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Bouncy Headlights

M

mrd8cd

Ready to race!
Location
St. Louis, MO
PerceivedShift said:
I have a 17' Sport as well, never noticed any movement. What kind of road are you talking about? A rough gravel back road, or a smooth gravel road? My neighborhood is smooth gravel and I've never noticed it. On large bumps I suppose the light could move a bit in the housing. Hummm slow down? :p
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Basically any sort of moderate bump in the road will make the headlights jiggle. Even those concrete subdivision roads with the black tar in between every square section of concrete will do it driving at 20-25 mph.
 
M

mrd8cd

Ready to race!
Location
St. Louis, MO
Diggs24 said:
A xenon projector has a cutoff.





When you hit a bump that line moves up and down creating the jitter. A halogen headlight has no cutoff so you won't see a jitter.
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Diggs I think you may have hit the nail on the head with the projector shield bouncing. Is there any way to mitigate this? Or is this normal?
 
ElectricEye

ElectricEye

Autocross Newbie
Location
Central NJ
mrd8cd said:
Hello all, I'm the proud new owner of a 2017 GTI sport in pure white with the 6 speed manual, and I'm absolutely loving this car so far. I'm a nit picky kind of guy when it comes to cars though, and I've noticed this car's headlights (HIDs) bounce over seemingly every bump I hit in the road. Not flickering at all, just "bouncy" if you will, like they're moving in their housings just enough for me to notice it and wonder if it's normal with these cars. I've driven plenty of other cars with HID headlights, and I've never experienced this sort of thing with bouncy headlights. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance!
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You are probably noticing the sharp cut off of HID headlights.
If you've previously had halogens, they wash out more along the edges of illumination.
Now you have a car with bright lights and a sharp cut off.
I'd couple that with a short wheelbase and firm suspension to explain what you are noticing.
 
Diggs24

Diggs24

Autocross Champion
Location
de plains! de plains!
Car(s)
2015 GTI
mrd8cd said:
Diggs I think you may have hit the nail on the head with the projector shield bouncing. Is there any way to mitigate this? Or is this normal?
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As said above, it's normal. It's not the shield bouncing. Watch other cars with HIDs as they approach you and you will notice it on their cars as well. The stiffer suspension and 40 series rubber on our cars exacerbates it.
 
ElectricEye

ElectricEye

Autocross Newbie
Location
Central NJ
Diggs24 said:
As said above, it's normal. It's not the shield bouncing. Watch other cars with HIDs as they approach you and you will notice it on their cars as well. The stiffer suspension and 40 series rubber on our cars exacerbates it.
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Yeah, I doubt the shield is bouncing or that anything is loose.
Could be, but not likely.
I think the OP is simply noticing the sharp cutoff of the HID's.
 
M

mrd8cd

Ready to race!
Location
St. Louis, MO
Hey guys, so I really paid attention to the headlights on a drive last night, and it's definitely not the cutoff that's bouncing. It's right in the middle of the beam that is hitting the ground, roughly 20 feet in front of the car, and I only notice the left headlight doing this. Any other ideas since I've ruled out the cutoff suggestions?
 
M

mrd8cd

Ready to race!
Location
St. Louis, MO
Diggs24 said:
Left meaning driver's side? It is aimed lower so as not to blind oncoming traffic.
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Correct, it is the driver's side headlight that is "bouncing" on a lot of bumps. I almost want to use the word "flickering", but it's not quite that.
 
G

Gibberoni

Ready to race!
Location
Simpsonville, SC
Is there any way you can video this? The housings on our lights are pretty solid. And like others have said, it may be that you are not used to the crisp(er) cutoff of the Xenon lights. They will appear to bounce up and down with the car and it will be VERY noticeable.
 
M

mrd8cd

Ready to race!
Location
St. Louis, MO
Gibberoni said:
Is there any way you can video this? The housings on our lights are pretty solid. And like others have said, it may be that you are not used to the crisp(er) cutoff of the Xenon lights. They will appear to bounce up and down with the car and it will be VERY noticeable.
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I'll post a video as soon as I can. It's not the biggest issue in the world, just big enough to be a slight annoyance.
 
Wastegate13

Wastegate13

Autocross Champion
Location
SoFla
I seem to remember a few people claiming that they had bulbs not seated properly from the factory. Maybe check it out or just have the dealer do it.
 
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