[Mr Whippy]

First night time drive and not a huge fan.

HBA was working ok, but FB seemed to tail off way early, like the beans were too low.

On LB they seemed too low, cutting light enough on a rural 60mph road to about 40mph visibility range.


So tempted to experiment.

I hate to say it but my wife's old Fiesta ST had better headlights and they were just OEM halogens. Perfectly good out of the box.

My Z4 isn't good, but a quick turn on the adjusters and you can at least go 50mph+ on low beam and old halogens and not dazzle anyone.


But where are the adjusters on the F3x LCI leds? I took a quick look and saw nothing obvious.
Searching just gave me angel eye threads and people coding USA lights.

[Mr Whippy]

http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...8&postcount=10

Found a thread at last (Google better than forum search)

Looks easy.

Now to set up on a flat road and tweak

[teaston]

Just do the vertical adjusters up a bit, they all need it from factory.

[Theone88]

Just be careful not to over tighten or loosen the screw, they can snap like uncooked spaghetti!

[Mr Whippy]

With my Z4 I just did 1/4 at a time and ran the car a good while and just kept going till I got flashed at then wound back 1/4.

I think the mot place then had issues, so went back another 1/4 and it's been like that nearly a decade.

I'm baffled how BMW can sell a car with AUC, or new even, with lights set up so badly.
I honestly feel BMW engineers are great. But the rest of them from that point down are f'ing useless.

[Mr Burt]

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...8&postcount=10

Found a thread at last (Google better than forum search)

Looks easy.

Now to set up on a flat road and tweak

Might give this a try on mine.
Vertical only needs doing. Clockwise or anti?

[onstat]

Originally Posted by Mr Burt

Might give this a try on mine.
Vertical only needs doing. Clockwise or anti?

anti-clockwise to go up on my lci led

[Mr Burt]

Originally Posted by onstat

anti-clockwise to go up on my lci led

👍🏻

[teaston]

Originally Posted by onstat

anti-clockwise to go up on my lci led

Use a power drill and aim the beams against a wall or garage door etc. makes it a lot easier. If on level ground measure height of the middle of the headlight then make marks on wall/garage door at that height as a rough guide of the height to adjust the beams to.

[Alscoob]

Xenon's on my F31 are fantastic & wifey's Z4 not a fan of the LED look personally, but that's another story.

Agree that you shouldn't have to set them up should be done ready for use.

[Mr Whippy]

I just used a hex key, 360deg seems about enough, or 1/4 turn around that.
720deg was almost flat.

It seemed very easy to turn them, not sure I'd use a drill or anything automated unless you want to damage your lights.

So I'm at 360deg and will test tonight properly.
I think I can tweak the offsid up a touch more to flatten the pair of beams.

Not sure these lights have an asymmetric pattern?

[troggy1969]

7mm allen key I think at the back of the headlight, the other does the horizontal. Did mine about a month ago and much better, dark garage against the wall so you get them even

[Mr Whippy]

The top portion is so blurry though, and jaggy.
I'm not sure where to say is the top of the beam.
I'm going to go more on other road users reactions and the 10cm per 7.5m as a guide.

Not sure on lateral adjustment.

Might have to go find a big flat open area and play around (and record what I change)

[Flyboy777]

I don't understand why the lights are not better.
My other half has a new shape MX-5 that cost £19K and has full led headlights as standard.
They are stunning. Every time I drive it & then go back to my F31 I am disappointed.
They light up a long way evenly with a laser sharp cutoff. This from a lower mounting point & they are styled as narrow slits. Best lights I have ever experienced.
The F30/31 has larger higher mounted lights, they should be far better.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

I just used a hex key, 360deg seems about enough, or 1/4 turn around that.
720deg was almost flat.

It seemed very easy to turn them, not sure I'd use a drill or anything automated unless you want to damage your lights.

So I'm at 360deg and will test tonight properly.
I think I can tweak the offsid up a touch more to flatten the pair of beams.

Not sure these lights have an asymmetric pattern?

I’ve used a battery drill to adjust every BMW I’ve had without problem!

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Flyboy777

I don't understand why the lights are not better.
My other half has a new shape MX-5 that cost £19K and has full led headlights as standard.
They are stunning. Every time I drive it & then go back to my F31 I am disappointed.
They light up a long way evenly with a laser sharp cutoff. This from a lower mounting point & they are styled as narrow slits. Best lights I have ever experienced.
The F30/31 has larger higher mounted lights, they should be far better.

If you adjust them correctly they should be great, at least mine are, they’re the best headlights I’ve ever had on a car by a long way!

[Mr Whippy]

I need to do more testing but from what I've seen the high and low seem joined, as in turning low beam up turns up high beam.
But I feel high beam could do with being even more up independently of low beam.

It does seem weird that BMW cheaped out on the 3er spec LED lights to the point they're some of the worst out there!

[teaston]

Originally Posted by Mr Whippy

I need to do more testing but from what I've seen the high and low seem joined, as in turning low beam up turns up high beam.
But I feel high beam could do with being even more up independently of low beam.

It does seem weird that BMW cheaped out on the 3er spec LED lights to the point they're some of the worst out there!

I really don’t understand why some people say their LED’s aren’t good, mine are honestly amazing!

[Daftasabrush]

Originally Posted by Flyboy777

I don't understand why the lights are not better.
My other half has a new shape MX-5 that cost £19K and has full led headlights as standard.
They are stunning. Every time I drive it & then go back to my F31 I am disappointed.
They light up a long way evenly with a laser sharp cutoff. This from a lower mounting point & they are styled as narrow slits. Best lights I have ever experienced.
The F30/31 has larger higher mounted lights, they should be far better.

I'm with you on this. The wife has a new CX-3 with Adaptive features and those headlights are fantastic, my adaptive LEDs on my 340i aren't a patch on those IMO.

Interestingly, the iihs almost agree, the CX-3 has longer range on low beam than the BMW but less range at high beam (less important IMO).

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/veh...s-4-door-sedan

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/veh...-door-suv/2017

[moff]

I don't get the negativity on the Adaptive either. Mine are easily the best lights I've ever had and that's coming from my 640 with Adaptive Bixenons and a C63 with BiXenons too.

Even this morning I was blown away with how well they light up country roads both in full beam and dip. The way they adjust to traffic, when catching up other cars and oncoming makes me smile.

The way the beam splits and seems to put perform the car in front's lights is epic.

So I can only conclude that stock LED's aren't good and the Adaptives where they are not working properly should be checked by a dealer.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by moff

I don't get the negativity on the Adaptive either. Mine are easily the best lights I've ever had and that's coming from my 640 with Adaptive Bixenons and a C63 with BiXenons too.

Even this morning I was blown away with how well they light up country roads both in full beam and dip. The way they adjust to traffic, when catching up other cars and oncoming makes me smile.

The way the beam splits and seems to put perform the car in front's lights is epic.

So I can only conclude that stock LED's aren't good and the Adaptives where they are not working properly should be checked by a dealer.

Mine are the standard non adaptive LED’s

[moff]

Originally Posted by teaston

Mine are the standard non adaptive LED’s

I think there was a thread the looked at the brightness of the stock LED's on the US forum and said they were weak.

I wonder if like the Halogen bulbs the LED's could be upgraded?