[Bambi]

OH went out last evening - first time the car has been out in the dark

When he came back he was complaining a bit about the range of the headlights - thinks that he can't see as far as with halogens (or the xenons in his Passat). Is this just his imagination (new car-itis) ?? He was driving along narrow country lanes. (We have the autodip function as well). Thanks
Edited by: Bambi

 

[audidriver4ever]

Know this 'Problem' to.
They adjust it 'on the safe-side' in our Country. In that way your expensive Xenons do not bring what you expected of them

That's why I always ask them to adjust them, to the upper range-wide in the device they use for checking it. But this position must be saved in the cars electronics otherwise it goes back to the old 'saved' position. The auto-leveler? of the headlights will make sure you do not blend.
Above is about my Car, do not know if it is the same on new Q3.

 

[Bambi]

Thanks Does the range adjust with the speed of the car ? I know that the adaptive 'bit' does, so does that mean that it adjusts continually not just when going around a 'big' bend ??

 

[Bambi]

Having driven the car myself now in the dark ---------- I have a question

It probably is a stupid one !!! For those who have Xenon headlights and mainbeam assist - when starting off from home do I have to put the mainbeam on manually and then allow the car to auto 'dip' ???? As stated elsewhere, the maual is a bit confusing which may be why my OH and I think that the lights are a bit dim because we haven't put them onto mainbeam !! Oh dear - have we been a bit stupid here ?? LOL

The trouble is we don't go out very much in the dark. I can't try it out ATM as my daughter has broken her neck falling off her horse (not damaged the spinal cord fortunately) and I am staying with her in Kent.

 

[rontheman]

I have Xenons with mainbeam assist. Once you start driving with dipped beams (the default whenthe headlights come on either manually or auto), pushing the headlight lever away from you activates the mainbeam assist. You will see a white headlight symbol in the DIS. That means the headlight assist is "active". Push it again and the main beams come on permanently (the same as they would in the absence of main beam assist). Pull the lever back to go back to dipped beam. Always check for the white headlight symbol which indicates headlight assist is active. If it changes to blue, then the main beams are on, as per normal.Hope this helps

 

[Gromit]

...Oh dear - have we been a bit stupid here ?? LOL

The trouble is we don't go out very much in the dark. I can't try it out ATM as my daughter has broken her neck falling off her horse (not damaged the spinal cord fortunately) and I am staying with her in Kent.

Stupid? No, surely not...

Just make sure you follow Rontheman's instructions and you should be fine.

I hope your daughter recovers soon - that doesn't sound at all trivial.

Which part of Kent - anywhere near Gromit's Retreat?

 

[Bambi]

I have Xenons with mainbeam assist. Once you start driving with dipped beams (the default whenthe headlights come on either manually or auto), pushing the headlight lever away from you activates the mainbeam assist. You will see a white headlight symbol in the DIS. That means the headlight assist is "active". Push it again and the main beams come on permanently (the same as they would in the absence of main beam assist). Pull the lever back to go back to dipped beam. Always check for the white headlight symbol which indicates headlight assist is active. If it changes to blue, then the main beams are on, as per normal.Hope this helps

Thanks ! I thought it rather strange that I couldn't see very far .......

When I have the chance to go out in the dark I'll give it a try

All my OH's fault as he spec'd the Xenons and the assist and then leaves it up to me to find out what we've done wrong

Thanks !!

 

[Bambi]

...Oh dear - have we been a bit stupid here ?? LOL

The trouble is we don't go out very much in the dark. I can't try it out ATM as my daughter has broken her neck falling off her horse (not damaged the spinal cord fortunately) and I am staying with her in Kent.

Stupid? No, surely not...

Just make sure you follow Rontheman's instructions and you should be fine.

I hope your daughter recovers soon - that doesn't sound at all trivial.

Which part of Kent - anywhere near Gromit's Retreat?

She livesjust outside of Tunbridge Wells, near Paddock Wood. She's very lucky, her injury could have been very much worse

 

[Gromit]

She certainly was lucky. I'm over in East Kent but I used to live quite close to where you are - Pembury.

