What are everyone’s thoughts on the suitability of the LED headlights?
I was out and about early Sunday morning, whilst still dark at 7am going diving (it was warmer at the bottom of the lake at 9C than above water, at 0C the with the windchill brrr!).
However driving along the M4 between J15-17, which hadn’t been ploughed or gritted (who knew such a cold snap would catch out the authorities!?), on dipped beam it was very hard to differentiate between what tracks there were and the snow itself.
I’ve thought for a while now that the dipped LED headlights at night were poor, but in snow it was much worse!
Even with the front intensity LED lights on as well it didn’t really help matters, so not so sure of the effectiveness of LEDs in snow and in low light conditions.
I cleaned the headlights of snow and ice prior to my departure, so know they weren’t obscured in any way so that’s not a factor, but they just don’t have anywhere near the same clarity as numerous previous Discoveries (all previous 16 of them) having Xenons.
I’ve previous asked my dealership to check the headlight settings and they confirmed my headlights were adjusted correctly, and yesterday whilst visiting the dealership again I asked them again to double check after stating that dipped beam was poor.
They adjusted my headlights within the tolerances permitted to bring up the beam slightly but last night I wasn’t able to take the D5 out for a test.
I’d be interested to here everyone else’s thoughts on the D5’s LED headlights. I’m more than happy when using the main beam, as it lights up literally everything for miles around, so only really concerned over dipped beam clarity.
I haven’t noticed any problems during the first snow we had last month. We have a two day storm coming in today so I may have other opinions by Thursday, one thing is a must though turn off the auto high beam function
F50, Fourtack, LR3 and now..............D5 HSE TDV6
I know that. High beam assist is way too fussy and either slow to react and therefore dazzles oncoming traffic and the similarly slow to back to high beam.
I’ve checked the relevant settings but there seems to be no sensitivity setting, which would be welcome on the variable rain sensing wipers either! I know there is supposed to be a sensitivity setting for the wipers but it’s not really useful.
My most recent point of reference are the halogen projector beams that were in my 2010 Touareg, and at night, you navigated with The Force and/or prayer. So compared to those, the LEDs are pretty nice, but I have read that LEDs don't have the reach that bi-Xenons do, or that LEDs' drop in brightness is very sudden at distance compared to bi-Xenons.
My front fogs seem to illuminate the area in front of the bumper and to the side well. I would have preferred a yellower or amber tint to the fogs though - since LEDs can be tuned for color in manufacturing, I'd love to see this as an aftermarket option.
Haven't been in hard snow at night yet, but I'm wondering if the white LED color on low/dipped is still going to blind me....
No problems tonight in the snow although it was not coming down that hard so I th8nk the real test will be heavy snow. Have yet to drive in fog but that is not common here.
F50, Fourtack, LR3 and now..............D5 HSE TDV6
OP, perhaps you should try some of those yellow glasses to see if they help with contrast. I know they are great for daylight contrast improvement but I'm not sure if they work at night for snow.
Firstly hello every body, I was a member over at the Disco D4 forum...let me tell you about a journey I made last week...On the way back from ‘Up North’ I got caught in a Snowstorm heading back home over the Cat & Fiddle on Thursday night...not a good place to be when a snowstorm hits... I know the high Peak well and normally avoid this and the Snake when snowfall is forcast...but...by the time I got to a snowy Buxton I had come to greatly appreciate the sure footed Disco D5 in the white stuff, plus hill decent control worked flawlessly on the twisty slippery hill down to Buxton.
The D5’ LED Lights...in driving snow where better on low beam with my fogs on to see what little was left of the verges.
Lights are ok, but I had an XC90 Inscription with xenium, winter packs etc and the lights were the very best I have had on any motor...BMW, JLR’s etc etc
I really quite fancy the roof mounted LED’s from the SVX If they could be attached to the front of the roof rails, hope they become an accessory soon.
Not sure roof-mounted LEDs would be very good in snow -those may blind worse than white LEDs at hood/bonnet level.
In my experience, low-mounted fogs in a color that cuts past the snowflakes like amber or yellow work best. Otherwise white snowflakes reflect white light back at you and you lose contrast past the first sheet of snowflakes your lights hit. In heavy snow you lose the side of the road and follow your headlights right off. In mountain driving and in the US west where the roadbed may be elevated several feet above the surrounding terrain this can be deadly. People have died buried in drifts right at the road edge, especially if a plow comes by and buries you after you run off and get stuck.
But that said, I would LOVE those roof-mounted LEDs for off-roading in the desert!
That’s what I experienced last Sunday morning when I started this thread.
I found that there was no contrast between tracks and snow, and as you say it was very easy to lose the side of the road.
I wasn’t aware that the pure white light emitted by LED lights, even though very bright were such an issue in snow previously.
The examples you give are quite a concern, perhaps there’s coloured filters that could be clipped over the front high intensity fog lamps.
I had asked my dealership to adjust my lights dipped setting up the maximum permissible within tolerance, however these now need adjusting again, down this time because I’m now illuminating the gods!
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