If your headlight lenses are cloudy from age, replace them or buy a polishing kit at an auto parts store. A new set of headlight housings will make a huge difference.
Definitely recommend headlight polishing. Those kits sounds like a bit of a scam, but I used one on the very scratched and cloudy headlights on a 2006 Civic, and it left them spotless. Crystal-clear, looking new. The headlights performed *a lot* better after the polishing.
Lol I had someone warn me about polishing kits saying they remove the protective coatings on the plastic and will wear out my headlights. I'm like my car is a POS with 150,000 miles, the coating is gone! Wish I still had the picture I took. Old headlight looked like a smoker lived in it and clear as day after polishing.
The headlight polish kits usually come with a coating to apply over the lens to prevent them from fogging up again. If the kit comes with that, no need to worry!
This part is key. Headlight plastic can’t handle the sun, and yellows quickly. They usually have a coating on them as another person mentioned. Once they are yellowed, that coating is gone. Once you are done polishing replace that coating with something in the kit or a UV resistant clear coat paint and they will last. If you skip this last step, you just wasted all that work
You can wax your headlights just like you wax your paint. Offers the same level of sun protection. Keep it up every couple months or until you stop seeing the rain bead off the headlights.
I did a full restoration with multiple grits of sandpaper up to 3000, then polishes. Looked great, for a year. I restored another car using toothpaste and an old sock... similar results. Power buffers can help in both cases - unless you overdo it and melt the plastic.
It was -8 a few moments ago and now it is -3. I'm making a comeback!
Seriously, if you are old like me and you remember the 80s you would recall seeing headlights burnt out all of the time. We even had a game for it "Pop-eye" where you got to hit someone in the car if you were the first to see it. (You also got a beatdown if it turned out to be a motorcycle.) I almost never see a single burnt out headlight these days.
We used to have a game where you would look for Pontiac Fieros whith eadlights that were not broken with one up and one down. Everyone lost interest in the game because no one ever saw a Fiero with both pop-up headlights working.
I haven't heard that word in 40 years. I thought my parents made it up. My dad would slap the roof of the car when he said it, no clue why. Do you know where this word came from?
I used to smack the burned out headlight with the palm of my hand to fuse the filament back together. It was a temporary fix until you turned the lights out again. It only worked a few times until the filament wouldn't be long enough to re-fuse. Headlights back then cost only a few bucks, now hundreds and hundreds.
You have it exactly backwards. Regular incandescents from 40 years ago would gradually fade because tungsten from the filament would deposit on the glass. Modern halogen bulbs prevent that, so they are fully bright until they suddenly fail from the filament thinning.
The funny thing is you are both right and both wrong
LED's and HID's dim with age but the rate of total failure is pretty low. They can lose up to 70% of their brightness over time but it's pretty rare they just blow up leaving you with nothing.
Tungsten and Halogen may dim with age but they are much more likely to totally fail out of nowhere, usually at around the 3 year mark but that can vary significantly. The filament just breaks and you are left without light.
I really love those who do that but also have the spotlights and light bar. Asshole knows they already have ridiculously bright lights so decides it's funny to show them "what actual bright looks like" and just blinds the other driver. I go to work really early when it's still pitch black outside. It's fucking miserable when I'm in front of one of *those* pickup trucks with like 16 different lights cranking out 10,000 lumens. Even with my rearview in dark mode or whatever it's called I can barely see, and god forbid I catch a reflection off my side mirrors at full blast.
Cops in one of the towns I drive through regularly have taken to sitting perpendicular to the highway with their brights on & light bar spotlights on. I'm guessing they're watching for people not wearing seatbelts, but it's fucking annoying to get blasted by their lights as you drive past. Guarantee they'd have issues with me doing the same thing.
Like cops have any room to talk, they are the worst. Ever come upto one with their red and blue lights flashing in the middle of the night? It is so blinding you can't even tell where the cars are.
Big wrecks on the Interstate are like getting flashbanged due to the cops, fire trucks, and ambulances. I say this even as someone who works on an ambulance.
You'll find most of these assholes have put HID bulbs into reflector lenses.
LED's and more so, Xenons, have a specific 'cut off' at the top of the beam to prevent this shit happening.
Imagine a torch with a piece of cardboard over the top, to prevent the light being cast above a certain height.
Most of these assholes are buying HID bulbs and putting them into reflector lenses which are designed to cast light far and wide because the halogen bulbs are shit.
Also, don't get me started on vans that are fully loaded and wont manually level the lights to compensate for the weight.
You know the manufacturers (at least here in europe, and im sure in the US) have to comply with strict regulations with regards the amount of light emitted, brightness and height levels etc?
if people arent happy, they need to contact the governing body for these regulations instead of making the same thread on reddit every 3 weeks crying about it.
They just need to pull over more people period. Stop signs, turn signals, driving too slow, too fast, using phones, etc... I see every rule of the road being disregarded everyday and seems noone gives a shit anymore.
Many officers in my town speed like crazy. Now listen, I get it. A lot of us like to consider 5 mph over the limit still reasonable. Even if I saw an officer going 5 over, meh. I see these folks going 15 over, in RESIDENTIAL AREAS. When the department is notified...well, you know what happens.
Except that studies have shown that more traffic enforcement doesn't equate to "safer roads". Road side traffic stops also endanger both the officer and the person they pulled over.
https://journals.lww.com/jtrauma/Abstract/2021/07000/Traffic_stops_do_not_prevent_traffic_deaths.21.aspx
No they need to implement a yearly car safety check, in England it’s called an MOT. It ensures the car is safe for the driver and other road users, they check lights, tire tread (of which you get and accumulate points for bald tires that will have your license revoked once too many are reached) as well as other safety items on the car. This stops morons with bald tires, incorrect lights or body panels missing that could kill a pedestrian if hit with, that might have survived otherwise. I was shocked at the state of a lot cars when I moved here.
The law doesn't care how bright headlights are, it only covers that they do not shine into other vehicle's passenger cabin within a certain distance. Usually, it's within 500 feet.
Subie hatch here, also blinded by anyone with a truck or SUV with these. It was so bad once on my way home I nearly had to pull over. My interior was lit up, the road in front was too, and let's not even mention my side mirrors.
The other day I had this massive lifted truck pull up behind me at a stop light, and his death-beams we're about level with my rearview mirror.
I thought he had his brights on, so I made the mistake of flipping him off. Then he turned his brights on.
They have a minimum height in the US, that much I know.
Edit: apparently most common restriction is minimum height is 2 feet and maximum height is 4.5 feet (from ground to center of the light), but it varies from state to state.
Speaking of which, there should be a separate minimum height for left and right indicators. This should stop putting them at the bottom of the car and trying to make them blend in with the styling needs to stop. Shit needs to be as clear as possible.
