 | Home > Off Topic > new head lamps Dazzle |
 
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| LR Nuts Member Since: 10 Aug 2022 Location: UK Posts: 1316  
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28th Oct 2025 8:01am |
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| Stacey007 Member Since: 25 Sep 2015 Location: Cheshire Posts: 3898 
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In our range of cars I drive the full range of cars with candles... Series, HID's to LED highlight with auto beam assist (one even has night vision !!) etc..
Not going to lie in narrow country lanes that I drive a fair bit in, the modern lights are very bright..... The auto main beam assist not always that 'quick' at switching off so for a scond or so you have lazer like beams burning your retinas 
In the good old days you have pretty poor headlamps and then slightly better on main beam and you drove accordingly... Modern cars have so much more fancy gizmos, you pretty much just steer them. If I am in one of our smaller / low down cars and have a modern larger car with LED's behind its almost as bad... Very bright. Not sure what the answer is as we now all share the road togther from candle beams to super bright. |
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28th Oct 2025 2:13pm |
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| v8bob Member Since: 14 Mar 2018 Location: Midlands Posts: 345 
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I have a modern thing with led lights and drive it fairly regular late at night on a dual carriageway.
Often nothing ahead of me on my carriageway and irregular vehicles heading in the opposite direction. I have spent a few hours considering the lights in these drives. My conclusion, right or wrong I don’t know, is the following. The led gives such a wide splurge of pretty bright light not dissimilar to daylight. I feel my eyes are acting as though it is poor daylight. Outside of my headlight illuminated area it is very dark, as my eyes are in daylight mode. When bright lights point at my daylight assuming eyes they can see even less in the darkened areas. Old proper lights give a much narrower area of light, and outside this area I feel I can see more.  |
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28th Oct 2025 5:53pm |
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| markb110 Member Since: 22 May 2010 Location: Guildford Posts: 2708  
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To be honest and based on some very un-scientific driving over the last two days I would conclude that there are other light related issues to deal with first....
One main light not working, LED or halogen One brake light not working Fog lights on, can't even remember when it was last foggy Only one front fog light working Four cars in the early hours this morning, dark, with NO lights on And finally this evening a commercial Land Cruiser towing a large trailer with no working brake lights And can someone tell those mobile phone users that they are easier to see at night...... |
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28th Oct 2025 7:56pm |
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| Mike c Member Since: 11 Aug 2017 Location: Maldon, Essex Posts: 953 
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Led headlights lights are awful, the lack of any colour depth gives a piercing light but doesn't seem to absorb into the surroundings.
It doesn't help that all streetlights have now been "upgraded" to led too. At least I don't need to drive at night too often anymore, though I find led lights seem to dazzle even during the day, Tesla lights seem one of the worst. 2004 Defender 90 Td5 CSW 2002 Discovery 2 td5 GS (gone) 1994 Defender 90 300Tdi CSW (gone) |
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28th Oct 2025 8:05pm |
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| seriesonenut Member Since: 19 Nov 2014 Location: Essex Posts: 1265
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Another 'rant' from me , when did it become okay for cars to have a 'built in' white led light bar running the full width of the car as well as the headlamps? On wet a night I passed a wall of light on some sort of electric car. I am very pleased they might have been able to see ahead, for me the ball of light was no help whatsoever! 1984 One-Ten CSW
2010 XS USW (sold) 1957 Series One 88 diesel 1958 Series One 88 4x2 1990 Defender 200tdi CSW (sold) 1989 Land Rover Ninety (sold) 1998 Discovery 2 (sold) 1995 Discovery 1 (auto) (sold) 1990 Discovery 200tdi (sold) 1987 One Ten CSW turbo diesel (sold) |
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29th Oct 2025 9:48am |
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| revd Member Since: 20 Apr 2024 Location: England Posts: 308
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Driving in fog or at night with DRL's lighting up the road ahead but with no tail lights
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29th Oct 2025 9:54am |
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| seriesonenut Member Since: 19 Nov 2014 Location: Essex Posts: 1265
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Back in the day the internal speedometer etc was illuminated with the side lights which was a bit of a giveaway you needed to turn on your lights at night.
