Although the truck driver didn't stop, I was later able to track him from the dashcam footage.

BHPian Suryendu87 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

A minor accident took place while my wife was returning home alone. A truck in front rolled back from a speed breaker, took out the left headlight assembly and left a deep scratch on the bonnet. The truck driver sped away but I was later able to track him from the above dashcam footage.

The owner agreed to reimburse expenses post-insurance claim as Hyundai says the headlight assembly will cost 43k (parts alone).

Insurance claim is registered and post-approval, the order will be placed as parts for Hyundai Santa Fe are never in stock.

She normally leaves much gap at higher speeds but was too close at this instance. A costly learning indeed.

As the part will take a minimum of 15-20 days to arrive, what precautions I can take to avoid damaging the LED high beam?

Here's what BHPian SS80 had to say about the matter:

Honestly, I feel the fault lies on both parties in that video, no minimum distance was maintained with the truck, my guess is the distance was less than a few feet.

The truck struggled to cross the hump in half clutch and he rolled back. Good that they agreed to pay some portion of your damage expense.

Here's what BHPian Suryendu87 replied:

Yes, she was too close to the truck and learned from this to never drive too close and have a buffer to anticipate what can go wrong.

Here's what BHPian LoneRidder had to say about the matter:

Indeed, it is a costly lesson. I think your wife wanted to overtake the slow-moving truck. She was too close to the truck.

Here's what BHPian Suryendu87 replied:

Not overtake but be on the right side as the road ahead has lots of potholes in the middle.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

The headlights on the Mahindra TUV300 were so bright that I had to cover my eyes with my hands.

BHPian MadinMumbai recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Are there prescribed standards when it comes to headlights on cars?

A couple of days back I was taking an after-dinner saunter around my building. It was late, about 11 PM, when a TUV 300 entered our colony. The headlights on it were so bright that for a moment I was completely blinded. I put up my hands to my eyes to shield them, and clearly, the driver was embarrassed.

He apologised by saying that his lights were dimmed and not on full beam. I shudder to think what the full beam might be like, and how difficult it would be to drive on dark single lane roads when facing this car. I imagine it being dangerous for the average two-wheeler, what with the potholed roads and steep edges that suddenly fall off.

Since then I've been noticing many cars with bright white light that are equally blinding. I am sure these are aftermarket lamps, by comparison, the OEMs on my Honda remind me of a diya on a windy night, and I wonder if there is a standard that lamp manufacturers are expected to follow, or is it, like in the case of horns, a free for all? Bigger, louder, harsher, brighter, brightest!

Here's what BHPian Rodie09 had to say about the matter:

Apparently and unfortunately there seems to be no norm (at least in practice) with all OEMs going full guns blazing across the world including marquee brands. The effect has trickled down to the mass market, auto rickshaws and even two-wheelers. This is the biggest safety issue I see on roads these days. Some have gone ahead and put even white LED tail lights or some disco stuff on brake lights.

It is ironic that the smaller vehicles nowadays are a moving assortment of bright lights, and on the other hand the larger ones (trucks, dumpers) are missing even a simple small red taillight.

Please refer to my thread over here where this has been discussed.

Here's what BHPian ashutoshb had to say about the matter:

There should be some norms. The biggest culprits are the LED upgrades on reflector headlights. The light is scattered, blinds everybody. And then there are fools, who will have full beam + LED fog lamps deliberately bullying the car in front for a pass.

Here's what BHPian Mr.Boss had to say about the matter:

Yes, below is one of the examples (for 2 & 3 wheelers, similar one exists for 4-wheelers as well)

Here's what BHPian xja1 had to say about the matter:

There are published Automotive Industry Standards (AIS) for car headlights that all manufacturers need to follow in order to be compliant with regulations. You will find several published documents on the website of the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) for almost every aspect of a vehicle (e.g. headlights, horns, tail lights, etc.).

Addressing your question, in India we follow the ECE regulations for headlamps. ARAI has adapted these regulations for the Indian context and the provisions cover regular filament bulbs as well as LEDs.

For easy reference, I have included a couple of excerpts of the regulations below, but you may peruse the entire document in detail from the ARAI website.