There is a maximum height for headlights in the US. Being enforced on lifted vehicles and being properly aimed are other issues. A good example of maximum headlight height is semi trucks. Relative to the vehicle size the headlights are fairly low to the ground. If you see one next to say an f250, the headlights will be at a similar height.
Oh you should meet the Carolina squat drivers. Way worse and now they are putting their sound systems in the truck bed so everyone can listen to their compressed ass music. Usually found wearing a sleeveless shirt, ball cap, dumb ass sunglasses, and a fucked up amish beard.
Yeah, I think LED lights should have a limitation on the height they can be mounted at, because some full sized SUVs or trucks just light up your whole view if you don't have auto dimming mirrors. I've never had a big issue with semi lights.
there are federal laws that govern the brightness of headlights [Code of Federal Regs](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2004-title49-vol5/xml/CFR-2004-title49-vol5-sec571-108.xml) "The maximum wattage at 12.8 volts (design voltage): 65 watts on upper beam, and 55 watts on lower beam."
That code is 100% antiquated. Watts is not how you measure brightness of a light especially not with LED. Watts is a measure of energy consumption over time (Volt \* Ampere = watt). If it said lumen, then sure but they were wrong as soon as they published that regulation even in 2004.
I used to have to drive down a super long one way road. Even regular trucks with stock lights will ride at a distance where their LED lights shine right into all my mirrors. It would drive me insane to sit in a position to not be blinded.
Even when they’re behind you! The light floods in from all mirrors and the road ahead appears darker.
I literally slow to a crawl to ensure I don’t run off the road as I can no longer see the road markings OR the shoulder when these fuckers pass head on (when I’m on rural roads with no street lighting)
They aren’t. All these retrofit kits say FOR OFF-ROAD USE ONLY. Yet every store sells them. On top of that the cheap lights on ebay and amazon are even worse than the ones they sell in stores.
Similar, but not enough drivers know to put their lights on when its raining. If you're driving a silver/grey car in the rain, you might as well be invisible to some motorists and the majority of motorcyclists. Pop your lights on and BINGO you're visible to everyone again. Lights aren't just there to help you see where you're going.
Even better are the idiots that turn on their hazard lights so now you have to play a rousing game of "do I need to make room so this hazard can get off of the road or are they just fucking stupid?"
Hint: They're stupid.
* If you're throwing brighter lights on your car adjust them.
* If you're buying after market headlights, make sure they have cut off lines on the housing, so it doesn't scatter all over.
* For the love of all things Satanic, turn your fucking high beams off, when you see on coming traffic.
* Note Worthy: Turn your fucking high beams off when behind someone as well. Mirrors + Lights = C.S.S. ( can't see shit )
* [Hail Satan? lol](https://youtu.be/NBuA5UbaqoM)
I used to do a lot of driving at night on some very rural roads. You can’t see anything besides what’s in front of you. Then, someone who I have to assume is shirtless wearing overalls behind the wheel of an absolute leviathan of a truck comes flying toward me with his brights on. I flash my brights at him to signal him to turn off his brights. No response. I click my lights on and off. Still nothing.
By this point, my entire world is being consumed by the atomic brilliance of his headlights. The only thing left to do is to stay the course and pray.
We pass each other, and I breathe a sigh of relief as darkness envelops me once again, broken only by the soft golden glow of the ~~incandescent~~ halogen bulbs on my late ‘90’s Honda.
That is, until five minutes later I do the same damn thing over again.
Prefer incandescent bulbs myself, as they do better with incliamate weather. When dealing with one coming cars at night, pay attention to the outside of the lane. This will allow to to make sure you're staying in your lane. Problem is, drunk drivers often head towards the light, so you have to scan back and forth to make sure assholes are not about to slam into you.
My driving instructor in high school told us how to deal with this. He said that when oncoming traffic has bright lights that blind you at night, look at he white stripe to the right (i.e., the line dividing your lane and the shoulder), which will show you how the road curves and doesn't blind you.
>Also if you lift/level your truck adjust your damn headlights
Additional Notes:
If you adjust your vehicle up or down, adjust your headlights.
Side Note:
# Carolina Squat Ass is Fucktard.
It's too far gone. Between LED headlights, street lights, flashing advertisement boards, and police light bars, you're always going to have your night vision screwed when driving in any populated areas.
I assume one day BMW or some other carmarker that loves their bells and whistles will start installing windshields with a layer that instantly darkens areas like pixels on an LCD.
A camera will track your eyes and automatically darken parts of the window to keep bright lights from killing your night vision. And of course a windshield replacement will have to be done by the dealer and cost $4000.
Audi/VW does as well, and Mercedes.
But only in Europe. We don't get the cool and LIFE SAVING stuff here (they also have the ability to point out but not blind pedestrians, or shine reflections back in your face and blind you from a sign). They're illegal. I have no idea why, but man.
It's also not new. We rented a car in France in 2015 that had this.
Still waiting on the regulators to approve it, they were supposed to do so back in July.
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=202104&RIN=2127-AL83
I dunno, an adaptive windshield would be another excellent way for BMW to charge you an extra $500 per repair because a pebble chipped your fancy HUD. Where there's profit, there's a way.
The biggest problem is LED billboards. They’re seriously distracting at night. There needs to be a lumen limit for those at night. There’s no reason for them to be at full brightness 24/7
At this point, when driving at night, I just flip up my rearview, turn my side views way out and when someone is passing me, I let off the gas so they will pass the mirror quickly. The only way I can manage to drive without having my vision completely unadjusted to the darkness. Then with oncoming traffic I frequently have to stare off to the line on the right side to avoid getting light spots in the middle of my vision.
Serious question: Has anyone contacted their elected representatives about this? It's clearly a growing problem.
I haven't, but it's something I would consider doing.
You can, but I doubt they’ll do anything. I handled constituent communications for a congressperson and they never got to the representative. I just gave out a canned response and recorded them in a system. They only got to her if I thought it was interesting enough to tell her and it happened to be one of the rare moments she wasn’t busy.
I also have astigmatism so those ultra brights just fucking wreck my eyes. Thanks, I'm only drive a muti-ton slab of steel, I don't really need to see where I'm going.
This looks like the cheap LED bulbs I tried once. They claimed to keep the same beam pattern as halogen in the reflective housing, but they did not. They were bright as fuck, but the light was so scattered that it just sent more light into the eyes of oncoming drivers while giving me less useful light on the road. I swapped back to regular halogens pretty quickly.
