94 replies to this topic

[woz099]

I did some driving around and changing between settings too.

'Right' is too low, I couldn't really see where I was going! 'Left' was maybe a little high but I didn't get flashed (not yet at least). That said, Left gave a really clear view for driving around and appeared to have a Left-Kerb bias, backing up the Left Hand Traffic in UK thought.

Ultimately, there will be opposing stances until someone speaks with Ford UK or AutoExpress (who will speak to Ford UK) - even then it maybe subjective.

I'm sticking with (as delivered) Left Hand Traffic.

[MondeoCat]

thanks for pics Yessuz - that explains things very well.... and Fordy1 / WOZ for your comments too.

 

Ok, so I agree with you that the patterns are the same orientation (so we are both correct in our assumptions to an extent!)

 

So i'm now minded to agree with you that left should be the setting - but with the caveat that where I thought the right setting was correct but too low - its perhaps that the left setting is correct but maybe too high.

 

I also played about with settings this morning on a wall at work and left does also shift the pattern to the left slightly further than the right as well as the height increase. So again this supports left being correct as its pointing slightly more away from traffic.

 

So i ran most of the way to work today with left setting. Don't get me wrong the lighting is fantastic - but i'm still half way up the tree lines and even lighting signs up in front of the cars that are further down the road in front of me !

 

I passed a wall running alongside the road and you can see the angle of the beam in it's longitudinal plane. God knows what gradient it is (was trying to guess but concentrating on driving at the same time lol), but its definitely quite steep. If i'm behind a car then my lights must be shining right through them.

 

Had less flashes on the standard 7.35m carriageways but still a few from trucks.

Loads of flashes on the 5m wide country lanes.

 

So, the other issue is the continental switch. If we are left, then when switched to right it simply lowers the beam and shifts it slightly to the right to stop oncoming traffic getting blinded. So again that makes sense if we accept the pattern itself doesn't mirror itself.

 

This is supported by the german forum where the guys pictures there had the same as you have demonstrated but in reverse. So i conclude their headlights must be different units fixed with the opposite pattern to ours but work in the same way buy simply lowering themselves on switch.

 

I think we are there folks :-)

My fellow commuters coming the other way will have me strung up though 

[Mav281]

Some good examples there Yessuz.

I'm not going to suggest I have a clue which of the settings is correct, because frankly the number of posts here and it seems in other countries suggest that no-one has a definitive answer for this one.

What your pictures do suggest to me though, is that the right hand traffic setting is the one you should be using. In the pictures, especially the long range ones the beam of light is lower on the right hand side when it's in right hand mode which is exactly as it should be - this is done to stop oncoming traffic from getting dazzled as we all know.

Not convinced by anything that's been posted thus far to be honest, but clearly something is a miss here and there is a problem somewhere. When my car goes into Ford, at the start of Nov I'll see what they have to say but strongly expect the answer will be they are fine or we don't know of any issues like that!

[yessuz]

Some good examples there Yessuz.

I'm not going to suggest I have a clue which of the settings is correct, because frankly the number of posts here and it seems in other countries suggest that no-one has a definitive answer for this one.

What your pictures do suggest to me though, is that the right hand traffic setting is the one you should be using. In the pictures, especially the long range ones the beam of light is lower on the right hand side when it's in right hand mode which is exactly as it should be - this is done to stop oncoming traffic from getting dazzled as we all know.

Not convinced by anything that's been posted thus far to be honest, but clearly something is a miss here and there is a problem somewhere. When my car goes into Ford, at the start of Nov I'll see what they have to say but strongly expect the answer will be they are fine or we don't know of any issues like that!

it would be great if you could talk with dealership regarding uk and continental settings ;/

because for me they said - "lights are fine", but settings are on the left hand drive. I will have a trip to continent in december and a bit frustrated with how my lights will act there :/

[yessuz]

I'm just off the chat with the Ford engineer on their expensive phone

Here's what I've go from him:

 

1) The Correct setting for UK is LEFT HAND TRAFFIC. It came from the factory with this setting as well.

2) Yes, lights on the RIGHT HAND TRAFFIC setting are pointed to low, and he could not explain how is it going to work in the continent... I presume - Screwdriver is my friend then :/

 

amm - sh1t then.

[fordy1]

Thanks yessuz. You have indeed gone the extra mile.

So basically it appears that instead of realigning the lights as in a mirror situation,

all the change over does is lower them and possibly making them less effective

when you are on the continent.

 

While I respect the engineer's honesty when he said that ".... he could not explain how

is it going to work in the continent... "  I have to ask is it not his job to have an answer

or at least indicate that he would make further enquiries and get back to you?

 

We really need an inside person at Valencia on this forum who has their finger on the

pulse.

 

I will now go back to my dealer and having set the beams to LHT, ask them to adjust them.

[yessuz]

Thanks yessuz. You have indeed gone the extra mile.

So basically it appears that instead of realigning the lights as in a mirror situation,

all the change over does is lower them and possibly making them less effective

when you are on the continent.

 

While I respect the engineer's honesty when he said that ".... he could not explain how

is it going to work in the continent... "  I have to ask is it not his job to have an answer

or at least indicate that he would make further enquiries and get back to you?

 

We really need an inside person at Valencia on this forum who has their finger on the

pulse.

 

I will now go back to my dealer and having set the beams to LHT, ask them to adjust them.

it would be great, if you could ask them (dealer, I mean) to try to adjust the lights in the way, that height for LHT and RHT would be the same. if possible :/

[gregs24]

Just to confirm the headlights are labelled LHD on both sides of my car so they are not the same as RHD drive cars. The odd thing in my earlier car is that Left hand traffic is more dipped than right hand traffic. I will take some pictures when I get a chance.

[fordy1]

Hi yessuz.

I did that after I returned from France. While I was in France I adjusted the lights

using the "shine them at a wall" method. When I landed back and changed the setting

back to RHT, my lights were very low.

The mechanic adjusted them but when we went back a forth from LHT to RHT to experiment

they were still different.

What I'm saying is that the two options are not independant and an adjustment to one

setting effects the other. So if the RHT is lowered by, say 10cm the LHT will also be lowered

by the same amount.

So tomorrow I will set them at LHT and ask the mechanic to adjust them to the legal

height, etc. Tomorrow night then, I will see what difference the pattern and check the response

of oncoming traffic.

[taxi501]

Is it possible that the lights can only be properly set by IDS, I seem to remember seeing something on VCDS ( vw ) for setting the range of the xenon lights, your LEDs may be something similar