rets

Does everyone satisfy with your HID headlight? Do you think it's bright and enough to cover all roads/areas in front of your TL? I do, but there is one thing I hope TL/Acura would make it better in the future.


Sometimes, I do feel this HID has lack of the broad coverage. It's only 7~12 feet in width in front. Without the active front lighting system (AFS of RL), off and on, I got some dead spots while making turns.


Respectfully, Halogen headlight would cover a little widely in terms of this only purpose.


If I turn on my "fog light", yes, the front ambit will be more pantoscopic, but to have fog light ON all the time is a little annoying for me. Perhaps, it's only me...

Repecat

Well, it's bright enough, but as you have stated, the coverage could be better. Maybe it is a deficiency in the internal reflectors in not providing enough light directly in front of the car. I like the sharp cutoff; very similar to some Marchal lights I had in my old TR3 Triumph.

rets

Would 2G TL's HID brighter and wider than 3G TL's?


Does 2G TL use D2S 4300k HID, too?





(Repecat, points for you...)

Repecat

I really don't know. This is the first car I have had with HID lights. They are nice, but in addition to what you said, I wish they were self-leveling like the euro cars.

rets

Self-leveling is good to have, too. Prolly 4G TL, LOL.


However, will this self-leveing really adjust the headlight angle while driving over the bumps? This is prolly just one second span, can this auto-self-leveling feature respond so quickly?


Or, the so-called self-leveling feature is only good for driving uphills or downhills? Because it needs a few seconds to alter its angle...

Repecat

Good point! Maybe I should go out and buy a Benz and try them to see how rapidly they react to road surface changes. lol Well, maybe not. I'm kinda financially tapped out. Your question would be a good one for any member that has owned a recent model euro car. I would be interested in the response.

badboy

To answer your question rets, yes, the self leveling hids do respond quickly. That is my experience with them. Although I do not own a car which has self leveling hids, I have been inside plenty(audis). They are designed to level when going over pot holes, those sudden changes in level.

One thing I have noticed is that when I am driving in front of a car with hids, I do get some glare when the road is uneven and has ridges in it. I have also noticed that they are audis which have the self adjusting hids.

I guess someone with an owners manual could give use the precise answer we all are looking for. I am curious to know what the manual says.

rets

Interesting posting, badboy, thanks.

This sounds like they have compass-like gradienter insides. Someone more professional should say it all, I don't want to guess anymore...

caball88

the autoleveling systems respond quickily but not that quick. its designed for uneven roads and not potholes and bumps. if you were traveling uphill or downhill the lights adjust to compensate for the angle of the car.

as for the HID light beam width that is entirely dependent on the housing(in this case or projectors). the fact that its HID has no revelance over what direction the light is aimed. generally HIDs are brighter and put out more light than halogen so car manufacturers can levelrage this and design headlight housings that spread out further and wider. The TL however doesn't have as wide a beam as alot of us like. i am agree that the HIDs should be a little wider and cover more of the sides but there is nothing we could really do to adjust without some major modification.

Ron A

Why would the lights adjust when going up or down a hill? This would mean that when going up or down a long hill, the car's headlights would be adjusted for the entire length of the hill, until the car was again on level ground. The car is still level with the surface of the road, so no adjustment would be needed.

I would think the adjustment is only needed when the car is not level with the surface of the road, such as potholes, a loaded trunk, a minor dip in the road which causes the front end to raise or lower momentarily, when braking or accelerating rapidly, or a similar situation where the body of the car is not parallel to the road.

SouthernBoy

I disagree. My former car, a 2002 Alima SE, had HIDs. I changed the fog lamps from the factory OEM units to Philips Premium lamps (I had also tried Sylvania SilverStar lamps but the Philips Premiums worked better in my opinion). Anyway, with the Altima, you needed the fog lamps on two-lane country roads to really get decent lighting along the sides of the road and shoulders (we have a LOT of deer running around out here).

However, my TL has a boatload of light delivered along the peripheral areas. The fogs and certainly the hi-beams increase this, but the lo-beams are fine when driving country roads for light distribution all around the front and sides. At least this is the case with my TL.

jkeith72

I have now owned my car for about 3 weeks, and i believe it would benefit from a headlight leveling system. I first noticed this when driving up the very windy and sometimes steep South Mountain in Phoenix. if youre going up or down a hill, your headlight range is limited by the slope of the hill. I think this only applies for shorter steeper hills that your headlight hits before youre level with the ground again. so essentially, you lose headlight range when the road starts to level. I dont know if that makes sense, but its kind of hard to explain. Jason

ravi

width wise its fine i think but on dark roads its hard to see whats really REALLY ahead of you so you have enough time to stop. But overallim satisfied

KT88

I can say that the self-leveling HID in our Audis are far superior to my '05 TL. I drive twisty, hilly back roads for about 15 miles of my commute and my A4 and A6 throw a much better beam up and over to the "up" side of a hill when I am driving down a hill. The TL lights point level with the car's nose, which is traveling downhill! I have no clue what is uphill now.

I also miss a dedicated halogen high beam. The bi-xenon only modifies the light pattern of the TL's HID projector, not the intensity. Flipping on a dedicated 55 watts with a halogen high beam of my Audi floods the next 300 yards of trees with a wide intense beam. The TL falls far short in this department. A real shame, but that's not to say I don't like the car overall.

missmyprelude

Yeah, I actually don't believe that a leveling system will help with the TL's lights. I think the HIDs cast a broad enough beam, and the high beams light up the night perfectly. My problem is with the sharp cutoff, especially when going up/down hills. Leveling wouldn't help (I don't think), but if the cutoff wasn't so sharp, some of the light would make its way further up the road. The lights on my wife's Lexus don't have such a sharp cutoff, and they prove to be a bit better when going up/down hills. I understand the reason for the cutoff (to prevent blinding other drivers), but I don't like it. On the other hand, the lights are much brighter than those in the Lexus, so maybe that's why we need that sharp cutoff point. Regardless, people still give me the high beams a lot thinking that I have mine on...