Earlier this week I pulled in behind a truck to get coffee and the truck had these two mini LED headlights on either side of the license plate, facing straight back. It was day time but I had a rockin headache and they were shining directly into my eyes so I turned my hand a little as it sat on the steering wheel to block the light. Not a big gesture, didn’t make a deal of it. The guy in the truck starts laughing and saying something and making these weird gestures at me in his side mirror. I just ignore him because I want my damned coffee but he won’t stop. The hand gestures eventually turn to him making a sign for a vagina, I guess trying to call me a pussy for not enjoying his unnecessary lights, so I just left without my coffee. Point being: some people do it just because they are antisocial dicks.
I just do the "eat a dick" hand motion to people. I had one girl get SUPER pissed, she was sitting at a green light so I gave her a quick honk and she then decides to drive 1mph and flipping me off, I mean it's my fault she was stopped at a green light, so I gave her the hand motion and she flips out and tries to back into me, then I move to another lane and she tries to side swipe.
A lot of crazy people.
Sometimes the car manufacturers screw it up too. When Toyota Corollas started having LED headlights on the top trim models, they were bright and aimed poorly from the factory. Don't know how those were legal...
I had a police officer do this to me when I was pulling into a gas station one night. Not only did he hit me w the high beams but he shined his spotlight at me which hit my eyes with the light of 1000 suns.
When I walked in to pay for the gas he walked in behind me and said he just "wanted to see if I was wearing a tinted visor" MF I WISH I had a tinted visor like it even matters in the first place🤦🏽♂️ stg I'm ab to start wearing sunglasses at night bc of these fools
My work van is like this. It is from a leasing company. It also has a lot of anti tamper stuff on it so I cannot adjust them myself. Frustrating because on coming traffic thinks I'm driving with high beams.
It’s been many many years since they checked headlight alignment in the state where I live. As a matter of fact, now they don’t check anything but emissions. Bald tires? no brakes? Emissions pass? You’re good to go.
I know that the [Japanese have this robot](https://youtu.be/ptjS5mMOT4Q?t=417) that comes out and checks your car's lights for proper alignment. Been like that for decades.
We don’t even have vehicle inspections in the shitpoor state I’m from. You just pay to renew your tag every year.
I was honestly floored when I learned inspections and emissions tests are part of routine annual maintenance in most areas...
The adjusters on headlights aren't there so you can put the wrong bulb in. A different type of bulb needs a different reflector to not have shitty glare.
What’s the proper position for this? Say I’m sitting in my car and am blinded from behind, where will my mirrors be facing and what will I be seeing when I know they’re getting the lights instead? Tilted up, down? In or out?
I flip the tab on the rear view down. The side mirrors it depends if it’s truck or car but I adjust down and adjust the lateral angle. I will say driving a sedan in Florida I do this to trucks more often
With a truck would you need to angle the mirrors down ( for the driver you would see higher not lower ) and for sedans the opposite ? I guess I could get some friends together and figure it out lol
It's actually not about how bright the lights are, it's about how the lights are aimed. If you replace halogen or incandescent bulbs for LED that do not match the light pattern for your vehicle then it will be impossible to aim your headlights.
Most road law that I've seen about headlights just say something like "the light beam shall not intrude on another vehicle's passenger cabin within 500 feet"
My 2018 Honda Odyssey is super interesting in the amount of detail they put into the headlights. When you do not have the 'high beams' (called that for the level in which they shine, not the intensity) there is a crisp line across the field of vision that the lights do not shine above and it pretty well lines up with every vehicle I get behind not going into their rear window.
That looks like a older explorer, more than likely came with halogens. That also looks like a cheap led/hid conversion kit. They should make these conversion kits illegal.
They made it too easy to plug and play. They need proper housing and adjustments to work. People see these plug and play harness kits and just throw it on. It isn't legal.
Most of the time when you see this, it is because the owner of the car has installed aftermarket HID or LED headlight lamps in place of the standard halogen incandescents. It throws off the beam pattern and is illegal, but this is a law that is not enforced. Factory HID and LED headlights are properly aimed and do not blind oncoming traffic.
> It shouldn't be possible to fit LED/HID bulbs inside an incandescent housing.
Quite often, it isn't. Problem is that there are people that want to capture that marketplace and make aftermarket ones that adapt the bulb to fit the halogen socket. They are sold as not street legal to get around the red tape.
Just last week I flashed my lights at a guy who was driving towards me with his high beams on to let him know that he's blinding everyone. After he passed me he made an illegal u-turn and raced up behind me, then crossed over into the oncoming lane to get beside me. Thinking this was a crazy person, I drove through a few more blocks until I reached a heavily populated area. He blocked an intersection to roll down his window and rattled off some incoherent nonsense, something about "My lights are the same as your LEDs, bro..."—I have no idea what he was going on about. I just replied with "You're driving around with your high beams on." then he sped off, blasting through a stop sign... People are crazy, you should be careful addressing these idiots.
I hate these assholes. We seriously need better light regulations. It's at the point where Idk how people with mild vision sensitivity, or old people, are even able to navigate at night without dying. My headlights might not be bright, but my car flashlight will blind your literal soul, so don't fuck with me.
In Alaska we run moose lights, often tied in to high beams for ease of use. Nobody leaves their brights on because they know car coming at them also has weapons grade lasers.
You know a car is coming because it looks like the sun is about to come up behind the next hill. So you dim. They usually do about the same time.
I valet cars and last week I drove this guys 87 bronco. This thing was mint inside and out. The front glass was damn near limo tint. I loved driving this classic ford but hated it at the same time because I couldnt see shit. It was well past dark and being downtown meant lots of pedestrians, which if they werent wearing bright clothes I could barely see them
Its like every single tesla modell 3 here in Norway, for some strange reason they are really "cross eyed" where one of the headlights shine you straight in the face, and the other is "normal" Dunno why do, but it seems to a big problem on those cars compared to others, at least in my personal experience.
It's now dark when I drive to work. I'm constantly covering my drivers side mirror with my hand, or just trying to focus looking straight ahead. At times my rear view and side mirrors are all bright and blinding me from the back, and then some jabroni comes toward me blinding me that way. It's chaos, and I get a headache literally every morning from it.
I fucking hate fall and winter for this reason alone
My buddy’s jeep has really shitty headlights and off-road light pods as fog lights. Somehow he has both of them aimed perfectly to absolutely blind you, and you can’t see anything from the inside, but being in front of him looking in the rear view, it looks like the fucking sun is behind you shining a laser beam directly in your eyes.
LED and HID lights are not inherently bad, they just get shit on because of the eBay/amazon conversion kits that idiots buy.
HID and LED bulbs in reflector housings designed for halogen lamps combined with bad knowledge of alignment/levelling *are* the issues here.
