I have a 2018 LC200 and have noticed that the high beams don't really seem to add much illumination. In other words, when I am driving down a dark road at night and manually turn on the high beams, there is practically no visible difference. I have verified that the high beam LEDs are turning on, they just don't seem to help with additional visibility. Have other folks with the LED headlights noticed anything similar?
2018 LC200 High Beam Q
- Thread starter beveldrive
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My high beams work just fine, but the difference is really not that big when compared to the low beams (especially if you - like me - always have the fog lights on). I think it is because the low beams are already crazy good. I get flashed all the time by people that think I have the high beams on, when I don’t.
My 2018 is the same. City driving or lit street driving there seems to be no difference. But when I’m on backroads or unlit highways in AK I notice some additional throw and maybe a little spill when putting on high beams but it’s not alot.
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I have compared high and low beams on all settings (auto and auto high beam) as well as DRL on/off via techstream. It just isn't much of a lumens difference. Interestingly, I don't see a height difference between high and low beams as you note.
Is the high beam portion of the headlamp actually lighting up at the appropriate settings? Low and high are different lenses, should be pretty easy to check this.
To support Charlie's statement, per the service manual the *center* of the high beam aim is as high as the top edge of the right shoulder of the low beam. By this I mean the line for the low beams has a kink, getting lower to the driver's left to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. The higher edge is the right side. Your high beam, pointed at a wall, should center on this right side line.
Everything I've heard about the 16+ headlights is they are extremely effective. Perhaps the lows are just so impressive that the highs don't add that much?
To support Charlie's statement, per the service manual the *center* of the high beam aim is as high as the top edge of the right shoulder of the low beam. By this I mean the line for the low beams has a kink, getting lower to the driver's left to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. The higher edge is the right side. Your high beam, pointed at a wall, should center on this right side line.
Everything I've heard about the 16+ headlights is they are extremely effective. Perhaps the lows are just so impressive that the highs don't add that much?
I second this statement: I have a 2016 and driving down country roads on low beam is a challenge...but flicking on the high beams makes VERY little noticeable difference in distance visible! I thought maybe the bulbs were out but no--they just seem to be weak sauce. I'm considering adding RIGID cubes somewhere to supplement that long-distance throw that's so helpful on long dark roads.
You might want to check again your headlights. The general consensus in the forum is that the 2016+ headlights are one of the best, if not THE best, in the market. Sure the highs might not make a whole lot of difference, but just because the lows are already super ridiculously bright. Especially if you also run the fogs all the time.
2016 Low has height cut off of cast light but very good distance. High adds light above the height and more side spread but does not seem to have greater distance of throw at road level. I almost never use the high the low are so good with distance and I really don't care about more light to side and higher up. I only really engage high on 2 lane black top back roads.
Exactly my experience.
I can also see in some cases (e.g. tire size and or suspension changes) that downward adjustment (at the headlights itself or the rear axle controller) is required on 16+ LED equipped vehicles or low and high beams are going to be aiming to high.
As a 16+ owner this is exactly what I observe:
- Regular beams are very impressive, about twice as good as other cars I have driven in, including our 2014 BMW which is quite good already
- Change to high beams lights up the stuff higher up some more however not a whole lot further than in comparison to other vehicles. In our BMW I would say high beams is about 2 x more light and 3 x further, in our LC200 it is more like 1.5 x more and 1.5 to 2 x further. Without owning the LC200 I would say the BMW headlights are great and better than most cars i have driven in to date.
- On a dark out of city road there is still quite a difference
- On a site note not directly related to light performance, auto high beams work great with on coming traffic and I use it now on dark roads a lot.
- All in all by far the best front lights on a vehicle I have owned to date, would label them as awesome
- In order to put this to bed we would ideally have to measure this in a facility used to design car headlights making use of goniophotometers…Had to google that one…Unfortunately that will not be easy unless a car reviewer would make this part of his or her routine.
P.S. I find US made cars and especially recent gens Ford F150/250/350 head lights super annoying. Very bright shining way to high in regular mode. I wish there are much more stricter rules to reel in that BS, then again folk do not seem to care about others these days anymore. On another rant…, wheel covers on trailers and mud flaps should also be defined by law like factory on our LC200’s, so we do not need to replace windshields as much. Oh well…
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In my '21 LC, I have found that the headlights are fine on flat, level roads. High beams give a good horizontal spread and do reach fairly far. The fly in the ointment is the low and high beams while giving a great horizontal spread, there is nothing vertically. You get this bright ribbon across the road, nothing above or below. Where I live and off road, these light are woefully inadequate. Cresting a hill, you can't see what is below and driving down a hill, there is no illumination beyond the bottom. After a long discussion with the folks at Rigid Lights, they recommended and I purchased their SAE approved 20 inch light bar with the driving light pattern. Unfortunately, it is the same as the high beams, all horizontal, no vertical spread. I should have gone with my instinct and gotten the flood pattern. I have aimed it slightly high to help compensate but it is still not what I want. I am thinking about swapping it out for the flood or possibly, the flood/spot combo. As I said before, the high beams are fine on flat roads, but in hilly country, just don't cut it.
Rigid spot/driving combo pattern here and very happy with it when needed.
The only real complaint is that the reflection back from road signs will partially blind me..
30” SR Pro series though, so a bit more light than their 20” bars.
2020 here and the low beams are indeed awesome, so much so that the high beams pale in comparison. For midnight runs out in the country like bloc I also added driving lights (Baja Designs), wired through the high beam switch so they can only turn on if the high beams are on (don't want to blind anyone by having to manually turn them off).
Has anyone found a solution yet for this? I have the exact problem, I'm very fed up with the high beam output and this is just so clearly in opposition to the many that are really happy with the 2016 headlights that I'm guessing we have some adjustment out of wack but I've tried a number of times to dial these in with no success. Adding the extended auto-level rod to the rear axel was a massive improvement for the low beam aim but the high beams just seem nonexistent.
This has recently become a real safety issue as I've been spending more time in the rural northeast where there are no streetlights and it's dark by 4pm but deer and pedestrians lurk everywhere. Considering all sorts of solutions but really I just wish I had the cherished 2016+ headlights everyone else loves on my 2016.
Have you tried checking your pattern against a large wall to get an idea of what's going on?
Unfortunately, there is no way to upgrade the optics for the factory high beam or adjust them independently of the low beam since they are mounted to the same bracket. I designed plug and play brackets that replace the factory high beam with a Baja Designs squadron pod. This set is waiting for me to have time to finish them up before posting for sale. I havent seen anything else out there outside of aux lighting.
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Yes, I've played with the wallboard and tape markers a bunch as I've adjusted the low beams a few times to try to get as much throw as I can without dazzling oncoming traffic. Pretty successful with the low beams i.e. no dazzling but as everyone here knows the cutoff is very sharp and I cannot get the throw needed to feel remotely comfortable on rural NH backroads. The high beam when I had the board and tape up seemed to barely go higher than the low beam cutoff and it had nowhere near the light intensity. It was more of a slight disbursement of additional lighting with no additional distance. I'm not kidding when I say it makes ZERO practical difference in real world driving to your visibility. I've never been as uncomfortable in any other vehicle with modern headlights.
I'm generally very capable and consider myself more detail oriented than most any service provider but I'm considering/dreading taking it to the dealer.
This looks interesting, do you have any real world pictures side by side at night against factory? I'm guessing from the lens that that is a driving/combo SAE pod? I'll try to have a look at your posts and see if there's some info there, they look nice.