Keep getting Flashed

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Keep getting Flashed

reciently moved to Waterford and have been doing a lot more night driving than in Dublin. Constantly getting other drivers flashing their headlights at me. My car ( e92) has Xenon lights which are quite bright to the point where I brough it in to the dealer and got the headlights refocused. They said there was no problem and they were within the proper specification. It gets really annoying where you are dazelled by others on the road, I started to flash back but have stopped that as its just as bad if I do it.

Does anyone else here have the same problem? Is it my car or just that the colour and quality of the lights are putting others off?

Einstein

maybe they just sayin hello?

Anan1

You're hardly driving with your front fogs on, are you? My mother has an E90 with adaptive xenons. Whilst I don't recall having been flashed, they are very bright headlights. They have automatic self-levelling, if you watch you'll see them do a 'curtsey' every time you start the car.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Oh sweet lord, I never drive with front or rear fogs on except in fog. (could get murdered here for that crime). The self leveling seems to be working fine. I have driven in aother car in front of my own and the lights are really very bright but I am told this is the way they are supposed to be by the mechanic.

jim o doom

maybe you're driving on the wrong side of the road..

andrewh5

It is the brightness of the beams. Xenon headlamps are a pain for any approaching driver - it's like driving into a feckin searchlight beam.

joeperry

Well there was a e92 behind me the other day late at night and i was getting blinded on a well lit road even with it behind me although the tosser was up my arse!! My dimming mirror seems to have stopped working :mad: I thought the fecker had the headlights on but no i could tell as we negotiated certain bends that it was just the dipped lights,they are very very bright.

Not your fault op,i find all lights on new cars are very bright,even the brake lights are too bright imo,its a right pain at a set of traffic lights,i usually hang a cwhole car lenght back if im behind something new and shiny.

Berty

1956 Halogen headlights were fist introduced in cars and people were complaining that they were far too bright.

Xenon HID are now the new "thing". People will get used to Xenon HID as they got used to Halogens.

I used to flash people years ago for having their lights on too bright, two months later I got glasses. It was because my eyesight was bad I thought all lights were too bright.

As long as the HID light is white I dont have an issue. If a car has blueish or purple HID I have a problem because my eyes are drawn to this light which removes my concentration from my own driving.

Zube

Berty wrote: »

Xenon HID are now the new "thing". People will get used to Xenon HID as they got used to Halogens.

Officially, cars are limited to 55W bulbs, to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic. Yet it's OK to get more light out of that 55W by using Xenons. It makes no sense.

Berty

Zube wrote: »

Officially, cars are limited to 55W bulbs, to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic. Yet it's OK to get more light out of that 55W by using Xenons. It makes no sense.

HID & Projector headlights create a longer arc in the light rather than spilling the light off in every other direction. Putting a HID aftermarket system off Ebay into a standard rear projected headlight system will just dazzle people. Its like somebody putting a 100w bulb in their car. It does not give any extra light down the roadway rather a rush of light in the immediate vicinity which is a pain for other drivers.

Osram Nightbreaker are 55w but create a light of 85w. These bulbs again force the light into an arc. If you go and buy cheap lights from Ebay they will not have this benefit. List price for a nightbreaker pair of H7 is around €24 and you can nearly buy two pairs of H7, pair of H11 and sidelights for €14 on ebay. Low low quality stuff.

So: As long a the arc of light is directed then all is ok. Misalinged headlight and 100w headlights are worse.

Owenw

Xenon headlights are fine on level roads, but, if the car approaches up any kind of incline the light is extremely bright and dazzling. I find vans and 4x4's with xenons the worst for dazzling. It doesn't help if you have sensitive eyes either. Also, I wish people would use their handbrakes instead of sitting on the brake pedal at traffic lights. LED brake lights are ridiculously bright.

snowman707

andrewh5 wrote: »

It is the brightness of the beams. Xenon headlamps are a pain for any approaching driver - it's like driving into a feckin searchlight beam.

+1

Change the fecking bulbs , those are annoying even in daylight , IMHO should be banned

Anan1

snowman707 wrote: »

+1

Change the fecking bulbs , those are annoying even in daylight , IMHO should be banned

Xenon headlights are completely different from halogens, you can't just change the bulb.

Matt Simis

Owenw wrote: »

Xenon headlights are fine on level roads, but, if the car approaches up any kind of incline the light is extremely bright and dazzling. I find vans and 4x4's with xenons the worst for dazzling. It doesn't help if you have sensitive eyes either. Also, I wish people would use their handbrakes instead of sitting on the brake pedal at traffic lights. LED brake lights are ridiculously bright.

This is exactly it, I used to get flashed if I pulled up to a stop on an incline.

Regarding the brake lights, my LED brakes are too bright, but foot activated "hand" brake and Auto transmission means I cant plonk on the handbrake and let off the normal brakes at lights..

