Headlight Adjustment?

[cryptolime]

I've been getting a lot of people flashing their lights at me lately like they think my high beams are on. Anyone check the factory headlight adjustment? Was it in-spec or too high?

getting pretty tired of it.

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[Amm5890]

People flash me as well too. most Hondas with the 11th gen style head lights are blinding. Especially HR-Vs for some reason lol.

 

[Sporky McGeuschky]

Hi.

I haven't tried adjusting my lights. I hate LEDs and knew my headlights were gonna be too bright, because everyone else's already are.

My solution?

Rally tint the headlights! ... that's if you like Yellow, of course.

https://metrorestyling.com/products/yellow-head-tail-light-lens-vinyl-film?variant=37241878118569​

I got the Dark Yellow tint from Metro Restyling and hired my local tint and wrap shop to install it.
You'll want to get at least 8 to 10 feet in order to give your installer plenty of material without running out of tint in the corners.

It's one option many people don't consider. I do still want to learn how to adjust the headlights, just to know how to do it.
Hope this helps.

Cheers

 

[cryptolime]

i looked in the service manual and there's a screw on the back of the headlights to adjust the level. they look pretty good so not sure why people keep flashing their lights. They got LEDs too which are just as bright...

 

[AZCWTypeR]

I've adjusted headlights in other cars.
1. Find the vertical adjustment screws and bring along a flashlight in addition to the screw driver.
2. At a dark, level parking lot, cover one headlight with heavy paper.
3. Measure where the top cutoff of light is right in front of the bumper using a yardstick.
Walk 25 feet ahead of the car and remeasure. DOT standard is the cutoff should drop 2.5 inches in 25 feet.
4. Adjust both lights and test drive. You may like it a little higher (less drop) at 25 feet.

 

[CivicSportSGP]

I think other drivers are just confused by the Civic's split low-beam, making it seem that the high beams are on.

Other than that, I've been only flashed a handful of times, most likely due to the slightly slow auto-high beam. The car takes its time to detect oncoming traffic before turning on the high beams. Once it does, there's already an oncoming vehicle, making it look like I'm flashing them.

 

[pwp25si]

Problem is these led headlights are not self leveling like xenon headlamps. I get flashed when im on a slight incline driving toward other cars.

 

[Sporky McGeuschky]

I think other drivers are just confused by the Civic's split low-beam, making it seem that the high beams are on.

Other than that, I've been only flashed a handful of times, most likely due to the slightly slow auto-high beam. The car takes its time to detect oncoming traffic before turning on the high beams. Once it does, there's already an oncoming vehicle, making it look like I'm flashing them.

I'm not specifically calling you a douche here, however...

Please tell me you're not actually using "Auto On" High Beams. Don't be one of those people.
I don't drive much at night, admittedly. However, I used to drive plenty at night, as recently as 2019. I drove in the city and in the country, and never used my high beams. That's when I was driving a 2011 Subaru Forester, which does not have LEDs. My 2015 Jeep Wrangler does not have LEDs. I drive it at night sometimes, and I never use the High Beams on my Wrangler.
To me, the real world situations to actually ever use High Beams are few and far between.
Just because you have a 500 yard stretch of open dark road doesn't mean that warrants High Beams. You can see better than fine with your (already too bright) regular ass LED headlights.

Public Service Announcement:
Please disable your Auto High Beams. They blind oncoming drivers.

Don't be a douche.

Cheers.

 

[AZCWTypeR]

I live in rural AZ and find the auto-highbeams very good on the roads I travel.
It is super dark here, unless the moon is large. Also dark colored javelina's, wild burros, black angus out at night, along with occassional elk and deer.
I hit a deer before and was lucky to come away uninjured. I'd rather have someone flash me (they haven't) than hit a large critter in the middle of nowhere.

 

[CivicSportSGP]

I'm not specifically calling you a douche here, however...

Please tell me you're not actually using "Auto On" High Beams. Don't be one of those people.
I don't drive much at night, admittedly. However, I used to drive plenty at night, as recently as 2019. I drove in the city and in the country, and never used my high beams. That's when I was driving a 2011 Subaru Forester, which does not have LEDs. My 2015 Jeep Wrangler does not have LEDs. I drive it at night sometimes, and I never use the High Beams on my Wrangler.
To me, the real world situations to actually ever use High Beams are few and far between.
Just because you have a 500 yard stretch of open dark road doesn't mean that warrants High Beams. You can see better than fine with your (already too bright) regular ass LED headlights.

