LR4 halogen main/high beam - anyone fixed it?

[ThreeSheds]

There is a problem with the halogen high beams on the Discovery 4 - they do a fine job of illuminating the trees, but don't add much to the useful light output from the main projectors.

Living where I do I spend quite a lot of time with main beam on, so I want to fix it, but have been unable to find any definitive fixes on t'web.

I am thinking of trying a few ideas, first of which is to set the bulbs at a slight angle in their housing using a spacer of some kind (perhaps a bit of wire). I reckon if I angle them up, then the main focus of the beam will go down...

After that I may try LED bulbs. Thinking here is that they may just give more uncontrolled light which might fill in the gaps somewhat. Problem is that they are all so different, so which to try first...

But before I do any of this, I was wondering if any of you lot had found a fix?

Cheers,

Roger

 

[bear]

Hi Roger, Is there not any beam adjustment on the light units?

Griff

[ThreeSheds]

20 minutes ago, bear said:

Hi Roger, Is there not any beam adjustment on the light units?

Griff

I must admit that I haven't looked myself, but I have read that the only adjustment is on the main projector light.

I think that  I should have a look before troubling people on the forum! 

 

[Bowie69]

If you want the beam to come down, what about the level adjustment knobby/wheely thing?

 

https://topix.landrover.jlrext.com/topix/service/document/475682#3363577f-1132-4b67-8793-9990bd1fd453!!5!124 

[Chicken Drumstick]

6 minutes ago, Bowie69 said:

If you want the beam to come down, what about the level adjustment knobby/wheely thing?

 

https://topix.landrover.jlrext.com/topix/service/document/475682#3363577f-1132-4b67-8793-9990bd1fd453!!5!124 

I think that is only the headlight lights, as in dip beam. I think the op is saying about main beam. I'm not familiar with the lamps on the D4, but if main beam is a separate lamp/lens, then they are probably static and don't adjust.

I assume that it maybe also switches off the dip beam when main beam is activated (many cars do). Which means the road directly infront of the car isn't illuminated very well with main beam.

If the main beam is pointing at the tree tops, then there may be some other issues going on, I had this with one of the lamps on my X-Type Jag. I could see nothing wrong, no damage and all fitted, but it pointed very high. So something must have happened to it.

 

@ThreeSheds - I'm not sure changing bulbs will solve the beam profile/direction issues. I know people like to claim HID/LED won't focus the same, but the reality is, they will probably be 95% the same.

If you can't adjust the main beam, maybe you can mod the wiring to keep the dip beam lights on if they do switch off. However, if you spend a lot of time using main beam in open countryside. Then maybe it's worth looking at some additional lights, a mix of spot/flood lights or a light bar (these too can have a mix of spot and flood beam pattern).

[ThreeSheds]

18 minutes ago, Bowie69 said:

If you want the beam to come down, what about the level adjustment knobby/wheely thing?

https://topix.landrover.jlrext.com/topix/service/document/475682#3363577f-1132-4b67-8793-9990bd1fd453!!5!124 

I am afraid that my car doesn't have that - it's for halogen/halogen only if believe.

Mine is HID (used for both normal dip and main, Chicken Drumstick) and halogen for what one might call main, but is also referred to as the 'infill lights' by some people.

There IS screw adjustment on the back of the light unit, but that moves a complete chassis within the headlight unit, which carries both the HID and the halogen units. And the HID one is adjusted just right...

There was quite a bit of chatter about this problem on the AULRO site in 2014 (I think) where there appeared to be no easy fix suggested. 

[ThreeSheds]

OK - so I think I have this licked... I installed a couple of cheap LED bulbs instead of the H7 and angled them in their mountings about 20^o inwards, and have almost eliminated that annoying gap and the feeling that they are spotting treetops. (I get the feeling that I have written this before?).

I also played with the alignment screws, and there was some improvement to be had, but as I suspected, the screws affect low beam too and so that has to be the deciding factor when setting up the lights.

Tonight, if the weather is ok, I will go out and take some before and after photos to round off this thread.

[garrycol]

Do you have bi-xenon lights?  If so, the halogen lights are just fillers as the main high beam is in the Bi-Xenon projector.

If you do not have bi-xenon then yes the Halogen is the hi beam - you can adjust the lights but it also adjusts the low beam at the same time.  I put HIDs into my hi beams and worked great except that light up took a while so I went back to super bright Halogens which are good.

I have not tried LEDs as I did not think they had the range for hi beams but if you can adjust the bulbs separately to the housings that may help.

Garry

 

 

[ThreeSheds]

garrycol: I have (ok - had...) halogen 'fill-in' lights and HID main/dip lights. it was the fill-in halogens that were leaving a big gap above the mains and then lighting up the trees, that I wanted to prevent. The LED bulb adjustment is merely that (unlike halogens which don't need it anyway) the LEDs can be rotated in the housing. This is because most (all) LED lights have blind spots where they don't shine and the effects of this can often be mitigated by rotating them.

The LEDs I used (which present as 55 Watts to the ECU) are not actually very bright, but since they are only fill-in lights I am happy with how they are now. On another thread I have mentioned that I am looking for some long range spots to help with the significant amount of night driving on unlit roads that I do at this time of year.

Rog