Modern cars have the dials illuminated all of the time so I can understand how some drive on DRL's oblivious to the fact no other outside lamps are on. I have seen this on the M25 at night. Scary. my modern ish ford has automatic headlamps, it however gets all confused in fog and doesn't turn on the headlamps . Luckily I am 'old school' and can think for myself lol. 1984 One-Ten CSW 2010 XS USW (sold) 1957 Series One 88 diesel 1958 Series One 88 4x2 1990 Defender 200tdi CSW (sold) 1989 Land Rover Ninety (sold) 1998 Discovery 2 (sold) 1995 Discovery 1 (auto) (sold) 1990 Discovery 200tdi (sold) 1987 One Ten CSW turbo diesel (sold) |
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29th Oct 2025 10:31am |
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| LR Nuts Member Since: 10 Aug 2022 Location: UK Posts: 1316
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on my Defender L663, I reengineered the rear tail lamp cluster to have Rear DRL's. I did write a thread on it. But I can only agree that if manufactures don't have to (under Construction and Use regs) fit rear DRL's they simply wont !!  
=============================== Projects like these are everyday tasks for me. You may have seen my post about cutting into the rear lamp cluster and reconfiguring the internal wiring to give rear DRLs (just the outer two square lamps on each side)  Click image to enlarge |
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29th Oct 2025 11:56am |
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| Rashers Member Since: 21 Jun 2015 Location: Norfolk Posts: 3671 
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I can’t see there is any point the UK Government looking into this
So they decide they don’t want cars in the UK to have LED lights? And then what? Do they send a round robin email to all the vehicle manufacturers of the world saying something like “I know this might be frightfully difficult, but could you replace the LED lights on your vehicles for something different please as we don’t like them? And so sorry for having our steering wheels on a different side to nearly everyone else. Many thanks. The UK Government” 
In some ways the LED has been a game changer in lighting. It really wasn’t that many years ago that LED’s were just red in colour. I just feel the idea of a light source which cannot be changed is a step backwards from a world where we should be reusing, not throwing the whole headlamp unit away and having to purchase a new one at an eye watering price. For the manufacturer it’s all good. For the consumer, not so much. |
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29th Oct 2025 12:27pm |
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| 90 Dreamer Member Since: 13 Jul 2019 Location: Oop North Posts: 2309 
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think whoever is behind this "research" is under the assumption everyone is fitting "Max Power" bulbs???
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29th Oct 2025 3:39pm |
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| AMBxx Member Since: 24 Jul 2016 Location: York Posts: 1076 
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My wife's the optom! It's cataracts that cause the light to scatter. Much worse with bright LEDs. Also a problem during the day with low sun (baseball caps are useful to solve that). I have some cataract in one eye (slightly different colours) but not a problem with dazzle yet. Interestingly, people who had the early eye surgery also have problems due to all the cuts. |
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29th Oct 2025 3:46pm |
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| Rashers Member Since: 21 Jun 2015 Location: Norfolk Posts: 3671
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That’s good to know AMBxx
I used to know a Nurse who worked in the local Hospital Eye department. She would tell horror stories of patients who could not see the large letter at the top of the Eye Chart, and she would see them walk across the car park and drive out. We had a family friend who has now passed whose eye sight was so bad his wife would give him a running commentary as to what was happening on the road. My parents only ever drove with him once. It scared the living daylights out of them. This is why eye tests should be mandatory for having a driving licence (and possibly a firearms licence but that’s another topic ) |
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29th Oct 2025 3:55pm |
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| AMBxx Member Since: 24 Jul 2016 Location: York Posts: 1076
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Problem with eye tests for driving is that the last thing opticians need is a practice full of healthy 17 year olds. The NHS sight test fee is less than £25 so no profit there. In theory, they're checked by the number plate reading but nobody really measures that.
Cataract surgery is an amazing thing - my wife had hers done at Moorfields (only the best!). By the time we were back at Kings Cross for the train home, she was able to read the departure boards without glasses for the first time in her life. |
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29th Oct 2025 3:58pm |
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