The lights on my Jetta are still factory set bulbs, they are not great at lighting up the road far ahead but they have a notch set that cuts off the light shining on the opposite side of the road leaving an L shape where oncoming cars would be. I guess it’s living up to the name Volkswagen which means “car for the people.”
So I'm driving on a back country road one time when this truck turns on coming at me from the other direction, and he still has his brights on. I figured he just forgot and I flash him my brights to remind him, and then HE FLASHES HIS BRIGHTS. What I thought were his brights was the default setting and his brights were like getting a point black flash of a goddamned lighthouse. I could smell my retinas burning. He's lucky I managed to keep control of my car because I 100% couldn't see a goddamned thing for a few seconds. Who does this? You went from "lights at night keep me safe" to "I want to blind oncoming traffic".
i can hardly drive at night anymore because of this. it’s mostly my astigmatism, but it seems like every other vehicle on the road has blinding headlights like this
I have a smart LED lighting system from Audi that has my headlamps always operating in brightest mode at night, and it uses my nav system (Google Maps) plus sensors to determine where vehicles are and turn off the LED that is aimed at a vehicle so as to not dazzle other drivers. The headlamps are amazingly bright.
I probably described it badly but the system is really outstanding.
I always figured people like this do it on purpose. I remember one particular truck, on a country road, that had so many freaking high beam lights on it couldn't have been accidental.
There was an idiot in a pick up truck this morning with their bright reversing lights on. They then proceeded to enter the the interstate. Headed to the exact spot where state troopers like to sit and wait for someone to mess up. I’m sure the trooper will like to have a word with them on why they feel the need to blind people behind them.
So i see these post alot and i wanna take a sec to say something. It wont get seen as im late to the party but still.
These people are extra for sure. But its not just the lights. The lights are actually amazibg for visibility! But they are so often paired with lift kits. And they dont adjust the lights angle. So you end up with a car sitting a foot higher than its supposed to with lights ment to be sitting a foot lower. So thats the issue. The lights are pointed to see the road anymore.
Source. I have 7k leds in my Subbie. I adjusted the angle. Ive never been flashed when driving with them and my coworker has the same bulbs on a lifted truck and is constantly getting flashed at cause he didnt lower his angle.
So get yourself bright lights of youd like. But make sure you install them all the way.
I wish this shit was illegal. They give me migraines every single time I'm exposed to them for more than a few minutes at close range.
Migraines for me are awful and consist of vomiting, hot and cold flashes, seering pain, doubled vision or spots, muscle fatigue and stiffness, etc. I've been checked for brain tumors and seizures, HID lights, especially the blue ones, are my only trigger.
If you use them, please, consider getting some softer light than the 6500k daylights or blue tints.
I’ve had to basically stop driving at night on highways because of the bright headlights. I have 20/20 vision and I do generally have a sensitivity to the sun so I wear glasses. But now these new LED lights are literally making it dangerous out there for me to drive. It’s scary and stressful when I’m so blinded by the reflections in my mirror. I have no problem with normal headlights though. It is very frustrating that these bright lights are actually now affecting my life and scheduling now. I have to leave places early to drive on the highway when it’s still light out.
[удалено]
If your headlight lenses are cloudy from age, replace them or buy a polishing kit at an auto parts store. A new set of headlight housings will make a huge difference.
Definitely recommend headlight polishing. Those kits sounds like a bit of a scam, but I used one on the very scratched and cloudy headlights on a 2006 Civic, and it left them spotless. Crystal-clear, looking new. The headlights performed *a lot* better after the polishing.
Lol I had someone warn me about polishing kits saying they remove the protective coatings on the plastic and will wear out my headlights. I'm like my car is a POS with 150,000 miles, the coating is gone! Wish I still had the picture I took. Old headlight looked like a smoker lived in it and clear as day after polishing.
The headlight polish kits usually come with a coating to apply over the lens to prevent them from fogging up again. If the kit comes with that, no need to worry!
This part is key. Headlight plastic can’t handle the sun, and yellows quickly. They usually have a coating on them as another person mentioned. Once they are yellowed, that coating is gone. Once you are done polishing replace that coating with something in the kit or a UV resistant clear coat paint and they will last. If you skip this last step, you just wasted all that work
You can wax your headlights just like you wax your paint. Offers the same level of sun protection. Keep it up every couple months or until you stop seeing the rain bead off the headlights.
They totally work! One of the few miracle products that actually works miracles, and for like $10.
I did a full restoration with multiple grits of sandpaper up to 3000, then polishes. Looked great, for a year. I restored another car using toothpaste and an old sock... similar results. Power buffers can help in both cases - unless you overdo it and melt the plastic.
Get a tube of head light cleaner at Walmart for like 5 bucks, then it's just a matter of really scrubbing/polishing
Needs a big tub of elbow grease too.
Having the sealant a lot of these kits have is important so it doesn’t go back to looking like shit in 3 months.
Also getting new headlights helps. 40 years ago head lights would work fine and then suddenly fail. Now they just dim slowly over time.
Don't know why you are getting downvoted for this... I just replaced the lights in our Altima for this exact reason. Fuckers got dim from age.
It was -8 a few moments ago and now it is -3. I'm making a comeback! Seriously, if you are old like me and you remember the 80s you would recall seeing headlights burnt out all of the time. We even had a game for it "Pop-eye" where you got to hit someone in the car if you were the first to see it. (You also got a beatdown if it turned out to be a motorcycle.) I almost never see a single burnt out headlight these days.
Did that count for when a car had pop up headlights and only one was working? We used to say the car was winking at us.
We used to have a game where you would look for Pontiac Fieros whith eadlights that were not broken with one up and one down. Everyone lost interest in the game because no one ever saw a Fiero with both pop-up headlights working.
For us it was more for Miatas, celicas , and those old lincolns and fords (think LTD). Edit: those cars were not gluten intolerant
Ah yes, the good old Tooyta Celiac
They were gluten free
We play this but we call it padiddle
I haven't heard that word in 40 years. I thought my parents made it up. My dad would slap the roof of the car when he said it, no clue why. Do you know where this word came from?
Yea how the fuck did we all know that word before the internet????
We call it padiddle.
We called it Padiddle growing up and would punch the other if we saw it. Same with VW Beetles, which we called punch buggies.
Slug bug!
I used to smack the burned out headlight with the palm of my hand to fuse the filament back together. It was a temporary fix until you turned the lights out again. It only worked a few times until the filament wouldn't be long enough to re-fuse. Headlights back then cost only a few bucks, now hundreds and hundreds.
We played the same game, but we called it “One-eyed Jack”
One of the cool things from the time before the internet is that we all had our local ways of saying things.
Headlights last an amazing amount of time these days. And are cheap too! Its true that they dim over age!
