Headlights, esp. High Beams, Are Poor

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fselker

New member
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
1
Road illumination is acceptable but not good with regular beams but is quite poor with high-beams.

When we switch to high beam it's as if the low beam turns off, so the lower angle illumination goes away, but I want that to stay so everything is bright. Our Subaru does a dramatically better job of lighting the road, esp. with high beams.
 
fselker said:
Road illumination is acceptable but not good with regular beams but is quite poor with high-beams.

When we switch to high beam it's as if the low beam turns off, so the lower angle illumination goes away, but I want that to stay so everything is bright. Our Subaru does a dramatically better job of lighting the road, esp. with high beams.

What model with what headlights? My 13 with LED has ok but not great low beam, but with high beam on (keeps LEDs on) it's actually not bad.
 
The halogen high beams and the LED low beams are vastly different color temperatures so the "warmer" halogen light tends to wash out the appearance of the low-beams. I first noticed the effect when I got my first LED bike headlight. It was quite bright but seemed to fade away any time I encountered a warmer light source.
 
Nubo said:
The halogen high beams and the LED low beams are vastly different color temperatures so the "warmer" halogen light tends to wash out the appearance of the low-beams. I first noticed the effect when I got my first LED bike headlight. It was quite bright but seemed to fade away any time I encountered a warmer light source.

I am not a fan of LED headlights of any car (even non Leaf) and try to avoid them like the plague. Nothing has the color temperature and visibility of Xenons. But having said that for efficiency I find the LEDs fine, specially if you turn of fog lights to "fill in" a little. But combination works well for me. You are correct in that the color temp difference is a bit jarring.

What is strange is that Xenon headlights actually are relatively efficient. I imagine they didn't include as option because of cost/size. I upgraded my Tesla roadster headlights from halogen to Xenon for a very good gain in power usage and the field went from much worst than Nissan (they used wimpy bulbs) to very good.
 
Is there a way of upgrading my 2014 sv leaf with halogen headlights to LED? Here in Canada we don't have the option of choosing LED's on the SV trim.
 
Wow. I think my LED headlights are much nicer than the halogens in my old Prius. I guess that Prius just had really crappy headlights.
 
I've never driven - in the modern era, anyway - a new car with worse high beams than my Leaf SV. It's because of the way they shaped the lights to channel wind around the mirrors, supposedly, but I'd rather have oddly-shaped mirrors and better high beams. I'd suggest add-on driving lights, wired into the high beam circuit.
 
LeftieBiker said:
I've never driven - in the modern era, anyway - a new car with worse high beams than my Leaf SV. It's because of the way they shaped the lights to channel wind around the mirrors, supposedly, but I'd rather have oddly-shaped mirrors and better high beams. I'd suggest add-on driving lights, wired into the high beam circuit.

It's not the shape of the headlight covers. You'll notice the light from the high beams is quite yellow. This indicates that the bulbs are not getting enough voltage. Either due to undersized wiring introducing resistance, or the car's 12V voltage overall. Even a small drop in voltage can drop the light output of an incandescent bulb considerably.
 
although car electrical systems are referred to as 12 volt, they are actually 14 to 15 volt systems when the alternator is running, so that is what you would be looking for if you were to check voltage at the light bulb plug, if you are only getting 12.6 volts (usual output of 12 volt lead acid battery) your lights are going to be dimmer
I have not had a real chance to see how my high beams on my 2014 Leaf S perform, the low beams seem ok
 
It's not the shape of the headlight covers. You'll notice the light from the high beams is quite yellow.

Actually, I don't think they look yellow. They appear to be white, but very weak compared tp typical high beams. There are also lots of 'gaps' in the beam coverage. They remind me of cheap Chinese scooter headlights when on High, actually...
 
johnrhansen said:
How much juice does the main battery pack put out? 80kw? Man that would power a big headlight!

Here's a 50kW bulb that would be a good fit. Yardstick for scale. :mrgreen:

ge_review_4.jpg
 
Mmen said:
Is there a way of upgrading my 2014 sv leaf with halogen headlights to LED? Here in Canada we don't have the option of choosing LED's on the SV trim.
led requires more mods
I upgraded mine to Bixenon and loving the drive at night
See my mod of Bixenon

Reason why some of us has either like the high or the low beam is mainly because the halogen version of these lights has only one bulb and depends on the reflector to do the job. Most cars have independent hi lo bulbs
 
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