Guidelines covering page:

Beam pattern regulations:

Illustration:

Ideally, no manufacturer can obtain approvals for new vehicle models without complying with these (and several other) guidelines. Anything in the purview of aftermarket modifications or upgrades is obviously beyond the scope of such regulations and completely depends on the level of wackiness and bling that appeals to the whim of each driver.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

On 4 lane highways, the stock lights were manageable for driving.

BHPian nax04 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Finally, completed the long pending headlight upgrade for my Thar.

Need to upgrade:

• During night drives on 2 lane highways, heavy vehicles never use their low beams by default. We had to slow down and strain yourself to pass them.
• On 4 lane highways, the stock lights were manageable for driving, but when we ask for a pass from behind, the stock lights were very dull on the rear view mirrors of the vehicle at front.

These were the main reasons for the upgrade.

List of options I shortlisted:

• LED bulbs instead of stock halogens - light just scatters too much and there is no proper throw during high beam (light just spreads)
• Minus lights, Kingkong lights - All these were mostly made in China and some how did not appeal me with the lighting performance.
• Use higher wattage bulb with relay setup - I did not want to add additional wiring / setup and was looking for a direct swap.
• Hella / Lightforce lights - Lighting performance was good but not that cost effective. (Almost made up my mind to go for this option)

Finally came across lights from STEDI (few articles are already there in our forum and one of my friend strongly recommended)

Options available in STEDI - Homage / Iris chrome / Carbon Black series.

Chose Homage series as it gives the highest beam distance among the 3 [353m Vs 235m Vs 235m respectively]

Homage series give the highest throw in both high beam and low beam modes.

Fitting :

It is a direct swap except the frames which the headlight sits needs to be filed a little bit. Did the fitting at my friends place. The technician helped with aligning the lights as well.

Low beam:

High beam:

High Beam with Aux (Projectors with HID):

Street view with low beam:

Street view with high beam:

Note : These pictures were captured with some lights nearby and not in fully dark area.

Next upgrade will be a light bar!

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

The result was a stress-free drive, a significant change from my usual night driving experience.

BHPian Biraj recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

While Linea's headlamps were never a strong point, I managed over the years by upgrading the bulbs to Osram Nightbreaker Plus. With increasing age, both the car and mine, it became increasingly difficult to drive after dark, especially with oncoming cars in high beams. I wear Zeiss DriveSafe prescription lenses, and they help, but the problem was the lack of illumination, especially with low beams. This became even more apparent after I started driving the Jimny, which has fairly good headlamps.

I was sceptical about modifying the headlamps due to potential CAN bus warnings. Thus, I explored replacing the fog lamps with projector LEDs. BHPian BB311 recommended an installer in Noida, conveniently located near my home. I checked the pricing on a Sunday evening and ended up getting the LEDs installed. The improvement in illumination is remarkable. The installer suggested setting the beams high, but I preferred them to enhance the low beam area, as the high beam was sufficient. Moreover, I didn't want to blind oncoming traffic.

The installer mentioned that these fog lamps can be connected to the high beams; however, the process of taping the wire didn’t give me much confidence. So, I declined and decided to keep them just as fog lamps.

The drive back was effortless and stress-free, a significant change from my usual night driving experience. I'm very pleased with the upgrade and think I should have done it sooner.

• Brand: IPH
• Bulb: LED (three colour temperatures: White, yellow, and warm white)
• Cost: 9.5k, including installation.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

When we checked the fuse, it was fine and this was bad news because it meant there was a wiring problem somewhere else.

BHPian Jeroen recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Does your car have Xenon lights, or would you like to understand what makes Xenon lights? Well, my spanner mate Peter's Jaguar has Xenon lights. And one of them was not working. Peter had already checked the bulb and the fuse, but they were both fine. Which usually means the so-called ballast might be short.

If you want to know a bit more about Xenon lights, have a look here.

Compared to traditional halogen lights, xenon lights are very different from halogens and can be recognised on the road thanks to the blue hue they give off. They use an electric arc between two electrodes rather than a filament to produce light and are often referred to as high-intensity discharge (HID) lights. Xenon gas is used as it helps establish an arc between the electrodes (and hence creates light) at lower temperatures, but becomes less important when the bulb is up to temperature.

