Car lamps : one-eyed monster and other outrages

[Tangled Metal]

I've noticed a lot more cars with headlights angled incorrectly so one looks like it's on full beam or it looks like it's flashing as the car goes over even the smallest of bumps.

But more often than that are the cars which keep full beam headlights on when they're on roads with cars going both ways a lot such that it's not really worth putting them on or they leave full beam on because there's just a cyclist going the other way getting their eyes burnt out by the lights.

As to cars with one light working well ime first headlights go dim so you get a warning even without an in car warning light. The other point is I've never really had a problem with the one headlight cars. On a dark road they look like motorbikes but before I get close I start to see it's a car. If you can't see the car then are your car lights working right? Not gone dim and needing to be replaced?

[Ivor Tingting]

This is what fog lights are for. One headlight out, turn the fog lights on.

[tim-b]

Hi
Progress innit? My son's car has the front fog lamps on permanently, well, they're in the fog lamp holes and the manufacturer calls them daytime running lights
Mercedes headlamps can be driven everywhere on main beam because they automatically dip the headlamps towards oncoming traffic; I wonder if a legally but dimly-lit cyclist registers with the car? 84 LEDs in a lamp, sort that one out! Oh, and satnav plots roundabouts and switches the headlamps into roundabout mode
Regards
tim-b

[the_twin]

I think we will all be happier when car makers start competing with each other to have the easiest to change bulbs. I was contorting myself a few days ago to change a rear light bulb in our VW, and it really was a two handed job with room only for one hand. Is that really the best they can do?

Most people don't buy cars based on such concerns. Few reviews ever mention it. Most cars are sold on unrealistic vague impressions (the feeling of driving on mythical empty roads on adverts), basic stats (tax band, a doctored mpg, boot dimensions and so on) and short test-drives with maybe quick glances under the bonnet. Only a few nutters like me bother to look for access to the important user-serviceable parts when looking under the bonnet and that's probably only because I'm a mechanic's son and inaccessible lights are getting pretty notorious.

When I bought my current car (VW Polo) I asked the salesman how would I change a lightbulb. He didn’t know, but I did since I’d read the handbook online.

[MikeF]

In the interest of science today I took out and put back both the main beam and the dip beam (separate bulbs now apparently) bulbs in my brand new hot off the line Ford.


It took five minutes having never looked at it before.
There really is no excuse for driving about dark lanes with, and especially with the driver side light not working.

These people should be stopped and made to fill pot holes in for a week.

Okay so its a data set of one - but I don't care.

That's how it should be - a simple user replacement. However with a large number of cars it's very involved eg for most of the front lights of my car the grill and front bumper need removing. Not a 15 minute job certainly not in the dark or on a wet winter day.

[CREPELLO]

I can't stand the latest LED lights when the user flashes their lights. It's like a high powered photo flash going off and somehow it's more sudden than a halogen bulb being flashed. The other driver may be flashing to me as a 'thankyou' as they pass. I wish they wouldn't. Don't they see the same effect when another driver with the same lights flashes them? Perhaps it's because so many of these drivers are in high up SUV's that they don't receive the full blast that us normal road users experience.

BTW, I'm speaking as a driver. I guess that as a cyclist I don't even warrant acknowledgement of even being there on the road!

[pwa]

I can't stand the latest LED lights when the user flashes their lights. It's like a high powered photo flash going off and somehow it's more sudden than a halogen bulb being flashed. The other driver may be flashing to me as a 'thankyou' as they pass. I wish they wouldn't. Don't they see the same effect when another driver with the same lights flashes them? Perhaps it's because so many of these drivers are in high up SUV's that they don't receive the full blast that us normal road users experience.

BTW, I'm speaking as a driver. I guess that as a cyclist I don't even warrant acknowledgement of even being there on the road!

I have nothing but contempt for the people who set standards for motor vehicles. Those LED lights on modern cars are not fit for purpose. Cyclists complain about them, other motorists complain about them. When an oncoming car goes over a speed bump you get the full laser effect right in the eye.

[reohn2]

I can't stand the latest LED lights when the user flashes their lights. It's like a high powered photo flash going off and somehow it's more sudden than a halogen bulb being flashed. The other driver may be flashing to me as a 'thankyou' as they pass. I wish they wouldn't. Don't they see the same effect when another driver with the same lights flashes them? Perhaps it's because so many of these drivers are in high up SUV's that they don't receive the full blast that us normal road users experience.

BTW, I'm speaking as a driver. I guess that as a cyclist I don't even warrant acknowledgement of even being there on the road!

I have nothing but contempt for the people who set standards for motor vehicles. Those LED lights on modern cars are not fit for purpose. Cyclists complain about them, other motorists complain about them. When an oncoming car goes over a speed bump you get the full laser effect right in the eye.

I agree and even on dipped headlights there seems to be a lot more high stray light than ordinary headlights.

[ThePinkOne]

When I had a Ford Focus (original model), one of the headlights was easy-ish to change, but the other was a right pain- needed to remove quite a few other components to get to the holder, took a good half hour to change the lamp- even with lots of practice. (We got lots of practice because the replacement lamps never seemed to last more than a year. However, we then found a source of OEM lamps and they lasted much longer- like the originals had).

The thing with Halfords. They didn't fit all headlight lamps- only the easy ones (not sure what the policy is these days). They would only do the easy one on my Focus, never the difficult one- however it wasn't the easy one we needed doing- and of course they used their lamps which only lasted a year. (Tail-lights were really easy on a Focus anyway and lasted ages).

I don't have the car anymore, but something I did learn is that not all replacement lamps are the same.

TPO

[reohn2]

When I had a Ford Focus (original model), one of the headlights was easy-ish to change, but the other was a right pain- needed to remove quite a few other components to get to the holder, took a good half hour to change the lamp- even with lots of practice.(We got lots of practice because the replacement lamps never seemed to last more than a year. However, we then found a source of OEM lamps and they lasted much longer- like the originals had).

The thing with Halfords. They didn't fit all headlight lamps- only the easy ones (not sure what the policy is these days). They would only do the easy one on my Focus, never the difficult one- however it wasn't the easy one we needed doing- and of course they used their lamps which only lasted a year. (Tail-lights were really easy on a Focus anyway and lasted ages).

I don't have the car anymore, but something I did learn is that not all replacement lamps are the same.

TPO

I had a Mondeo that blew a couple of bulbs in a short time,I replaced them with Halfords own brand thinking that one bulb is like another,it was only the third time when I paid 30% more for a Bosch bulb that lasted the next 6 years I had the car that I realised not all bulbs are the same

[kwackers]

I had a Mondeo that blew a couple of bulbs in a short time,I replaced them with Halfords own brand thinking that one bulb is like another,it was only the third time when I paid 30% more for a Bosch bulb that lasted the next 6 years I had the car that I realised not all bulbs are the same

Same with everything.

Car needs a new exhaust. First one (original) lasted 10 years, the missus got talked into paying half price for a replacement. By the end of the first winter the chrome ends were just rusty blobs (they were fine on the 10 year old original) and now three years later it needs another. Half price, third of the life and scruffy for most of it to boot.

Same with car batteries, fortunately the car is still on its original battery - 13 years. Yet I've never bought a replacement for a car that lasted more than 3 or 4 - despite supposedly being a 'good' brand.

And then there are the forgeries, some of which are so good you'd struggle to tell them apart.

[Salty Seadog]

The rise in broken lights is inversely proportionate to the number of police.

[reohn2]

The rise in broken lights is inversely proportionate to the number of police.

Spot on.
No police=no law enforcement.
No law enforcement=lawlessness.
It's that simple