Super bright main beam Xenon headlights

F

FabZ4

Member
 Northumberland
Recently oncoming drivers have been telling me with varying degrees of politeness that my main beam xenons are too bright, thinking I am on full beam! I politely let them know that this is not the case but the fact remains the lights must be too bright.
This is not something that I noticed driving the car but I think it started after I upgraded my angel eyes from yellow to white. Since I don’t want to be a hazard in the road I’ll change them back to yellow but before I do I wanted to ask if anyone else has this problem or if the are other reasons for the Xenons to become brighter (does that happen with age for example)?
 
The xenon’s should be self levelling, perhaps there is a problem with one of the sensors or they have been wrongly set, do you notice them lift and then resettle when the lights are turned on?
 
The daylight running lamps are not that bright even with super duper LEDs..but the light is scattered..

So you need to see if its the headlights or not..

As chippie states its probably been set high by someome which you can't do by changing the DRLs so a sensor level issue seems likely
 
Understood whilst all Xenons & LED’s are self levelling, there is a point of reference via adjuster screws that’s set manually.

Never had to do this for either Z, though am sure they must be there just like other AUDI’s Merc’s & Volvos I’ve owned which I’ve had to ‘tweak’.

Suggestion there is to manually drop both beams so the current throw falls a metre or so shorter... & see how you get on
 
Pbondar said:
The daylight running lamps are not that bright even with super duper LEDs..but the light is scattered..

So you need to see if its the headlights or not..

As chippie states its probably been set high by someome which you can't do by changing the DRLs so a sensor level issue seems likely
Click to expand...

I’ve not done anything to the main beam level and yes they self level when I start the car; I changed changed the angels eyes myself.

So is the consensus that the increase in brightness has nothing to do with me changing the angel eyes?
 
Jembo said:
Understood whilst all Xenons & LED’s are self levelling, there is a point of reference via adjuster screws that’s set manually.

Never had to do this for either Z, though am sure they must be there just like other AUDI’s Merc’s & Volvos I’ve owned which I’ve had to ‘tweak’.

Suggestion there is to manually drop both beams so the current throw falls a metre or so shorter... & see how you get on
Click to expand...

Do you where the adjuster screw is - is that a specialist job?
 
mine were set too high and I was always getting flashed so turned mine down a bit which had the added advantage that it actually lit the road up better.. there is a white plastic hex nut on top that does the business..also I have had mine through a few MOT`s with no fail for being set too low
 
FabZ4 said:
Do you where the adjuster screw is - is that a specialist job?
Click to expand...

Regret I’ve never even had to look - this thread may help https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=105612
 
Just pop in to any MOT centre and get a level check, takes 5 min and you know its set right, probably cost you a tenner.
 
Or give them 10 sheets of bog roll, probably worth more at the moment
 
mcbutler said:
Just pop in to any MOT centre and get a level check, takes 5 min and you know its set right, probably cost you a tenner.
Click to expand...
Yes thanks, the car is booked in for an MOT next week so I’ll get them to check.
 
In my case my lights were low. Turned out to be the rear level sensor was reading less than a volt. Basically making the car think I had about 300 lbs of concrete in the trunk. Thus leveling the lights down. In your case it may be the front level sensor. If it's reading low, the light will be leveled up. I would not do any mechanical adjustments until you confirm the sensors are working. You can INPA to verify the sensors. Attached is a picture of mine after repair.

20200228_151334.jpg
 
That's interesting as i toyed with i idea of fitting a potentiometer so that the beam could be adjusted manually.
Then realised more trouble than it's worth.
 
The level sensors are potentiometers . There's one near the front wheel and one near the rear wheel. If you wish you can have someone code them out, but then you would have to manually set the headlights lower than you would with the adaptive system working. Otherwise, if you pack up the trunk, the the headlight will be aiming too high, since the adaptive system is deleted.

There is lots of videos to replace the front level sensor. I just did one for the rear level sensor. The front is a easy, the rear is a bit of a pain to get to...
https://youtu.be/-J5REa-oWOw
 
My idea was to just wire in a pot to the level wiring, so i could just sit in comfort in the car and adjust manually.
I have had no trouble with my cars levellers, but i think a few have seen one of the sensor arm overtravel and reverse.
 
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