A big advantage of Xenon lights is Lifespan. Xenon bulbs can last up to 10 years, making for a good piece of mind. Brightness - As high-intensity discharge would suggest, xenon lights are brighter than their halogen counterparts.

A downside is the cost associated with it. If you are buying a used car which has xenon lights and is coming up on 10 years old, good replacement units aren’t nearly as cheap as you would hope.

It's not only that the bulb is so much more expensive, but all the other parts associated with a Xenon light are expensive too. You need the aforementioned ballast (more about that later) and the headlight unit, needs auto-height adjustment for the beams as well. (At least here in the West they do). Those bits are ridiculously expensive!

So Peter had done a bit of research trying to determine what kind of ballast he needed and where it was located. The latter was simple, underneath the light unit. Which ballast was a bit more problematic? Different sources gave different parts. The difference is that it is either a 4 or 12-pin connector. Whereas the 12-pin version is still available the 4-pin is not. Even tracing the part by VIN did not provide any further clarity. Eventually, Peter ordered a 12-pin connector from a specialised Xenos light shop in Breda. They told him if anything he could swap the 12 pins for a second-hand 4 pin they happened to have in stock as well.

So we decided to pull the headlight unit and see what was installed to start with.

Always practice removing the battery connection when working on electrical bits!

Peter had checked the Jaguar workshop manual on how to remove the headlight unit. It meant lots of plastic bits had to come off!

There is a large plastic cover plate on top of the engine/radiator. A couple of plastic plugs and off it comes. Underneath the car, we had to undo the so-called splash guard. Next, the bumper had to come off, or rather the plastic skirt.

Always a bit tricky. The workshop manual tells you to just pull on the side. But a bumper is very expensive and we wanted to make sure. We found a couple of good videos on YouTube. The bumper popped off without any problems, but it did need quite a bit of force. Which is always pretty nerve-wracking! What if you break it?

The complete headlight unit was removed. Notice that connector?

I had a good look at that connector.

Similar situation on the headlight unit counterpart of the connector.

So we felt pretty sure we had found the problem. We were not sure, whether we needed a new ballast after all.

We took the ballast of the headlight unit as well.

Here you see the insight of the headlight unit and the two cables attaching to the ballast. If you look carefully you can also see part of the self-levelling adjustment mechanism.

It was also clear this was a 4 pin ballast. The Ballast had some water damage as well. So we decided to hop into my Mini and drive to Breda and swap the brand new 12-pin ballast for a second-hand 4-pin ballast. Peter got two second-hand 4-pin ballast, just so he had another one in stock.

The guy from the shop told us the difference between the two versions is related to the self-levelling functioning of the headlight units. The 12-pin version has the self-levelling electronic bits built in. On the 4-pin version, self-levelling electronics are controlled via the BCM.

When we got back to my garage we replaced the ballast, connected the headlight unit to the connector in the car and turned on the light, just to see if it worked. Before putting everything back together completely. But it did not!

So we swapped the left headlight unit, to the right-hand side of the car. This would give us a clear indication of whether the problem was still within the right-hand headlight unit or the right-hand headlight wiring. Good thing we did, because the left unit did not work either when hooked up to the right side wiring.

Back to the drawing board!

The first thing we did was check the fuse again. Simple enough. Peter's Jaguar has only three (!?) fuse boxes. The owner manual will tell you which fuse box sits where and identify each fuse.

The location of the fuse box as per the manual should be under the hood.

Fuse box under the hood:

According to the manual, the right headlight is fuse F8. That is the yellow 20A fuse, the second one from the top, right-hand row.

When we checked the fuse, it was fine. Which was bad news, because it meant there was a wiring problem somewhere else. Tracing these sorts of wiring issues is usually a real PITA!

Luckily I decided just to check all fuses, for good measure. I had a good look and even before I started pulling fuses, I could see, with the fuse still in place, a problem with the 20A fuse in the second row from the right, bottom position. F10. It had popped!!

As you can see in the owner manual, F10 is supposed to be the horn (claxon) and it is also supposed to be a different rating. Nevertheless, we put a new 20A fuse in, hooked up the right-hand headlight unit and presto. Bright Light!!

So we felt confident we had found the problem and fixed it, so we put both headlights back in and started bolting everything back on.

Peter doing the finishing touches on his car.