Overall, however, I think the lights are excellent besides this...

KT88

That's the point, leveling the headlights compensates for the sharp cut off while going up and down hills.

wavshrdr

As for self-leveling HID's on Euro cars, in Europe YOU are the one who actually determines how they are leveld. There is usually a 3 or 4 position selector switch and you become the self-leveler. I like this system MUCH better than the auto-level feature on my MB. I guess we stupid North American's can't be trusted with something so complex as a switch to adjust the height of our headlights.

rets

Mmm, you just remind me of this manual leveling system. I ever drove a Euro car with this feature, and I was wondering wtf it was at that time.


But, I would say most of US (us) would keep it in the highest position forever.

wavshrdr

I got spoiled with it. Came back and kept looking for the knob on my MB. Even POS cars have it there. Load up an American spec car's trunk with a decent load and you can go racoon hunting. We should be able to adjust our lights. I still like the lights better on the TL than the RL though. What's up with no bi-xenon's on the RL?

jkeith72

bingo!

jkeith72

bingo! KT88 hit the nail on the head. its the straight ahead driving up and down hills that would require a self leveling system...the width of the beam or help around corners would have to be a pivoting style system like the lexus RX330.

rets

We're talking about Acura...


Ok, the comparison btwn 05RL's AFS and 05RX330's...

05RL
The system is initiated when the RL travels over 66 feet at a sustained speed over 12 miles per hour. When moving through a curve, the inside headlight pivots up to 20 degrees in that direction, while the other headlight remains stationary. AFS works automatically without buttons to push or settings to configure. However, the driver may manually turn it off, if desired.


05RX330
These headlamps are brilliant in every sense of the word, illuminating up to 12 percent more road surface and reducing glare to oncoming traffic. The AFS also pivots the left headlamp up to 15 degrees, and the right headlamp up to 5 degrees while turning.

avs007

2G TL uses D2R. (D2R = Reflector Style, D2S = Projector Style)
Don't ask why it's a S instead of a P

JDM5lugHatch

The Mitsubishi EVO and Subaru WRX STi both have adjustable leveling HID systems. There is a switch off to your left and you can adjust them to your liking or leave them alone.

BdasAcuraTL

heeey good point! why is it an S instead of P!?!

Rexorg

Any car with HID is superior to any car with only halogen. The TL's throw out a load of light straight and to the sides. The cutoff is a standard complaint. My '03 CTS had HID and they did the same thing. I agree the TL's HIDs are no good on hilly terrain. I am going to write Honda/Acura about it. Maybe they will give me a '05 RL, which I should have waited for.

rescueswimmer

I know Im going to get flamed for this but its my life. I raised the HID's on the driver and passenger side of the car. Not to high to blind people but enough I get some people to flash me now and then. WOW what a diffrence it made. I can see way down the road and off to the sides greatly. When I put the High's on its like daylight. When I first got the car. I was like wow these lights are bright for about 25 yards. Then I adjusted them and they are awesome. Wouldnt buy a car with out them now.

rets

How's about showing us some quick tips how you adjust HID height yourself?

SouthernBoy

There are two holes in the side-front plastic engine covers, one in each, which are used for this purpose. They are plainly visible and have arrows to show up and down adjustments. All you need is a rather large Phillips screwdriver.

JDM5lugHatch

Yep did mine a couple weeks ago. Still need to tweek them a bit more.

rets

Thanks, I know this, just wonder if there is any new way to do that...

Precision Crafted

My '02 TL with multi-reflector headlights did not have the "black spots" in front of the bumper or the sudden "cut off" of the beams. My '04 TL does. This I believe is due to the projector style head lamps. Projectors have a more focused beam. The trade off is that there are sharp "cut off's" in the lighting. I noticed this the first thing when I drove my new TL at night.

If I remember straight, Motor Trend did an article on headlights in the late '90's. The only cars that had HID's at that time were the Lincoln Mark 8 and the BMW 750iL. The 750 used projector lenes while the Lincoln had multi-reflectors. Motor trends opinions were that the Lincoln's lights covered more area but that the BMW's were focused better. I do recall reading in the same article were regardless of the type of bulbs used, projectors have those "cut-off" spots to the immediate front, sides and at the far edge of the light beams.

missmyprelude

Let me explain why I don't think it would help. My previous post wasn't all that clear. I may be dead wrong, but let's see...

When going up a hill, if the ground is flat (but not level), I don't want the headlights to change.
When going down a hill, if the ground is flat (but not level), I also don't want the headlights to change.
If I'm traveling on flat, level ground toward a hill, I'd like the headlights to move up slightly.

I don't think a leveling system would work the way I would want in these cases. It may solve some problems (e.g. descending a hill onto a level stretch of road), but I think it would miss in the majority of cases since it is based on how level the road is rather than how flat.

cqq99

I have a 2003 Mini Cooper S with auto leveling and you are somewhat right. They don't work to perfection when they are "auto leveling" BUT as previous posts have said the only way to truly have "perfect" leveling lights is to have the ability to do it yourself manually. Although auto leveling is GREAT for a few things.

1. When romping on the gas the lights stay down on the road.
2. When slamming on the breaks they stay up on the road.
3. When coming to the crest of a hill and then proceeding to head down a decline the lights will adjust down slightly before the nose of the car.
4. When coming to the end of a longer decline the lights will adjust up slightly before the nose of the car.

Basically without the ability to manually adjust your lights there are only slight improvements.

Just my $0.02...