Goodluck2me

Berty wrote: »

1956 Halogen headlights were fist introduced in cars and people were complaining that they were far too bright.

Xenon HID are now the new "thing". People will get used to Xenon HID as they got used to Halogens.

I used to flash people years ago for having their lights on too bright, two months later I got glasses. It was because my eyesight was bad I thought all lights were too bright.

As long as the HID light is white I dont have an issue. If a car has blueish or purple HID I have a problem because my eyes are drawn to this light which removes my concentration from my own driving.

The Blue ones make my head hurt too, pretty sure they are banned now?

seamus

In my experience the problem with people using Xenon's is that they have them adjusted at far too shallow an angle, and they're pointing halfway up signposts and halfway up other cars rear windows. When you're driving in a lit-up area, your headlights shouldn't be lighting up signposts or poles or the backs of cars 100m in front you. Your headlights should be adjusted so that they point at the ground as much as possible.

Outside of lit-up areas, you can change the angle of your lights agains. If my '00 206 has the ability to change the headlight angle from within the cabin, then any vehicle with Xenon's must have it too.

Berty

Headlight angle should only be changed with manufacturers guidlines.

If you are towing a trailer you should change the angle of your beam
If you are carrying a heavy load
If you are carrying a full complement of adults

There will never be any reason why anybody should need to change the angle of their beams but thats only if their lights are street legal. Xenon HID's are street legal.

Berty

goodluck2me wrote: »

The Blue ones make my head hurt too, pretty sure they are banned now?

No and they probably will not be.

The cheap blue lights are basically a film over the bulb. They actually provide less or similar light to a halogen. They have a xenon gas inside of them which creates more light but the coating of blue(which creates the colour) actually removes the amount of light getting out of the bulb.

If you have a xenon white 100w bulb then your light will be comparable to a HID but with none of the neccesary properties to control the beam. Basically the light just gets bounces around and dazzled everybody whereas a projector lamp controls the arc.

The darker the coating the more blue and towards purple to light becomes. The lighter it is the more white towards yellow the light gets.

robbie99

Nevaeh Beautiful Soy wrote: »

Keep getting Flashed

reciently moved to Waterford and have been doing a lot more night driving than in Dublin. Constantly getting other drivers flashing their headlights at me. My car ( e92) has Xenon lights which are quite bright to the point where I brough it in to the dealer and got the headlights refocused. They said there was no problem and they were within the proper specification. It gets really annoying where you are dazelled by others on the road, I started to flash back but have stopped that as its just as bad if I do it.

Does anyone else here have the same problem? Is it my car or just that the colour and quality of the lights are putting others off?

I've an e92 aswell and used to get the occasional flash. I probably still do but I just ignore it now. I used to flash back but then I realised that this was actually quite pointless because in the e92, both main beam and dipped beam come from the same bulb. If you were dazzling a driver (say on an incline) and you flashed back they wouldn't see any difference as they'd get the exact same dazzle back. On most other cars you know when your being flashed. The other thing that doesn't help is that if it's overcast or starts to get dark, the DRLs on the inner rings are so bright that it looks like you're driving with headlights on.

It's easy though to adjust the light angle on the e92 if you think it might be pointed too high. But one thing I haven't figured out yet is how to rotate the beam as on my car I'd like to angle down a bit on the right and angle up more on the left.

ergonomics

One of my lights was really badly adjusted a while ago, and I only copped it when I was driving home from college one night. People kept flashing me, and then flashing me again, so I'd give them a quick flash to acknowledge them and show them my main beams weren't one. In return, they'd flash me again. It got really annoying and by the time I got home I had a splitting headache. I just don't get why they keep flashing you AFTER you acknowledge their flashes. Do they think that I am going to stop right there, on a country road, and fix the light if they keep flashing me?

antodeco

Ive got 8k HID in my car. I get maybe 1 flash every two weeks, if even. I adjusted the projectors beam angle down one notch and it seems to have sorted everything. Lights up the ground alot better.

The reason aftermarket HID kits are blinding is that people put down in standard "headlights". As a result, the reflection throws the light in every direction and spills "excess light" to different angles. HID's in projectors are fine, as the reflectors are angeld different so as to focus the light, as oppose to spread it. Thats why alot of, for example, Civics, with aftermarket HID's look really bad.

mickdw

seamus wrote: »

In my experience the problem with people using Xenon's is that they have them adjusted at far too shallow an angle, and they're pointing halfway up signposts and halfway up other cars rear windows. When you're driving in a lit-up area, your headlights shouldn't be lighting up signposts or poles or the backs of cars 100m in front you. Your headlights should be adjusted so that they point at the ground as much as possible.

Outside of lit-up areas, you can change the angle of your lights agains. If my '00 206 has the ability to change the headlight angle from within the cabin, then any vehicle with Xenon's must have it too.

