Terrible Lights

cian1500ww

I'm driving a 03 VW Passat at the moment and the lights are driving me crazy. The dipped lights are useless and give about 3ft of light in front of the car and the high beams are pretty poor as well. They give good light for about 10ft in front of the car but any further isn't hectic. When the car was new the lights were superb but sometime since it's first NCT they've gone way downhill. All the bulbs are fine. I've asked the mechanics about it and they claim that they had to be adjusted for the NCT but they're far worse than they were, they said they can't readjust them because there something wrong with the adjusting thing I've been in lots of other cars both older and newer and the difference in the lights is unreal. Any ideas as to what could be wrong ?? I'm thinking of taking out the lenses and cleaning them but they don't seem to be to dirty.

E39MSport

You might be suffering a voltage drop. Check all wiring. Measure the voltage at the connection to the bulbs if you can. You can hook the bulb directly to the battery and see if theres any differnece in brightness.

Also, make sure your battery voltage is up to scratch.

cian1500ww

E39MSport wrote: »

You might be suffering a voltage drop. Check all wiring. Measure the voltage at the connection to the bulbs if you can. You can hook the bulb directly to the battery and see if theres any differnece in brightness.

I'll check that when I get home on Friday, don't have a voltmeter with me at the moment.

Battery is getting well on now, still the original one. My dipped headlights which shouldn't draw that much are crap as well so I'd say the battery should be ok. Does need replacing soon though, hasn't got as much umph when starting as it used to have.

Alun

In addition to the above, in time the coating on the reflector can deteriorate and go dull, especially of there are any small cracks or other routes for damp air to get into the housing. Scratched and yellow lenses won't help either.

cnocbui

At a wild guess I would say the mechanics adjusted the lights way to low and in doing so, broke the adjustment mechanism, now they are stuck at or near their maximum downward angle.

cian1500ww

Alun wrote: »

In addition to the above, in time the coating on the reflector can deteriorate and go dull, especially of there are any small cracks or other routes for damp air to get into the housing. Scratched and yellow lenses won't help either.

The only thing I notice at times with the lenses is condensation building up on the inside, maybe that's a sign there's air getting in somewhere. I know dirt on headlights can really affect the lights but the condensation normally goes away once the cars been running for a while.

The lights seem to be very focused on the ground, basically you have great light just in front of the bonnet but it's not enough to light up the road as much as I'd like.

I'm thinking maybe there was a botch job done on the lights and it's not possible to adjust them now. Must take a look under the bonnet to see but there's so much plastic covering these engines, it's take a full hour just to see the damn things

cian1500ww

cnocbui wrote: »

At a wild guess I would say the mechanics adjusted the lights way to low and in doing so, broke the adjustment mechanism, now they are stuck at or near their maximum downward angle.

That's what I'm thinking. Some mechanics are great at breaking things and not saying :rolleyes:

I'm not the only one who uses the car, my Dad also drives it and the lights drive him mental too, you almost have to stop when you switch to the lows anytime you meet a car at night because you wouldn't be able to see a pedestrian until your on top of them.