: my adjustment is already set to 0 but still have very poor performance. 

[TonyHSD]

Lol, if that’s the case then except excel all other trims has a poor headlights, I thought they had fixed the headlights issue brought with Auris 2 and not carrying them into Corolla too.
I had only ever driven Prius + with led projectors and I can say they were the best lights of all cars I ever had. Let see if uk market gets upgraded lights with 2023 models. 

[JayCee88]

2 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

Lol, if that’s the case then except excel all other trims has a poor headlights, I thought they had fixed the headlights issue brought with Auris 2 and not carrying them into Corolla too.
I had only ever driven Prius + with led projectors and I can say they were the best lights of all cars I ever had. Let see if uk market gets upgraded lights with 2023 models. 

Oh, I didn’t realise only Excel trim has the projectors? Almost every other Corolla I see on the road has projectors except mine 😞

One thing to note is that the led headlights doesn’t come with washers. I believe UK regulation states that headlights over certain brightness (lumens) requires washers so probably the reflector ones are not bright enough. 

[AisinW]

You can upgrade to projector in any trim with Technik upgrade. It include bigger lcd dashboard, folding mirror,  etc.  Auris bi-LED. It has washer and auto level like the matrix LED in top trim corolla.  

[Mojo1010]

Design trim on the Yaris comes with led headlights, so it should be on the design trim on corolla? 

Standard halogen on projector is very poor, much worse than on reflector. I prefer HID as there are a range of temperatures, with led there is only 6000k which I don't like. 

[JayCee88]

2 hours ago, AisinW said:

You can upgrade to projector in any trim with Technik upgrade. It include bigger lcd dashboard, folding mirror,  etc.  Auris bi-LED. It has washer and auto level like the matrix LED in top trim corolla.  

Interesting. I did enquire with supplying dealer if I could upgrade headlights without invalidating warranty and the answer was “No”.

I’ve seen Corollas with projector headlights but haven’t noticed that they have washer. 

[JayCee88]

1 hour ago, Mojo1010 said:

Design trim on the Yaris comes with led headlights, so it should be on the design trim on corolla? 

Standard halogen on projector is very poor, much worse than on reflector. I prefer HID as there are a range of temperatures, with led there is only 6000k which I don't like. 

My headlight is full LED (the LED bulbs are integrated so cannot swap with other LED bulbs) albeit with reflector housing. The projector version is LED too, it has different DRL and turn signal design. 

[TonyHSD]

In UK only excel spec has a projector led on Corolla and all other trim levels has led in reflector housing. No option to upgrade either. 👍

MY23 Corolla should come with completely new headlights design. Let see what they will be and if uk customers gets those or been cut out again as many other options before. 

[AisinW]

Thanks for clarifying Tony. You are right. The 2023 has no option for headlights upgrade in Germany. Older model the 2nd lowest trim can have bi-LED. The 2 tops (GR-sport and Longue) have Matrix-LED with autoleveling.  All of them has no sprayer, it means not that bright <2000 lumens.  

[Talking Hoarse]

My 2022 2.0 TS Design (buikt July or August) headlamps are quite good - again the standard (UK spec) LED.   They  are very white, pointing the right way and give a decent range and sharp cut off on dipped.  I do avoid using the auto dip etc function though as I find too slow to react.

With previous cars and halogen bulbs I have always needed to upgrade the bulbs and re-aim lamps to drive safely on dark lanes.

Hope you get your lamps sorted.        

[AisinW]

Bright or dim is relative.  I used to have xenon on reflector type, it is very bright. More than 2x xenon in projector.  When I drive with the halogen projector on Auris, I feel it is very dim.  I tried VW Polo 2017, it is even dimmer.   In short, all Corolla come with LED and they are decent headlights.  They are not as bright as Auris bi-LED (it has sprayer) but better than the halogen projector in Auris 2 and pre 2020 yaris. 

[JayCee88]

3 hours ago, AisinW said:

Bright or dim is relative.  I used to have Xenon on reflector type, it is very bright. More than 2x xenon in projector.  When I drive with the halogen projector on Auris, I feel it is very dim.  I tried VW Polo 2017, it is even dimmer.   In short, all Corolla come with LED and they are decent headlights.  They are not as bright as Auris bi-LED (it has sprayer) but better than the halogen projector in Auris 2 and pre 2020 yaris. 

Fair enough. My other car is a Skoda Kodiaq and it comes with mixture of reflector and projector units in the headlights. The beam is uniform and very useful. It does have a washer so I believe the lumens output is higher. 

My previous car was the S90 and it has reflector LED lights, again with washer. Light output to me is also brighter and lights up the road better than my current TS reflector LED light. 

I never had issues at night with oncoming vehicles. Perhaps I was spoiled and just need to adjust 😅I plan to apply a protectant which should keep the headlights cleaner, and hopefully better light output. 
 

[AisinW]

You can adjust the seat higher and it will make better perspective to your eyes that the road is light up.  

[TonyHSD]

Are yours like that? 

 

[Talking Hoarse]

Hopefully not .... those in video are for LHD, our UK cars are RHD. 

[camellia30]

It's rare for me to go on unlit roads at night, but I did twice over Christmas, and the dipped lights were hopeless.

I thought the auto high beam was pretty good though.