Cars with Xenons dont have this little wheel to change the light height as they do it automatically (this is law because they are no bright). Therefore drivers have no control of the light height while driving. The reason you have an adjuster is to change the setting depending on passengers & weight in the car.
It is however possible to alter the setting via diagnostic computer I think and also there are aiming adjusters under the bonnet.
My audi has Xenons. They self adjust and Ive never been flashed. There is no way they dazzle anyone as I can see the beam hitting the road and they really are very low. Too low really. Im sure they would dazzle for a second going over a bump or something but all cars do that.

snowman707

Anan1 wrote: »

Xenon headlights are completely different from halogens, you can't just change the bulb.

Cheers for that

I was never bothered by strong/incorrect headlight beams until I started wearing specs. for driving... now they just do my head in.

stifz

Ban the Xenon bulbs absolute killer on the eyes.. :cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:

Dartz

There is no more destricting thing for a male driver than a woman flashing her headlamps at you... :P

Omcd

I find in very annoying when I'm waiting to turn out onto a main road in the dark and theres a car coming along with bright headlamps, I have to watch it coming along which wreaks my eyes, then it slows down, so I have to keep looking at it longer, it slows more, and then takes the turn I'm coming out from, only then can I see it had an indicator on which if it hadn't have been completely obsecured by the intensity of the headlamps I could have pulled out a lot earlier and saved my eyes (then again, if I had been able to see the indicator earlier and pulled out chances are it would have been some twat driving along without knowing the indicator was on:rolleyes:)

Anan1

Omcd wrote: »

I find in very annoying when I'm waiting to turn out onto a main road in the dark and theres a car coming along with bright headlamps, I have to watch it coming along which wreaks my eyes, then it slows down, so I have to keep looking at it longer, it slows more, and then takes the turn I'm coming out from, only then can I see it had an indicator on which if it hadn't have been completely obsecured by the intensity of the headlamps I could have pulled out a lot earlier and saved my eyes (then again, if I had been able to see the indicator earlier and pulled out chances are it would have been some twat driving along without knowing the indicator was on:rolleyes:)

Don't ever trust another car's indicator.

mickdw

Anan1 wrote: »

Don't ever trust another car's indicator.

+1

also with cars having auto headlights now, if you see someone flashing at you to let you out of a junction, be sure its not just their lights coming on. My xenons light up with a sudden burst of light and it takes them a second to focus so it does look like flashing lights.

vibe666

there's quite a bit of misrepresentation of what lights are what.

the vast majority of 'xenons' aren't actually xenons in the traditional sense. they are halogen lights with a small amount of xenon in them to produce a brighter light. a proper factory fitted HID (High Intensity Discharge) xenon headlight is very different from the bulbs labelled as 'xenons' that you pick up in Halfords or off ebay as they are not a traditional bulb with a filament in, they create light by passing electricity across a gap through the xenon gas which is what causes them to light up (like a sustained spark).

99% of after market 'xenon' bulbs are just a standard halogen bulb with a filament in them (same as a regular light bulb) with a very small amount of added xenon to make them burn more brightly.

the blue versions of these are particularly dangerous as the blue filter on the glass effectively blocks out the majority of the spectrum of light to produce the blue hue and this has several detrimental effects on their performance.

halogen lights give off the whole spectrum of light with emphasis on the yellow end of the spectrum. yellow has long been known to give the best illumination for night driving (remember all the French motors with yellow headlights?).

blue light by contrast has a very short wavelength and a tendency to reflect and refract a lot more than other wavelengths which gives a less focussed beam and sends more light where you don't want it (i.e. into other drivers faces) and will reflect of the road a lot more than a whiter light would.

studies have also shown that the human eye reacts a lot less to blue light, meaning that shining a blue light in someone's eyes will cause more of a dazzling effect than white light as the eye does not perceive it as being as powerful as it is and does not contract as much as it would with white light.

you can buy a proper after market HID conversion kit for some older cars, but these run into several hundreds of quid as the whole headlight has to be changed and voltages changed so most of the time when you see fancy looking headlights on an older car they'll be the cheap knock-offs.

/waits for xenon fanboi to demand proof of these claims with glee.

endplate

snowman707 wrote: »

Cheers for that

I was never bothered by strong/incorrect headlight beams until I started wearing specs. for driving... now they just do my head in.

Did you get the anti glare coated lenses? I find them great for glare from lights at night

I get flashed sometimes too and as far as I'm concerned my lights are aligned ok nor are they Xenons. So a quick flash back as if to say hi back and just motor on

gofaster_s13

A lot of truck drivers will tell you they are not bothered by vehicles approaching using full beams as they don't the whole rabbit in the headlights thing of staring at the unusually bright lights instead they look at the white lines or the road.