Peter did some checking afterwards in the full workshop manual and came up with these drawings. On the 2005 version, the fuse for the right main headlight is F8 (and F9 for the left unit)

However, for the 2006 version, the right main headlight fuse is F10!

So it appears the owner manual of Peter Jaguar is a 2005 version and not a 2006 version!! Peter bought this 2006 Jaguar second-hand. Jaguars come with a lot of documentation. The complete set was with the car, brand new. So we felt, the dealer probably ordered a new documentation set as the old one had gone missing. Apparently, lots of cars get traded in, without the car documentation.

The root cause of all the problems was probably water ingress in the connector. I have come across many corroded connectors during many years of spannering, but this one was particularly bad. There was some evidence of soot even. So it probably short-circuited, which caused the fuse to pop. There was also water inside the headlight unit.

All in all, quite an interesting job. Learned a lot. Check the documentation of your car for the correct year/version!

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

I have performed this on my Kia Carens but these points should help with any kind of LED upgrade in any car.

BHPian dreamkiller_18 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Nowadays the manufacturers are putting in whatnot limitations to make sure that customers do not do aftermarket upgrades to different systems. Some examples are head-units embedded with climate control features ( MG Hector ) speaker configurations disabled from head-units using engineering modes ( KIA ) and similar stuff etc. H19 is also one of them, so that you pay more for the higher model of the same vehicle which comes at a high premium.

Earlier the headlights came with mostly H4 bulbs which were user-replaceable. H19 is usually not available aftermarket from major brands at this time as it is a new standard and mostly dedicated to OEMs. H19 is available from some OEM providers like Osram, excelite and Philips but only halogen is available so people cannot upgrade from OEM manufacturers.

Thanks to Chinese manufacturers who come to the rescue here. H19 has a very specific design with 2 additional probes which makes the H4 bulb difficult to fit all the way in the reflectors causing uneven beam pattern.

Before we go ahead with the upgrade the model of the car which I have used here is the Kia Carens 1.4 T-GDI Prestige Plus model. However, this guide will help you with any LED upgrade. Along with this, I will also share some of my recommendations which I checked in the market. It's upto you if you want to buy from these resellers. This is just to share an idea of pricing. ** no promotions**.

H19 Halogen to H19 LED reasons

When I purchased this vehicle from KIA, after doing my first long trip on the highway I was very sure that I had a pathetic headlight throw and that they were very much in need of an upgrade. So I started exploring my options.

Recommendations

I had options available like the Blaupunkt, Genome, excelite ( Kia/Hyundai OEM ). These were the best as per my research in build quality and brightness.

These were also the only plug-and-play in the market as they come with the H19 holder. We will see how it differs from the H4 later in the images.

Excelite

I went for Excelite 130W 6000K Temp and got it in 6200INR with an MRP of 12399INR sounded like a good deal to me. I purchased from Pal Motors Delhi as I have had previous very good experiences with them for my Swift damping and speaker upgrades.

Excelite is a product of DHlighting Korea. It's an OEM which provides lighting to KIA and Hyundai globally. They are located in Faridabad for India Operations. So you can get good pricing across Delhi for this. I sourced this from Pal Motors Delhi. They have the following configurations and the price difference between Pune and Delhi is easily 1-2k on the same model of LED. ( I can share the contact information for Pal Motors if needed ) Price range from 4200INR to 7200INR.

• Excelite available temps are 4300k, 5000k, 6000k
• Wattages are - 70W, 110W, 130W and 180W
• Lumens 20000 for 130W pair which I doubt

Models available as below

Blaupunkt

It is a German brand however in India all products are imported from China. For Blaupunkt, the trademark in India is used by someone sitting in Delhi.

Blaupunkt available temps are 4300k and 6000k

• 80w 6000k
• 110w 4300k
• 110w 6000k

Genome car accessories Pune, are manufacturers of DRLs, Projectors and LEDs. I liked their build quality but dropped it because they were overpriced for me. https://www.instagram.com/genomecaraccessories/ You can find their contact number on their Instagram page.

Aozoom

Aozoom is another Indian manufacturer based in Delhi with Chinese imports and branding. This is brighter however it may cost you a bit of a premium, 150W goes till 7500INR.