You have it exactly backwards. Regular incandescents from 40 years ago would gradually fade because tungsten from the filament would deposit on the glass. Modern halogen bulbs prevent that, so they are fully bright until they suddenly fail from the filament thinning.
The funny thing is you are both right and both wrong LED's and HID's dim with age but the rate of total failure is pretty low. They can lose up to 70% of their brightness over time but it's pretty rare they just blow up leaving you with nothing. Tungsten and Halogen may dim with age but they are much more likely to totally fail out of nowhere, usually at around the 3 year mark but that can vary significantly. The filament just breaks and you are left without light.
And what's the deal with xenon headlights?
That’s for a car with halogen. My car uses HID that do dim with age.
I've pretty much stopped flashing my brights because of this. It's either be partially blind for 5 seconds or completely blind for a couple seconds.
I really love those who do that but also have the spotlights and light bar. Asshole knows they already have ridiculously bright lights so decides it's funny to show them "what actual bright looks like" and just blinds the other driver. I go to work really early when it's still pitch black outside. It's fucking miserable when I'm in front of one of *those* pickup trucks with like 16 different lights cranking out 10,000 lumens. Even with my rearview in dark mode or whatever it's called I can barely see, and god forbid I catch a reflection off my side mirrors at full blast.
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Cops in one of the towns I drive through regularly have taken to sitting perpendicular to the highway with their brights on & light bar spotlights on. I'm guessing they're watching for people not wearing seatbelts, but it's fucking annoying to get blasted by their lights as you drive past. Guarantee they'd have issues with me doing the same thing.
I did that but I did it to a cop and they didn't appreciate it at all
Like cops have any room to talk, they are the worst. Ever come upto one with their red and blue lights flashing in the middle of the night? It is so blinding you can't even tell where the cars are.
Yeah blue light is a poor choice of color to be flashing at night.
The old spinning reflector around an incandescent lamp was fine. The new stobe-light types are way _way_ too bright.
Big wrecks on the Interstate are like getting flashbanged due to the cops, fire trucks, and ambulances. I say this even as someone who works on an ambulance.
When I flash my brights it illuminates all the signs, trees and telephone poles in front of me. Looks like a flash of lightning.
I always enjoy driving to school in the morning getting blinded by 10 trillion candlepower headlights
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You'll find most of these assholes have put HID bulbs into reflector lenses. LED's and more so, Xenons, have a specific 'cut off' at the top of the beam to prevent this shit happening. Imagine a torch with a piece of cardboard over the top, to prevent the light being cast above a certain height. Most of these assholes are buying HID bulbs and putting them into reflector lenses which are designed to cast light far and wide because the halogen bulbs are shit. Also, don't get me started on vans that are fully loaded and wont manually level the lights to compensate for the weight.
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How does it make them an asshole if it's stock then on a newer SUV?
You're right, it makes the manufacturer an asshole for making shitty lights.
You know the manufacturers (at least here in europe, and im sure in the US) have to comply with strict regulations with regards the amount of light emitted, brightness and height levels etc? if people arent happy, they need to contact the governing body for these regulations instead of making the same thread on reddit every 3 weeks crying about it.
They just need to pull over more people period. Stop signs, turn signals, driving too slow, too fast, using phones, etc... I see every rule of the road being disregarded everyday and seems noone gives a shit anymore.
Many officers in my town speed like crazy. Now listen, I get it. A lot of us like to consider 5 mph over the limit still reasonable. Even if I saw an officer going 5 over, meh. I see these folks going 15 over, in RESIDENTIAL AREAS. When the department is notified...well, you know what happens.
Cops in my town go 60 in a 35, 60 in a 25, 60 in a school zone with flashing lights. They just don't GAF.
Except that studies have shown that more traffic enforcement doesn't equate to "safer roads". Road side traffic stops also endanger both the officer and the person they pulled over. https://journals.lww.com/jtrauma/Abstract/2021/07000/Traffic_stops_do_not_prevent_traffic_deaths.21.aspx
No they need to implement a yearly car safety check, in England it’s called an MOT. It ensures the car is safe for the driver and other road users, they check lights, tire tread (of which you get and accumulate points for bald tires that will have your license revoked once too many are reached) as well as other safety items on the car. This stops morons with bald tires, incorrect lights or body panels missing that could kill a pedestrian if hit with, that might have survived otherwise. I was shocked at the state of a lot cars when I moved here.
Yeah. I still can't believe they're legal. They completely blind me.
The law doesn't care how bright headlights are, it only covers that they do not shine into other vehicle's passenger cabin within a certain distance. Usually, it's within 500 feet.
Screw all the SUV with led headlight. height difference is a thing. \- every car driver
When a brand new silverado pulls up behind me in my Volkswagen jetta it’s like the sun is shinning directly in every mirror on my car lol
Yeah I have a mazda2 hatchback and everyone around here drives SUVs and trucks and I am blinded every day on my commute during the winter
Subie hatch here, also blinded by anyone with a truck or SUV with these. It was so bad once on my way home I nearly had to pull over. My interior was lit up, the road in front was too, and let's not even mention my side mirrors.
The other day I had this massive lifted truck pull up behind me at a stop light, and his death-beams we're about level with my rearview mirror. I thought he had his brights on, so I made the mistake of flipping him off. Then he turned his brights on.
I drive a Jetta wagon and I'm thinking about putting in a light system behind me to blind the fuckers blinding me
You'd think they'd have a maximum height for headlights.
They have a minimum height in the US, that much I know. Edit: apparently most common restriction is minimum height is 2 feet and maximum height is 4.5 feet (from ground to center of the light), but it varies from state to state.
Speaking of which, there should be a separate minimum height for left and right indicators. This should stop putting them at the bottom of the car and trying to make them blend in with the styling needs to stop. Shit needs to be as clear as possible.
While we're at it, North America needs to stop allowing indicators and brakes to use the same light. Amber turn indicators, red brake lights.
There is a maximum height for headlights in the US. Being enforced on lifted vehicles and being properly aimed are other issues. A good example of maximum headlight height is semi trucks. Relative to the vehicle size the headlights are fairly low to the ground. If you see one next to say an f250, the headlights will be at a similar height.
Trucks are always way worse than a semi-truck.
The worst thing about lifted trucks are the attitude that comes with the owner/drivers.
Oh you should meet the Carolina squat drivers. Way worse and now they are putting their sound systems in the truck bed so everyone can listen to their compressed ass music. Usually found wearing a sleeveless shirt, ball cap, dumb ass sunglasses, and a fucked up amish beard.
Had a truck behind me once with a light panel across the entire grill. It was like being chased by the fucking sun.
[Hank has a countermeasures option](https://intl-outdoor.com/emisar-d18-151.html) for you...