 

[Bambi]

I have Xenons with mainbeam assist. Once you start driving with dipped beams (the default whenthe headlights come on either manually or auto), pushing the headlight lever away from you activates the mainbeam assist. You will see a white headlight symbol in the DIS. That means the headlight assist is "active". Push it again and the main beams come on permanently (the same as they would in the absence of main beam assist). Pull the lever back to go back to dipped beam. Always check for the white headlight symbol which indicates headlight assist is active. If it changes to blue, then the main beams are on, as per normal.Hope this helps

Just to check

We still can't get it working and I've spoken to our dealers who say to bring it in later in the week. Does the white headlight symbol come on if you are stationary and do the lights dip if you are going at less than 40mph ?? I've been having a Google and found a forum where someone (earlier stated that on their car (a sport xxxxx) it wasn't supposed to work at low speeds and that it was a waste of money

We are going out this evening to see if it works, one last time - going on a faster road with more traffic rather than on country lanes. Thanks

 

[rontheman]

If you have the dipped headlights on, then pushing the headlight lever away from you once brings up the white headlight symbol, which means that the main beam assist mode is active. If you push the headlight lever again, this activates the main beams, effectively over riding the auto headlights.In main beam assist mode, the main beam is activated provided the following conditions are satisfied1 The car is driving more than approx. 40mph, and2 There are no street lights within range3 The main beam assist detector has not identified cars coming towards you (via their headlights) or in front of you (via their tail lights)The theory re street lights is that by definition it is a built up area and that with the street lighting and limited speed, you would not need to use main beams. You can of course override this by pushing the headlight lever away from you to manually activate the main beam, and back towards you to go back to dipped beams.What this all means is that you need to be going above 40mph on a road without street lights and no car in front of you within range. I find the system then works very well. However, it is fair to day that under these circumstances, if there is intermittent traffic on the road there isn't much benefit in having main beam assist. Also, there is a slight lag of about a second or so between detecting that there is nothing in range, and activating main beam.In terms of this evening, if traffic is detected then the main beam won't come on.Let us know how you get on

 

[Gromit]

Hmm... yet another Q3 option I'm glad I didn't go for.

 

[rontheman]

The only reason I took the main beam assist was because I had chosen the active lane assist as an option, which requires main beam assist as part of the option (ie you cannot have active lane assist without main beam assist)

 

[Bambi]

What this all means is that you need to be going above 40mph on a road without street lights and no car in front of you within range. I find the system then works very well. However, it is fair to day that under these circumstances, if there is intermittent traffic on the road there isn't much benefit in having main beam assist. Also, there is a slight lag of about a second or so between detecting that there is nothing in range, and activating main beam.In terms of this evening, if traffic is detected then the main beam won't come on.Let us know how you get on

Went out for a drive this evening on a main trunk road (OK - here that means you can drive at 60 and are guaranteed to meet some cars

). No sign of a white headlight symbol and definitely no dipping of the headlights (unless done manually)

So will take it into the dealers maybe Wednesday. If it hasn't been fitted should we just ask for a refund ??

 

[Gromit]

Too bloody right you should! If you ordered it and they failed to fit it for whatever reason you are due a refund or compensation for the car being "not as ordered". Not that I think it would ever go that far, the law (Sale Of Goods Act) is on your side, so the dealer would have to do something about it.

 

[Bambi]

Took the car into the dealers today. Much to my embarrassment they showed me how to operate the system and where the 'on' indicator is !! Taking it out for a test drive this evening the system worked very well - at quite slow speeds. The only problem we encountered was it doesn't like very narrow lanes with high banks as the headlights are 'funneled' along the road and probably throws too much light, so the main beam doesn't come on automatically. Otherwise seems to work well

 

[Slim47]

I've found the high beam assist to be a bit late dipping as the 'camera' can't see vehicles approaching round a bend, so the oncoming usually gets an extra second or so more of main beam than they should!It's clever, but it ain't that clever ;-)Mine seems to get fooled by average speed cameras at night too, the IR lamps in them are obviously bright to the camera...
HID's (Xenons) in the Q3 are a bit brighter than the ones I had in the S3, the high up driving position helps too, so I'm surprised you don't find them as good as regular halogen bulbs.
Edited by: Slim47