(Too) Bright Headlights

[roaniecowpony]

There is a plain contrast between the transmission and the OEM headlights in my Jeep. The 850RE is easily the best automatic transmission I've ever used; the stock halogen lights, the worst. No other vehicle I've owned has had such distinctions.

It'd be interesting to know the replacement cost for the video game headlights in that C40 that you mention. They might make the cost of the OEM LED lights in the Jeep seem like an absolute bargain.

You never had a 6v VW? ?

Agree on the trans. The best I've had too.

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[jav_eee]

Whether they shine in the back window of a vehicle at a light depends on many things. But if you have a lifted jeep and the car in front of you is a low car or very low sportscar and you are close to them, you'll never get the headlights to not shine in their back window unless you shut them off. You may not even have the range of adjustment in the headlights to point them down at that steep of angle. If you feel that is the criteria, you would have to lower the mounting position of your headlights, which is possible if you go to a smaller headlight and mount in the bumper.

I should’ve said “of an average car”. Obviously a lower riding vehicle will be too low for this method. And OP (who my reply was intended for) said his jeep is stock.

 

[Heimkehr]

You never had a 6v VW? ?

Nope. Six volt Volkswagens were on the scene long before Heimkehr ever was. ?

 

[roaniecowpony]

Here's my SV4 LED bulbs in my halogen fixtures. Impressively controlled beam and incredible illumination, without pissing off everyone else too.

 

[NWJeepr]

It'd be interesting to know the replacement cost for the video game headlights in that C40 that you mention. They might make the cost of the OEM LED lights in the Jeep seem like an absolute bargain.

A quick google search says about $2200 for the lamp assembly, per side. As an option cost on the car itself, if I recall it was about $350 over the standard LED headlamps (high $50k MSRP on the car itself).

My understanding was wrong; it's actually 84 individual LED's that are selectively turned on or off depending on input from one of the forward cameras sensing light in order to reduce glare/blinding other drivers.

But hey, a long time ago, projector halogens were an expensive upgrade. And then, Xenon, Bi-Xenon, then LED....all ridiculously expensive until they eventually became popular.

I do miss the days of just being able to swap out a $10 bulb found at any hardware or auto parts store. I suppose with the stock JL lights you still can, but you have to live with barely adequate forward lighting.

 

[Flip]

Here's my SV4 LED bulbs in my halogen fixtures. Impressively controlled beam and incredible illumination, without pissing off everyone else too.

Can you please give me some details how you adjusted your lights? About how far away from the wall are you and roughly what is the distance from the ground to the light shining on the wall where you adjusted it to? I know we don't have the same set up, but this would give me a reference.

Here's my SV4 LED bulbs in my halogen fixtures. Impressively controlled beam and incredible illumination, without pissing off everyone else too.

You have that dialed in very nice. About how far away from the wall are you when you made those adjustments?

 

[Heimkehr]

...a long time ago, projector halogens were an expensive upgrade. And then, Xenon, Bi-Xenon, then LED....all ridiculously expensive until they eventually became popular.

I do miss the days of just being able to swap out a $10 bulb found at any hardware or auto parts store. I suppose with the stock JL lights you still can, but you have to live with barely adequate forward lighting.

As forum commentary on the subject makes plain, LED lighting is still remarkably expensive.

Both of our Hondas have halogen lighting, and the $10 bulbs (which are now ~$20) work very well for what they are. It's just a matter of simple engineering. On that point, it's still a mystery why, or how, FCA managed to phone in the design of the reflectors for the JL's halogen headlights. They really should be better than they are.

 

[roaniecowpony]

Can you please give me some details how you adjusted your lights? About how far away from the wall are you and roughly what is the distance from the ground to the light shining on the wall where you adjusted it to? I know we don't have the same set up, but this would give me a reference.


You have that dialed in very nice. About how far away from the wall are you when you made those adjustments?