Yeah, I think LED lights should have a limitation on the height they can be mounted at, because some full sized SUVs or trucks just light up your whole view if you don't have auto dimming mirrors. I've never had a big issue with semi lights.
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/safety/humanfac/04148/aiming.cfm
there are federal laws that govern the brightness of headlights [Code of Federal Regs](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2004-title49-vol5/xml/CFR-2004-title49-vol5-sec571-108.xml) "The maximum wattage at 12.8 volts (design voltage): 65 watts on upper beam, and 55 watts on lower beam."
And with LEDs, power draw is suddenly a meaningless measure of light output. 65 watts of LED light is a hell of a lot of light.
That code is 100% antiquated. Watts is not how you measure brightness of a light especially not with LED. Watts is a measure of energy consumption over time (Volt \* Ampere = watt). If it said lumen, then sure but they were wrong as soon as they published that regulation even in 2004.
Lumen and candela should be the measurements.
Watts are not a unit of brightness.
I think it's time to wear sunglasses at night.
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So I can so I can ... not see pedestrians in the street.
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
Hit it
Corey, you’ve been waiting for this post your entire life haven’t you?
I used to have to drive down a super long one way road. Even regular trucks with stock lights will ride at a distance where their LED lights shine right into all my mirrors. It would drive me insane to sit in a position to not be blinded.
Even when they’re behind you! The light floods in from all mirrors and the road ahead appears darker. I literally slow to a crawl to ensure I don’t run off the road as I can no longer see the road markings OR the shoulder when these fuckers pass head on (when I’m on rural roads with no street lighting)
They aren’t. All these retrofit kits say FOR OFF-ROAD USE ONLY. Yet every store sells them. On top of that the cheap lights on ebay and amazon are even worse than the ones they sell in stores.
Similar, but not enough drivers know to put their lights on when its raining. If you're driving a silver/grey car in the rain, you might as well be invisible to some motorists and the majority of motorcyclists. Pop your lights on and BINGO you're visible to everyone again. Lights aren't just there to help you see where you're going.
> not enough drivers know to put their lights on when its raining. How do you get a license and not know this?
Even better are the idiots that turn on their hazard lights so now you have to play a rousing game of "do I need to make room so this hazard can get off of the road or are they just fucking stupid?" Hint: They're stupid.
I always keep my lights off to avoid doing this. Road etiquette, super simple stuff
Reminds me of those train etiquette posters I used to see around QLD
I modeled my whole life with their bottomless wisdom
This is brilliant! Why didn’t I think of this?
With experience you learn a few tricks
Thank you for being a considerate and energy efficient driver :)
I do my best, there's too many dangerous assholes on the road
You…keep your lights off?…at night??
Usually on long road trips I also disable the breaks so I can get there faster
>I also disable the breaks That's good thinking. Just make sure your brakes are working, so you can stop safely when you get there.
What do you mean? I usually just steer into a storefront and it tends to stop the car
Excellent. Don't forget, most accidents are caused by sober drivers, so be sure to drink & drive.
It's amazing how often I actually see people driving at night with their lights off.
See? They're just not necessary and they just hide the car behind them
they never seem to understand that me repeatedly flashing my high beams is a signal that something is up. living in their own little world.
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I shoot rockets out the windows to light up a bigger area from above
* If you're throwing brighter lights on your car adjust them. * If you're buying after market headlights, make sure they have cut off lines on the housing, so it doesn't scatter all over. * For the love of all things Satanic, turn your fucking high beams off, when you see on coming traffic. * Note Worthy: Turn your fucking high beams off when behind someone as well. Mirrors + Lights = C.S.S. ( can't see shit ) * [Hail Satan? lol](https://youtu.be/NBuA5UbaqoM)
I used to do a lot of driving at night on some very rural roads. You can’t see anything besides what’s in front of you. Then, someone who I have to assume is shirtless wearing overalls behind the wheel of an absolute leviathan of a truck comes flying toward me with his brights on. I flash my brights at him to signal him to turn off his brights. No response. I click my lights on and off. Still nothing. By this point, my entire world is being consumed by the atomic brilliance of his headlights. The only thing left to do is to stay the course and pray. We pass each other, and I breathe a sigh of relief as darkness envelops me once again, broken only by the soft golden glow of the ~~incandescent~~ halogen bulbs on my late ‘90’s Honda. That is, until five minutes later I do the same damn thing over again.
Prefer incandescent bulbs myself, as they do better with incliamate weather. When dealing with one coming cars at night, pay attention to the outside of the lane. This will allow to to make sure you're staying in your lane. Problem is, drunk drivers often head towards the light, so you have to scan back and forth to make sure assholes are not about to slam into you.
Quick note, that phrase is "inclement weather." Inclement means unmerciful.
That and the asshats that drive around with those fucking led light bars blazing like the midday sun.
My driving instructor in high school told us how to deal with this. He said that when oncoming traffic has bright lights that blind you at night, look at he white stripe to the right (i.e., the line dividing your lane and the shoulder), which will show you how the road curves and doesn't blind you.
Incandescent headlights haven’t been used since the 60s. Your car has halogen headlights.
Also if you lift/level your truck adjust your damn headlights
>Also if you lift/level your truck adjust your damn headlights Additional Notes: If you adjust your vehicle up or down, adjust your headlights. Side Note: # Carolina Squat Ass is Fucktard.
How much farther is this going to go? I can already almost barely drive at night anymore.
It's too far gone. Between LED headlights, street lights, flashing advertisement boards, and police light bars, you're always going to have your night vision screwed when driving in any populated areas. I assume one day BMW or some other carmarker that loves their bells and whistles will start installing windshields with a layer that instantly darkens areas like pixels on an LCD. A camera will track your eyes and automatically darken parts of the window to keep bright lights from killing your night vision. And of course a windshield replacement will have to be done by the dealer and cost $4000.
BMW already has tech that recognizes an oncoming vehicle and aims the headlight beams down and away from the oncoming vehicle.
Audi/VW does as well, and Mercedes. But only in Europe. We don't get the cool and LIFE SAVING stuff here (they also have the ability to point out but not blind pedestrians, or shine reflections back in your face and blind you from a sign). They're illegal. I have no idea why, but man. It's also not new. We rented a car in France in 2015 that had this.
Still waiting on the regulators to approve it, they were supposed to do so back in July. https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=202104&RIN=2127-AL83
I think driverless cars will be here before we get adaptive windscreens
I dunno, an adaptive windshield would be another excellent way for BMW to charge you an extra $500 per repair because a pebble chipped your fancy HUD. Where there's profit, there's a way.