Points to be careful of for any LED upgrade:

• Always make sure that you don't go over and above your manufacturer wattage rating, so you don't burn out your headlight assembly and can avoid CAN-BUS errors.
• The LED you are using is as near as possible to the halogen in diameter and length. Also, the LED placement on the led unit replicates the halogen. As you know that your reflector is not for an LED, so the size of the LED should replicate a halogen bulb to make sure that you get the best possible throw and reflection. ( see the linked videos for proper assistance)
• Stay within the RTO limitations so that you may be able to claim insurance when needed. CMVR 1989 Act says not to go above 60W for each bulb on the Headlamp.
• The LEDs are said to be 80% brighter and cooler than halogens. I somewhat disagree but this is what is available on the internet. So you have enough space to go below your halogen wattages.
• Do proper alignment to get the best out of your headlight upgrade so it does not hurt the incoming traffic as well.

The upgrade

There are some very good installers in Pune but I wanted to do this as a DIY myself. It did not take me much time to open the headlight back dust cover and put in the bulbs. I have attached some images of the holder which will help you understand the difference and the 2 probes placement which is why the H4 bulb cannot go in fully and gives you a scattered beam pattern when fitted in an H19 holder.

If you can get H19 holder from anywhere you can fit any LED into your reflector as this is the only difference in all the aftermarket LEDs. This holder is provided by most of the manufacturers who on their box say it's for H19. Do note that some manufacturers will supply you with an H4 and say it will fit. But you yourself will see how different the beam pattern is when the holder is a mismatch.

Do remember your reflector is built for a halogen and fitting an LED may have its drawbacks. Like insurance claims, heating and condensation if not fitted properly. Fan can cause condensation in the long run in some headlights only during winters when it's colder or rainy weather.

H19 Holder

You will have to first attach the holder in the lock position and the bulb can get into the holder in only one position make sure to check this out when installing. Make sure the position of the LED is vertical in the reflector adjust as per the below diagram.

Installation Method

Holder lock mechanism:

Specifications of the Led Bulb:

I have preferred that it should have a CREE LED for a longer life. However, I will update here soon on how long it lasts.

Performance:

As you know the reflectors are not made for LEDs so this is a miss or hit case mostly whenever you upgrade. However, if you pay attention to the specifics of adjusting the headlights carefully after installation. You will find the performance at par or even better than the OEM-provided LEDs.

The high beam cutting and throw can be somewhat disappointing. I have adjusted mine with the adjuster screw located on the headlight assembly itself to the lowest possible throw so I only see the roads and don't blind others. I use the headlight leveller button in the cabin if I need to move this higher anytime when needed. However when you have a superb low beam throw who needs a high beam too often. ( Personal preference ).

If you need extreme cutouts on beam pattern go for projectors which include opening the headlight housing and installation by pros. Genome Accessories have good success rate on this one. However, Osram CBI Pro projectors are good as well on KIA Carens. The only reason to go for LEDs is to keep the warranty intact and I did not want to open my headlight assembly yet. Also, I wanted to save some money. Projectors can cost you anywhere around 22-32k.

I have loaded multiple images with and without adjustment of LED for you guys to decide yourself on the throw. Right side image is always halogen in the below images.

Bulb image: Do note mine is a H/L LED with both high and low beams and 2 LEDs on each side. Some vehicles may have separate High and low-beam bulb setups.

See the LED placement and how it replicates the filament of Halogen. Some LEDs like Philips Ultinon do have a small reflector as well on the LED itself to concentrate the beam pattern. Never tried Philips because of its high cost and difficult warranty coverage in India.

Low beam comparison without adjustment ( left led / right halogen

High beam comparison without adjustment ( left led / right halogen)

Low beam comparison after adjustment of headlight ( left led / right halogen)

High beam comparison after adjustment of headlight ( left led / right halogen)

I would also like to share some of the video links which will help you decide on which LED bulbs to choose from and how you can do any headlight adjustments yourselves from headlight revolution.

Do note that the adjustment is not the leveller which is next to the steering wheel but the vertical and horizontal adjustment screws available on the headlight assembly itself.

Headlight adjustment screw on headlamp assembly. There will be 2. Vertical and horizontal ones. Easy to identify it has this teeth pattern.