John, the way that has worked for me is to find a multi-level parking garage at a mall or hospital or such, then find a wall within the garage, park with the headlights about 25 ft from the wall, measure up to the center of my headlights and measure on the wall to the cutoff line of the light beam. I generally use 1/4" downward adjustment per foot from the wall. So 25 ft from the wall comes to 5" down. Start there. That should work. If you are getting flashed after that, consider going down another inch or so. I tend to be more conservative and adjust down a bit more, because I have a lift and big tires resulting in a very high jeep.

Also consider your payload at the time you were flashed. Consider your average payload when adjusting the lights as well. In my pickup, I will bring along the tool to adjust the headlights for trips where I put a lot of weight in the bed. The adjustment is significant. Same with the jeep.

 

[Flip]

John, the way that has worked for me is to find a multi-level parking garage at a mall or hospital or such, then find a wall within the garage, park with the headlights about 25 ft from the wall, measure up to the center of my headlights and measure on the wall to the cutoff line of the light beam. I generally use 1/4" downward adjustment per foot from the wall. So 25 ft from the wall comes to 5" down. Start there. That should work. If you are getting flashed after that, consider going down another inch or so. I tend to be more conservative and adjust down a bit more, because I have a lift and big tires resulting in a very high jeep.

Also consider your payload at the time you were flashed. Consider your average payload when adjusting the lights as well. In my pickup, I will bring along the tool to adjust the headlights for trips where I put a lot of weight in the bed. The adjustment is significant. Same with the jeep.

Perfect, thank you very much!

 

[roaniecowpony]

As forum commentary on the subject makes plain, LED lighting is still remarkably expensive.

Both of our Hondas have halogen lighting, and the $10 bulbs (which are now ~$20) work very well for what they are. It's just a matter of simple engineering. On that point, it's still a mystery why, or how, FCA managed to phone in the design of the reflectors for the JL's halogen headlights. They really should be better than they are.

For my 2 centavos, I find the optics of the JL halogen reflectors to be outstanding. But, the output really is well behind the times. Equipped with the SV4 bulbs for almost 3 years now, my halogen fixtures have been outstanding and I'd put them up against the factory LED fixtures for both beam pattern control and output.

 

[roaniecowpony]

Perfect, thank you very much!

Just watch that the parking garage pavement is not rising as it gets close to the wall, as that will throw off you measurements, as will an irregular floor of the garage that causes the vehicle to set with the lights slightly up or down.

 

[tomk62]

Can you please give me some details how you adjusted your lights? About how far away from the wall are you and roughly what is the distance from the ground to the light shining on the wall where you adjusted it to? I know we don't have the same set up, but this would give me a reference.

You have that dialed in very nice. About how far away from the wall are you when you made those adjustments?

You want the top of the light beam to be below 3 feet at a 25 foot distance.

This is the easiest way I have seen it done: https://www.[Banned Site]/threads/tech-tip-jeep-jk-wrangler-headlight-adjustment.4213/

 

[NWJeepr]

As forum commentary on the subject makes plain, LED lighting is still remarkably expensive.

For sure, the option cost on a new Jeep is still high, as is a high quality aftermarket LED retrofit. "Jeep tax".

But a lot of lesser-priced vehicles come with LED headlamps as standard equipment. Manufacturing cost is down for the technology itself. It's also very cheap to retrofit an LED bulb into a halogen reflector, not that I'd recommend doing that.

 

[Flip]

You want the top of the light beam to be below 3 feet at a 25 foot distance.

This is the easiest way I have seen it done: https://www.[Banned Site]/threads/tech-tip-jeep-jk-wrangler-headlight-adjustment.4213/

So, the top of the low light beam should be right at 3 feet tall or just slightly below, correct?

 

[Heimkehr]

This is the easiest way I have seen it done: https://www.[Banned Site]/threads/tech-tip-jeep-jk-wrangler-headlight-adjustment.4213/

The link is non-functional due to it not displaying correctly on this site (which is intentional, but a Mod will have to explain why that is occurring.)

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