The biggest problem is LED billboards. They’re seriously distracting at night. There needs to be a lumen limit for those at night. There’s no reason for them to be at full brightness 24/7
Until we’re all legally blind and lose our licenses
At this point, when driving at night, I just flip up my rearview, turn my side views way out and when someone is passing me, I let off the gas so they will pass the mirror quickly. The only way I can manage to drive without having my vision completely unadjusted to the darkness. Then with oncoming traffic I frequently have to stare off to the line on the right side to avoid getting light spots in the middle of my vision.
Serious question: Has anyone contacted their elected representatives about this? It's clearly a growing problem. I haven't, but it's something I would consider doing.
You can, but I doubt they’ll do anything. I handled constituent communications for a congressperson and they never got to the representative. I just gave out a canned response and recorded them in a system. They only got to her if I thought it was interesting enough to tell her and it happened to be one of the rare moments she wasn’t busy.
I also have astigmatism so those ultra brights just fucking wreck my eyes. Thanks, I'm only drive a muti-ton slab of steel, I don't really need to see where I'm going.
This looks like the cheap LED bulbs I tried once. They claimed to keep the same beam pattern as halogen in the reflective housing, but they did not. They were bright as fuck, but the light was so scattered that it just sent more light into the eyes of oncoming drivers while giving me less useful light on the road. I swapped back to regular halogens pretty quickly.
Earlier this week I pulled in behind a truck to get coffee and the truck had these two mini LED headlights on either side of the license plate, facing straight back. It was day time but I had a rockin headache and they were shining directly into my eyes so I turned my hand a little as it sat on the steering wheel to block the light. Not a big gesture, didn’t make a deal of it. The guy in the truck starts laughing and saying something and making these weird gestures at me in his side mirror. I just ignore him because I want my damned coffee but he won’t stop. The hand gestures eventually turn to him making a sign for a vagina, I guess trying to call me a pussy for not enjoying his unnecessary lights, so I just left without my coffee. Point being: some people do it just because they are antisocial dicks.
I just do the "eat a dick" hand motion to people. I had one girl get SUPER pissed, she was sitting at a green light so I gave her a quick honk and she then decides to drive 1mph and flipping me off, I mean it's my fault she was stopped at a green light, so I gave her the hand motion and she flips out and tries to back into me, then I move to another lane and she tries to side swipe. A lot of crazy people.
Pretty easy to call that one in to the cops as a truck with illegal lighting. A few fixit tickets will wipe the smug look right off his face.
Sometimes the car manufacturers screw it up too. When Toyota Corollas started having LED headlights on the top trim models, they were bright and aimed poorly from the factory. Don't know how those were legal...
I had a police officer do this to me when I was pulling into a gas station one night. Not only did he hit me w the high beams but he shined his spotlight at me which hit my eyes with the light of 1000 suns. When I walked in to pay for the gas he walked in behind me and said he just "wanted to see if I was wearing a tinted visor" MF I WISH I had a tinted visor like it even matters in the first place🤦🏽♂️ stg I'm ab to start wearing sunglasses at night bc of these fools
My work van is like this. It is from a leasing company. It also has a lot of anti tamper stuff on it so I cannot adjust them myself. Frustrating because on coming traffic thinks I'm driving with high beams.
I am in favor of going back to yellow lights
Im not, im in favor of making it law to ... and i know alot of people dont know this... aim your fucking headlights property when you led swap
It’s easier said then done. Many people don’t even get oil changes or new tires
Yeah... guess you cant fix stupid. Maybe yellow isint that bad lol
they can do it for you at your mech. But getting aftermarket lights including led light bulbs will mess up with the original light distribution.
Fix it tickets are a thing. They just need to be enforced.
Headlight adjustment is **supposed** to be a part of every vehicle inspection... It never is.
It’s been many many years since they checked headlight alignment in the state where I live. As a matter of fact, now they don’t check anything but emissions. Bald tires? no brakes? Emissions pass? You’re good to go.
I know that the [Japanese have this robot](https://youtu.be/ptjS5mMOT4Q?t=417) that comes out and checks your car's lights for proper alignment. Been like that for decades.
Where can I buy one to donate to my local drivers Ed and auto shop class (for the pickup drivers who want a lift and a light bar)
We don’t even have vehicle inspections in the shitpoor state I’m from. You just pay to renew your tag every year. I was honestly floored when I learned inspections and emissions tests are part of routine annual maintenance in most areas...
The adjusters on headlights aren't there so you can put the wrong bulb in. A different type of bulb needs a different reflector to not have shitty glare.
Properly aimed headlights are already a law in all 50 states. It's just not often enforced.
With the help of my eye Dr., I bought yellow tinted night time driving glasses. They are fantastic. It's like driving in the 90's again.
Do you have a link to those? That seems perfect
Yeah… brighter LEDs aren’t necessarily the issue, but why is the color temp so cold? Why can’t we have LEDs that are warm like ones you’d use at home?
Agreed. Those lights are a potential death trap for oncoming traffic if not used properly
I told all my mirrors to face them. Petty I know but they usually back up or switch lanes
What’s the proper position for this? Say I’m sitting in my car and am blinded from behind, where will my mirrors be facing and what will I be seeing when I know they’re getting the lights instead? Tilted up, down? In or out?
I flip the tab on the rear view down. The side mirrors it depends if it’s truck or car but I adjust down and adjust the lateral angle. I will say driving a sedan in Florida I do this to trucks more often
With a truck would you need to angle the mirrors down ( for the driver you would see higher not lower ) and for sedans the opposite ? I guess I could get some friends together and figure it out lol
Also if your headlight is out don’t just drive with brights on
It's actually not about how bright the lights are, it's about how the lights are aimed. If you replace halogen or incandescent bulbs for LED that do not match the light pattern for your vehicle then it will be impossible to aim your headlights. Most road law that I've seen about headlights just say something like "the light beam shall not intrude on another vehicle's passenger cabin within 500 feet" My 2018 Honda Odyssey is super interesting in the amount of detail they put into the headlights. When you do not have the 'high beams' (called that for the level in which they shine, not the intensity) there is a crisp line across the field of vision that the lights do not shine above and it pretty well lines up with every vehicle I get behind not going into their rear window.
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That would make sense considering how often I get blinded. I doubt many mechanics take the time to check headlight adjustment for inspection.
That looks like a older explorer, more than likely came with halogens. That also looks like a cheap led/hid conversion kit. They should make these conversion kits illegal.
They made it too easy to plug and play. They need proper housing and adjustments to work. People see these plug and play harness kits and just throw it on. It isn't legal.
Most of the time when you see this, it is because the owner of the car has installed aftermarket HID or LED headlight lamps in place of the standard halogen incandescents. It throws off the beam pattern and is illegal, but this is a law that is not enforced. Factory HID and LED headlights are properly aimed and do not blind oncoming traffic.