Thank you for reading till the end. Please do share your experience on how your upgrade goes.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

I eventually had to buy the new part but the fact that he invested his time & effort into it & also refused to charge anything for the failed attempt is really commendable.

BHPian IanNazareth recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi Guys! This is an update of the first real expenses I've incurred over the last 2 years I've driven the A3.

A couple of days ago while driving behind a lorry during dusk I noticed the DRL glow on the back of the truck was missing on my left. That's when I realized it had turned completely light yellow. Fortunately, the other side was good to go, or so I thought, more on this later. This was only the DRL turning yellow and the light functioning completely normal.

Here is how it looked.

Over the next few days, I visited my trusted mechanic who suggested that the only way to solve it was to get the light replaced. An approximate of 1.5L per light. A quick search online came out with the same figures.

We tried various other things like going into the computers and switching off the DRLs altogether to look symmetrical to no use. There was also a video of someone who had fixed the same issue. We tried an experimental procedure of taking off the light and found the tube to be burnt by the DRL. Basically, the way these operate is that there is a bright DRL chip at one end that powers the entire plastic translucent tube to make it glow.

This is the video that we referred to.

His light looked like this.

Here is the burnt DRL tube on my headlight after opening it up.

Here is how our light came out after cleaning the DRL chip.

After a few hours, the light went back to yellow and I just bought a new one from a dealer in Delhi who shipped it to Mumbai in 1 Day. We had it installed the next day and here is the result.

Notice the earlier one looks yellow in comparison to the new one made in Taiwan import. I will probably need to swap this out too now but at least they are both equally bright.

A good thing with the headlight was that these were halogens on my car, the global models have full LEDs which are almost 3-4 times the cost. This is something I came to know of while reading through forums on how to fix the issue.

I feel very confident with Mr Qasim Shirazi who owns Shirazi Automotive @Borivali & helped me conduct an experimental procedure of opening up the light. It was worth a try. He refused to charge me for the failed attempt too considering it was a lost labor effort to open and put back on while we then waited for the part, that I insisted on.

Big shout out to him and his team, always has a couple of Germans lying around being fixed any time of the day. He laughingly explained to me that if the service centers did their job, people wouldn't need him.

True!

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

The new tech is said to use up to 25,000 LEDs, each 0.04 mm wide.

According to reports, Hyundai Mobis has come up with a new headlight technology which projects street signs on the road ahead.

The new lighting system can project texts and images on the road ahead, with the company describing it as a potential extension of a vehicle's head-up display. The text and image projections on the road, also help warn pedestrians.

The headlight tech is said to be tied to the vehicle's GPS and onboard cameras. This allows the system to project appropriate information, such as roadwork signs when approaching a construction zone or even a crosswalk for pedestrians.

The new tech is said to use up to 25,000 LEDs, each 0.04 mm wide with its mirrors being 0.01 mm wide. This according to Hyundai Mobis, allows them to have a fine level of control in shaping the light projections.

Having said that, this isn't the first time headlight projections have been showcased. Mercedes unveiled a similar tech in 2018 on its Maybach S-Class; while Ford Europe also showed off its shape-projecting headlights in 2022.

Source: MotorAuthority

The glare of headlights even from scooters is scary these days.

BHPian Rodie09 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Fellow BHPians,

This question has been puzzling me for long and always wanted to understand what others feel about the new craze in the town - blinding white headlights.

I am not talking about any illegal street modifications but the factory-fitted white headlights/HID/Xenon/Projector lamps. Please pardon my limited know-how of terminology and perhaps some may be incorrect.

I know for sure that these are not illegal as they are offered in mass market cars and all brands are offering including the luxury international ones.

I know this is not India-specific but a worldwide phenomenon now, so nothing local about it.

My question is that when we talk of safety so much, does no one (read government, ARAI) see any safety-related issue with these new blinding headlamps? How are manufacturers allowed to provide these factory fitted?

The glare of headlights even from scooters is scary these days. One cannot just see anything at all on the road in this blinding glare. Are all world-class brands ignoring this big road safety issue completely? What is various governments' stand internationally?

Just because the person inside such a vehicle needs to see the road brighter, he/she cannot take away the right of the other person to have a clear view of the road at the same time. It is plain injustice.

What was so wrong with the good old yellow vehicle lights that we had been driving with for decades?

