xenon lights misalligned?

[M3er]

During the night, when I see the xeon lights projected on the road,
the left one ends up project on a little shorter region than the right one...
anyone else had this issue?
Would it be easy to adjust?

I have also noticed these xeon lights are relatively lower than a 328i's or an E60's....or an F10's...
Could it be that they want the light region to fall between where the regular beams and fog lights expected projected areas??
(I Am theorizing that because this car has no fog lights it could be that they slightly turned the xeon lights lower to compensate for that....)

[Dreamz]

To my knowledge and just speaking for the left not being level to the right all headlights are setup that way (in the US) to prevent completely blinding incoming traffic on that side.

[M3er]

Originally Posted by Dreamz

To my knowledge and just speaking for the left not being level to the right all headlights are setup that way (in the US) to prevent completely blinding incoming traffic on that side.

Interesting...and i think I have noticed this on other cars too
but on the M3, the lights are lower than other car and therefore will project on
a shorter distance...
is this just my idea?

[kscarrol]

The lower left-side light is normal as Dreamz points out, to avoid blinding oncoming drivers. Have seen others comment on the M3 lights being pointed lower than other cars, in fact there was a recent thread on the subject. I have not noticed it on my car but then all my driving at night is in the city...

Edit: here is the thread, OP asks about brightness but others talk about how low the M3 lights are pointed from the factory and how some have adjusted this themselves...

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=586528

[M3er]

Originally Posted by kscarrol

The lower left-side light is normal as Dreamz points out, to avoid blinding oncoming drivers. Have seen others comment on the M3 lights being pointed lower than other cars, in fact there was a recent thread on the subject. I have not noticed it on my car but then all my driving at night is in the city...

so I think this is to compensate for the luck of fog lights...
wondering if we can adjust them to aim higher without any danger...

[jphughan]

Fyi OP, the word is xeNon, like the gas. Xeon is a type of Intel server-grade processor.

[kscarrol]

Pretty sure it can be done. Dig through the thread link I posted, some folks have made the adjustment themselves...

[Grail05]

all cars that have xenon are meant to be that way for US market. US law i guess.

on the side note... YES the M3 lights are freakin low it sucks. .. i adjust mine as well.

[M3er]

Originally Posted by jphughan

Fyi OP, the word is xeNon, like the gas. Xeon is a type of Intel server-grade processor.

uppppsss

[MysticBlue]

Originally Posted by bmw_enthusiasm

so I think this is to compensate for the luck of fog lights...
wondering if we can adjust them to aim higher without any danger...

Has nothing to do with lack of fog lights. There is nothing to compensate for. Fog lights are pretty much pointless.
If you're lights need to be adjusted, then adjust them. It ain't rocket science. From the factory, they are adjusted a little low. Most would be ok to adjust them up a little. Just be careful. If you adjust them up and you start getting flashed by oncoming drivers, that's a good indication you've raised them too high. And there isn't any reason why the left light should be aimed lower than the right light. Just make them even, adjust them say a quarter of a turn at a time until you get them where you like them without getting a bunch of oncoming drivers flashing you.

[SoTempted]

Originally Posted by MysticBlue

And there isn't any reason why the left light should be aimed lower than the right light.

True. It's not actually aimed lower but in the cutoff in the beam you should see a step up as you look at it from left to right (point your car at a wall you should see this very clearly), the step is to not blind oncoming traffic. In fact rather than up and down, the left will not be aimed as far out from center as the right one.

This is how it is in every other projector application I've dealt with so I can only imagine it's the same for an M.

[grendelrt]

Right beam is actually aimed higher to help light road signs on the side of the road. The left side is not aimed higher because it would blind traffic.

[M3er]

Originally Posted by MysticBlue

Has nothing to do with lack of fog lights. There is nothing to compensate for. Fog lights are pretty much pointless.

Have you ever been in fog or in a storm? or a snow /heavy rain day?

if you try to turn your headlights, light will deflect all over limiting your visibility
if you turn on the fog lights, they will penetrate the 'fog' and you will see
the light beam projections further away giving you greater visibility.
this is because of the temperature of the fog lights
lower temp will penetrate fog. Higher temp will deflect...
(ie more yellow lower temp, more white higher temp)

U understadn most of us they 'wont be in situation like that, but when you are
the fog lights they really count...

[MysticBlue]

Originally Posted by bmw_enthusiasm

Have you ever been in fog or in a storm? or a snow /heavy rain day?

if you try to turn your headlights, light will deflect all over limiting your visibility
if you turn on the fog lights, they will penetrate the 'fog' and you will see
the light beam projections further away giving you greater visibility.
this is because of the temperature of the fog lights
lower temp will penetrate fog. Higher temp will deflect...
(ie more yellow lower temp, more white higher temp)

U understadn most of us they 'wont be in situation like that, but when you are
the fog lights they really count...

'k. Go put fog lights on your car and enjoy.

[IFX]

adjust them. Like some have said their was a thread about it.

IMO, the brightest factory headlights are from the new TL's, it's insanely good.

[MysticBlue]

Originally Posted by grendelrt

Right beam is actually aimed higher to help light road signs on the side of the road. The left side is not aimed higher because it would blind traffic.

There is a horizontal cutoff on both the right and left light. It should be even on both. The shape of the cutoff line goes up on the right side of the projection and down to the left. This really isn't any different whether it's the left light or the right light. The fact that the right side of the road and road signs are lighted more has to do with the shape of the projection, not the right light doing anything different than the left light.
The only other difference is how they move... They will move to the right due to steering wheel position but won't move much to the left to keep from blinding oncoming traffic.

[SoTempted]

Originally Posted by IFX

adjust them. Like some have said their was a thread about it.

IMO, the brightest factory headlights are from the new TL's, it's insanely good.

Yezzir, Acura/Honda puts some of the best HIDs on the market in their cars. TSX and S2000 are hard to beat, but the oh so beautiful super wide Lexus LS430 projector/reflector setup is quite a sight. Mmm retrofits...

[-=Hot|Ice=-]

Originally Posted by bmw_enthusiasm

Have you ever been in fog or in a storm? or a snow /heavy rain day?

if you try to turn your headlights, light will deflect all over limiting your visibility
if you turn on the fog lights, they will penetrate the 'fog' and you will see
the light beam projections further away giving you greater visibility.
this is because of the temperature of the fog lights
lower temp will penetrate fog. Higher temp will deflect...
(ie more yellow lower temp, more white higher temp)

U understadn most of us they 'wont be in situation like that, but when you are
the fog lights they really count...

I agree. I've never been in a situation when I need foglights. They're useless and for show. They're so dumb, people resort to turning them on when there's no fog because they'll never get to use them.

Also, Acura does have the best headlight set-up. They're amazingly bright.

[SoTempted]

I used the foglights on my STi when I was stationed in South Dakota... Otherwise my HIDs turned the fog into, literally, a white wall. It was scary as shit driving through the black hills in that madness.

[grendelrt]

Originally Posted by MysticBlue

There is a horizontal cutoff on both the right and left light. It should be even on both. The shape of the cutoff line goes up on the right side of the projection and down to the left. This really isn't any different whether it's the left light or the right light. The fact that the right side of the road and road signs are lighted more has to do with the shape of the projection, not the right light doing anything different than the left light.
The only other difference is how they move... They will move to the right due to steering wheel position but won't move much to the left to keep from blinding oncoming traffic.

Might be different on different cars, I just remember when people were importing HID headlights on the Z from Japan that werent made in the US they were higher on the left (cutoff or angling aside) and that was the reasoning we were told by OEM dealers. Or they could be full of shit haha.