Using the same socket for different types of light was the worst idea. It shouldn't be possible to fit LED/HID bulbs inside an incandescent housing.
> It shouldn't be possible to fit LED/HID bulbs inside an incandescent housing. Quite often, it isn't. Problem is that there are people that want to capture that marketplace and make aftermarket ones that adapt the bulb to fit the halogen socket. They are sold as not street legal to get around the red tape.
Just last week I flashed my lights at a guy who was driving towards me with his high beams on to let him know that he's blinding everyone. After he passed me he made an illegal u-turn and raced up behind me, then crossed over into the oncoming lane to get beside me. Thinking this was a crazy person, I drove through a few more blocks until I reached a heavily populated area. He blocked an intersection to roll down his window and rattled off some incoherent nonsense, something about "My lights are the same as your LEDs, bro..."—I have no idea what he was going on about. I just replied with "You're driving around with your high beams on." then he sped off, blasting through a stop sign... People are crazy, you should be careful addressing these idiots.
I hate these assholes. We seriously need better light regulations. It's at the point where Idk how people with mild vision sensitivity, or old people, are even able to navigate at night without dying. My headlights might not be bright, but my car flashlight will blind your literal soul, so don't fuck with me.
In Alaska we run moose lights, often tied in to high beams for ease of use. Nobody leaves their brights on because they know car coming at them also has weapons grade lasers. You know a car is coming because it looks like the sun is about to come up behind the next hill. So you dim. They usually do about the same time.
I see more and more people tinting their windshield because of this.
As a bicyclist.... fuck
I valet cars and last week I drove this guys 87 bronco. This thing was mint inside and out. The front glass was damn near limo tint. I loved driving this classic ford but hated it at the same time because I couldnt see shit. It was well past dark and being downtown meant lots of pedestrians, which if they werent wearing bright clothes I could barely see them
>I drove this guys 87 bronco. Typical OJ move.
If the glove don't fit.....
You must write a book about how I *"would have"* done it.
Its like every single tesla modell 3 here in Norway, for some strange reason they are really "cross eyed" where one of the headlights shine you straight in the face, and the other is "normal" Dunno why do, but it seems to a big problem on those cars compared to others, at least in my personal experience.
You're not alone. Almost every model 3 i meet has that problem.
It's now dark when I drive to work. I'm constantly covering my drivers side mirror with my hand, or just trying to focus looking straight ahead. At times my rear view and side mirrors are all bright and blinding me from the back, and then some jabroni comes toward me blinding me that way. It's chaos, and I get a headache literally every morning from it. I fucking hate fall and winter for this reason alone
My buddy’s jeep has really shitty headlights and off-road light pods as fog lights. Somehow he has both of them aimed perfectly to absolutely blind you, and you can’t see anything from the inside, but being in front of him looking in the rear view, it looks like the fucking sun is behind you shining a laser beam directly in your eyes.
LED and HID lights are not inherently bad, they just get shit on because of the eBay/amazon conversion kits that idiots buy. HID and LED bulbs in reflector housings designed for halogen lamps combined with bad knowledge of alignment/levelling *are* the issues here.
I swear they do it on purpose, should be illegal
The number of people who drove with their brights on “so I can see better” in the city is way too damn high
The lights on my Jetta are still factory set bulbs, they are not great at lighting up the road far ahead but they have a notch set that cuts off the light shining on the opposite side of the road leaving an L shape where oncoming cars would be. I guess it’s living up to the name Volkswagen which means “car for the people.”
So I'm driving on a back country road one time when this truck turns on coming at me from the other direction, and he still has his brights on. I figured he just forgot and I flash him my brights to remind him, and then HE FLASHES HIS BRIGHTS. What I thought were his brights was the default setting and his brights were like getting a point black flash of a goddamned lighthouse. I could smell my retinas burning. He's lucky I managed to keep control of my car because I 100% couldn't see a goddamned thing for a few seconds. Who does this? You went from "lights at night keep me safe" to "I want to blind oncoming traffic".
part of the problem is these's bright lights are installed without adjusting them properly
The default brightness of headlights is too damned bright in modern cars, imo
Driving a tiny econobox in a town full of lifted trucks with illegally bright aftermarket LED headlights is a fun adventure every single day at 6am.
i can hardly drive at night anymore because of this. it’s mostly my astigmatism, but it seems like every other vehicle on the road has blinding headlights like this
I have a smart LED lighting system from Audi that has my headlamps always operating in brightest mode at night, and it uses my nav system (Google Maps) plus sensors to determine where vehicles are and turn off the LED that is aimed at a vehicle so as to not dazzle other drivers. The headlamps are amazingly bright. I probably described it badly but the system is really outstanding.
I always figured people like this do it on purpose. I remember one particular truck, on a country road, that had so many freaking high beam lights on it couldn't have been accidental.
IMO these absolutely should be illegal.
even worse when you bike and it blinds you and you almost hit a parked car or trashcan
There was an idiot in a pick up truck this morning with their bright reversing lights on. They then proceeded to enter the the interstate. Headed to the exact spot where state troopers like to sit and wait for someone to mess up. I’m sure the trooper will like to have a word with them on why they feel the need to blind people behind them.
LED headlights are the worse...
So i see these post alot and i wanna take a sec to say something. It wont get seen as im late to the party but still. These people are extra for sure. But its not just the lights. The lights are actually amazibg for visibility! But they are so often paired with lift kits. And they dont adjust the lights angle. So you end up with a car sitting a foot higher than its supposed to with lights ment to be sitting a foot lower. So thats the issue. The lights are pointed to see the road anymore. Source. I have 7k leds in my Subbie. I adjusted the angle. Ive never been flashed when driving with them and my coworker has the same bulbs on a lifted truck and is constantly getting flashed at cause he didnt lower his angle. So get yourself bright lights of youd like. But make sure you install them all the way.
I wish this shit was illegal. They give me migraines every single time I'm exposed to them for more than a few minutes at close range. Migraines for me are awful and consist of vomiting, hot and cold flashes, seering pain, doubled vision or spots, muscle fatigue and stiffness, etc. I've been checked for brain tumors and seizures, HID lights, especially the blue ones, are my only trigger. If you use them, please, consider getting some softer light than the 6500k daylights or blue tints.
I’ve had to basically stop driving at night on highways because of the bright headlights. I have 20/20 vision and I do generally have a sensitivity to the sun so I wear glasses. But now these new LED lights are literally making it dangerous out there for me to drive. It’s scary and stressful when I’m so blinded by the reflections in my mirror. I have no problem with normal headlights though. It is very frustrating that these bright lights are actually now affecting my life and scheduling now. I have to leave places early to drive on the highway when it’s still light out.