Public Service Announcement:
Please disable your Auto High Beams. They blind oncoming drivers.

Don't be a douche.

Cheers.

I tend to turn it off if I find it frustrating on some drives. Most of the time, it works fine. If the road is straight, it works well enough and turns off the high beams before I reach the oncoming car.

 

[Sporky McGeuschky]

Problem is these led headlights are not self leveling like xenon headlamps. I get flashed when im on a slight incline driving toward other cars.

This whole LED thing is kind of a big deal for me.
I hope y'all can bear with me during my rants.
Here we go again:

Self leveling headlamps will fix the problem, huh?
At what cost? More moving parts... for more money?
Maybe our LEDs are just already too bright, because modern LED tech has already passed the point of diminishing returns.

"Moar mooveeng parts" is definitely not the answer.

Sometimes, less is more. Light pollution in America is a very real thing, and a huge problem.

Look, you do you.

I personally think that we driver citizens should not add to the problem with already overtly bright LEDs, even brighter LED High Beams, and we especially cannot bend the knee to overpriced manufacturers by not only letting them, but begging them to add even more useless overpriced, overweight tech and complicating it with even more moving parts, that will, someday, inevitably break.

Less is more.

I did me. I got my headlamps tinted. I highly reccomend it.
You may be surprised at how well you can see with yellow tinted LED lighting.
Plus, yellow light just look retro and therefore awesome (according to me).

Maybe you don't like yellow. That's fine. Maybe you can just get a clear, say, 80% light transfer clear tint over your headlamps.
Also, tint can (maybe) help prevent chips and cracks in your Fitty Leven Thousand dollar a piece headlamp fixtures.
Just please don't add BLUE to your lights! Oh God Please Nooo!

Also, maybe all of us, myself included, should try to angle all of our headlights downward a few degrees, in order to blind oncoming drivers as little as possible.

Instead of us continuing to be part of the problem, let's try to be part of the solution.

I see a response from a user in Arizona who is actually in one of those rare rural environments where High Beams are truly useful, and can be deemed necessary, in order to avoid collisions with wildlife. There are some area of Texas where this also applies.
Yes, use your High Beams when you are in a really remote area and there is a chance of surprise animals jumping out into the road.

For me, and for most of us, I am pretty sure most of the time, we are in urban and suburban areas where these levels of brightness are way too high, and we should all be aware that our Civic LEDs ARE too bright by default, and we should all maybe take a few steps to de-douche-o-fy our lights however we individually choose.

Rant complete ... for now.

Thanks for putting up with my shit.

Cheers

 

[Sporky McGeuschky]

i looked in the service manual and there's a screw on the back of the headlights to adjust the level. they look pretty good so not sure why people keep flashing their lights. They got LEDs too which are just as bright...

I am gonna put my, uh, screwdriver?, where my mouth is, and try this tomorrow.

Thanks @cryptolime and @AZCWTypeR .

 

[cryptolime]

so i noticed i had a bunch of dirt/road grime on the headlights from driving on dirt roads in the rain. I think it was refracting the light and glaring oncoming drivers. cleaned it off and no one flashed me tonight.

 

[latole]

I regularly come across vehicles of all makes whose headlights seem too high.

If your car has never been modified (suspension, among other things) or been in an accident at the front, and you don't carry heavy objects in the trunk, there's no reason to adjust the headlights.

 

[the27thaxe]

I currently own an 11th gen, I used to have a 10th gen Si with the LED Headlights and if I remember correctly, those lights just barely passed DOT for glare. That being said…

Auto high beam is not bad in these cars compared to others, yes there is a bit of a Delay but I have been in cars that where infuriatingly bad. I use them in certain situations, but yeah some roads you just know it doesn’t make sense.

I’ve passed a lot of other 11th gen cars though, easy to tell cause the headlight design is very noticeable and I don’t feel blinded at all, meanwhile some of these KIA SUV’s are emitting the Sun out the front end of the car, talk about glare.

I think the Stigma with LED’s is the same that HID’s used to have, and that was from improperly modified cars that were running them without a projector housing.

compared to the others out there, I don’t think our cars are bad at all

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