Looking forward to hearing views from fellow BHPians and if I am missing anything, happy to get enlightened

Here's what BHPian Rajeevraj had to say on the matter:

I think it is more to do with the bare minimum knowledge and etiquette of knowing to use the low beam. There is no need to use the high beam in a lot of scenarios, but most drivers do not seem to know that there is something called a low beam and when to use low and when to use high. Also, there is a large chunk who don't care and are always on high beams.

Of course, it is true that the newer cars have more powerful headlights, fogs, DRLs and whatnot, but a large part of the 'blinding' issue is due to the improper use of the high beams and fog lamps.

Here's what BHPian shankar.balan had to say on the matter:

Lots of people including me feel this way about these blinding white lights. Some are even like the strobe lights on stage at a concert.

I am decidedly not a fan of blinding white lights and LEDs.

Here's what BHPian subuiyer had to say on the matter:

Ah, a topic close to my heart. Excessively bright headlights and fog lamps have become an epidemic. My understanding is the law limits capacity in terms of some voltage/wattage and throw angle, which has become vague by today's standards.

Technology is continuously helping extract more lumens per watt and at a pace, the enforcement machinery is struggling to keep up.

Most times it's best to let pass-tailing vehicles that dipper me or even high beam me as soon as possible. Auto-dimming IRVM isn't enough because ORVMs are still blitzing your eyes.

There are many drivers who keep hitting the dipper when in bumper-to-bumper traffic - not sure how it will help them. And the ones who wield their bright lights and loud horns closely tailing to beat poor drivers(s) ahead of them into submission (make way, and worse) only to halt 300 meters down the road for a pee break or take selfies. I find it difficult not to get worked up on encountering such idiots.

Here's what BHPian ashivas89 had to say on the matter:

Thanks, OP for the thread. I'll bet every one of us will find this super relatable.

A part of the problem as Rajeevraj mentioned is due to a significant chunk of the educated population let alone barely educated chauffeurs and the like not knowing the appropriate scenario to use high beam. This basically addresses the problem that the OP brought up about stock headlights.

However, there is another elephant in the room. Unscientific headlamp upgrades.

This is a huge problem in BLR at least due to most taxis (and even private owners) having aftermarket LEDs installed in headlights that were never meant to have LED. What they don't understand is that these just scatter light and are very effective only in blinding oncoming traffic and not much else.

I drove a friend's '09 Civic after he upgraded to LED. While the effect was dazzling in a parking lot, it did nothing to light stuff up effectively after say 50-80 metres while driving. Signboards on highways, reflectors, and trucks at a distance were better lit with my Verna's stock halogen projectors.

Having the brightest headlights is not going to help you see better when oncoming traffic is blinding you. It might act as a deterrent at best to get the other fellow to switch to low beam (if that).

As aware and responsible automotive enthusiasts shall we in this forum at least take a pledge to be more sensitive to oncoming traffic + upgrade headlights only if absolutely necessary+ do it scientifically while at it?

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

The SUV's headlight cluster is a sealed unit with an LED setup and has no options for further upgrades.

BHPian Mathan1130 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

One pending modification was to improve the headlight throw in my Hyundai Tucson. The light throw is good for the city roads but for highway drive its inadequate. The headlight cluster is a sealed unit with an LED setup and has no options for further upgrades. So the search leads me to Hella light bar which was the only solution. Decided to get the black Magic series which was the slimmest light bar with the perfect fit/size for Tucson.

Features:

• LED high-beam light bar
• Full blackout appearance
• Sleek design
• Intense light output
• Temperature Control System

Specifications

• 21 High-intensity LEDs
• IP 68, IP 69K
• Die-cast aluminium housing
• Color temperature: 5700 Kelvin
• 105 W
• Measured lumen: 6000 lm
• Weight: 1400 g
• Dimensions:20.6? W x 1.9? H x 2.1? D / 522 x 47 x 55 mm

Here are the pictures of the Hella Light Bar Unit.

After the Installation

Stock low beam

Stock low beam + light bar (In streets)

Just the light bar

Note: There is no risk for oncoming traffic, the light is focused, pointed on the ground and does not scatter much. I don't use this in a city & this is only for highway runs. There is a separate switch to turn on/off the light bar!

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.