LED headlights in the rear view

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › LED headlights in the rear view

gzt

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#195421 19-Apr-2016 20:15

I had a couple of encounters with led headlights this week.

The first one. For a few seconds I thought a police car had activated it's light bar behind me. But it was some kind of weird purple flashing caused by the led combined with it's headlight reflector at different angles.

The second time. Really bright very white light in the rear view.

Imho some of the problem is no diffussion lens and some is a wrong colour temperature. These seem like first generation tech problems and too much cost saving.

gumboot19

52 posts

Master Geek

#1536007 19-Apr-2016 20:31

Possibly some of the HID kits sold on sites like Trademe, some were not compliant and stated in the auction that they were not compliant and not to be used on NZ public roads.

Modern cars like Porsche, BMW and Audi with their LED headlamps are very blue/ white? but not painful or annoying when they are following you.

Maybe time for more stringent rules at WOF time??

Aredwood

3885 posts

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#1536053 19-Apr-2016 21:32

Aftermarket HID kits (the type that are HID bulbs that install into your existing headlight reflector assembly) Have never been legal for road use. Probably another case of people either not knowing the rules. Or swapping things over to get the WOF and swapping back again. You are allowed to fit a complete HID headlight and reflector assembly though. EG if HID lights were a factory option for your car. Also no law against selling HID lighting systems. As you can still use them in off road vehicles, non road legal race cars ect.

1eStar

1604 posts

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#1536084 19-Apr-2016 22:18

I had similar issues with a Prado tailgating me. The self levelling headlights didn't. They would flash annoyingly with a purple tinge in the rear vision mirror. After about 2 minutes I pulled over to let him annoy someone else. Toyota seem to have the worst cutoffs on their headlight design. They are the ones that look like the vehicle approaching has forgotten to dip their lights.

gedc

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1536139 19-Apr-2016 23:40

Interesting as I noticed this whilst driving the wifes 6 month old mondeo the other night. A definited purple halo or border around the bright white LED illumination on cars etc in front. It even made a white car look pinky/purple. What causes this. I thought she had a purple light stuck behind the grill at first !

CitizenErased

207 posts

Master Geek

#1536853 20-Apr-2016 16:42

Having had a company car with HID lights, as a driver I actually prefer the colour temperature of halogen bulbs.

Newer isn't always better, either. A couple of weeks ago I read an article about an independent test performed on a range of car headlights and they found the visibility provided by some of the expensive luxury cars with the newest technology, e.g. LED, performed much worse than some cheap run-of-the-mill cars with halogen bulbs. So, just as you can have crappy and excellent halogen headlights, the same applies to HID and LED.

gzt

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#1536892 20-Apr-2016 18:05

gedc:
Interesting as I noticed this whilst driving the wifes 6 month old mondeo the other night. A definited purple halo or border around the bright white LED illumination on cars etc in front. It even made a white car look pinky/purple. What causes this. I thought she had a purple light stuck behind the grill at first !

Yep. If the car behind changes angle like around a turn then the vehicle in front gets a few purple flashes in the rear views as the purple bit flashes past. Combined with the odd brightness and colour temperature it is a minor distraction. I wonder if getting used to this will have other road users becoming less sensitive to actual police warning lights behind them.

MadEngineer

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#1536965 20-Apr-2016 20:12

Just use the tilt function on your mirror which makes the reflective surface of the glass the mirror rather than the mirror film. This has the effect of lighting up some of the cabin of your car and I like to think some light is reflected back to the offender. This action is usually clearly seen and maybe they will take the hint. Pulling over and beeping as they pass helps too :p

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tripp

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#1537138 21-Apr-2016 06:31

I hate LED and halogen head lights, they almost give me an instant headache when driving at night now.

I like the older yellow tone "warm" headlights. The cold white ones are just evil

mentalinc

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#1537140 21-Apr-2016 06:49

Don't even get me started on fog lights with no fog seen for months

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gzt

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#1537144 21-Apr-2016 07:00

MadEngineer: Just use the tilt function on your mirror which makes the reflective surface of the glass the mirror rather than the mirror film. This has the effect of lighting up some of the cabin of your car and I like to think some light is reflected back to the offender. This action is usually clearly seen and maybe they will take the hint. Pulling over and beeping as they pass helps too :p

I use the tilt on the rear view. This one required the button to fold in the side mirrors. I'm sure part of the problem is no headlight diffussion. Trying to rely on the LED diffusion alone. This is just a money saving feature for the car maker.

Batman

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#1537147 21-Apr-2016 07:25

I have more problems with cars coming towards me whose lights blind me into a daze.

SepticSceptic

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#1537388 21-Apr-2016 12:31

tripp:

I hate LED and halogen head lights, they almost give me an instant headache when driving at night now.

I like the older yellow tone "warm" headlights. The cold white ones are just evil

At night, our eyes are more sensitive to the blue-white end of the spectrum, making the effect more dazzling. The older one is, the more sensitive our eyes become to the blue end of the spectrum, and take far longer to recover from the dazzle effect.

Part of the reason why there is a clamp-down on aftermarket HID's and LED.

http://www.lightmare.org/effect_on_vision.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1771460/

old3eyes

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#1537409 21-Apr-2016 12:57

mentalinc:

Don't even get me started on fog lights with no fog seen for months

Especially the rear ones that get turned on in clear air and are brighter than the normal stop light..

Regards,

Old3eyes

MikeAqua

7773 posts

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#1537421 21-Apr-2016 13:09

I don't see what the problem is with halogen bulbs.

I've had to replace two headlight bulbs on cars in 25 year of private motoring.

I used to work in rental cars with a fleet of 150 vehicles all doing >20,000kms per year and rarely had to replace bulbs.

An alternator is easily able to keep up with the demands of halogen bulbs when the car is running.

Mike

gzt

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#1537430 21-Apr-2016 13:23

Lower power requirement allows the manufacturer to economise the electrics all over the place. It looks like creating first generation issues for other road users. Maybe there will be civil law suits in USA and there will be recalls. It is a real risk imho.