New GTI, getting the high beam flash from other drivers

[sloopercat]

Anybody else getting this response from the OEM LED lights. I drove about 60 miles last night on a two lane road and had about 10 vehicles flash their lights at me. Based on how they illuminate the road, they don’t appear to be out of adjustment. Thought it may have been the fog lights, tried with and without. It may be due to the general fatigue factor from all the crap headlights folks run, I know I am sick of it. I think another factor may be the seeming lack of understanding from the regulators that people don’t drive on level roads. Getting a face full of LED lights crest can be a bit much.

Are you getting the same thing? I love the lights, on high beam they are amazing. Getting constantly flashed at on low beam is taking some of the joy away.

 

[JC_451]

I've had this happen a few times. It's fun to have people flash their lights at you when you have the low beams on.

Then you get to show them the actual high beams.

Pretty sure you're onto something with the road leveling though.

 

[Strange Mud]

heavy load in trunk/tire pressure? I would ask the dealer to check them. Mine are the projectors and throw great light with no angry flashes.

Mud

 

[sloopercat]

Trunk empty, two people in the car. I sort of know how the other drivers feel. Not sure why the light intensity needs to be so high with low beams. Wonder if they can be adjusted down with VCDS? I hate to be one of “those guys”.

 

[The Fed]

Do you have self-leveling headlights?

 

[dietcokefiend]

Some of our GTIs seem to have crap factory leveling setup. I had two that were aimed far down, it sounds like you might have some edging up on too high. You will need OBDEleven of Vagcom to set the new level.

What I've done is aim to preference. I know there is the measure at different distances back from a wall method, but the best I've found is to see where the cutoff line hits cars while driving. Get them up enough to help you, but then center in on making sure the light doesn't aim abover mid trunk line on sedans. You want the lights to not hit into a cars rear glass, and in that range you will be below the front hood line for oncoming traffic.

Doing it this way has made driving a lot nicer at night and I don't annoy the shit out of drivers. Not all LED-owning drivers do the same.

 

[sloopercat]

Do you have self-leveling headlights?

I assume so, since I have the factory LEDs that do the wag on start up and also follow the steering wheel. It would be nice if they included a knob to adjust the beam height like I have used on cars in the EU.

 

[jimlloyd40]

I assume so, since I have the factory LEDs that do the wag on start up and also follow the steering wheel. It would be nice if they included a knob to adjust the beam height like I have used on cars in the EU.

What year is your car? If it's under warranty just tell the dealer and have them adjust them for free.

 

[sloopercat]

It’s a brand new 2019. 900 miles on it. Would rather fix it myself, if indeed anything is wrong. I suspect everything is in spec. I don’t recall where the lights were on cars I have approached. Last night was the first drive at night. I pretty sure I can adjust the height myself.

 

[dietcokefiend]

You can't. On the newer headlights, you adjust the screw and the next time it powers up it balances back to where it was set. You need to put it in program mode, adjust height, then confirm to get it to work.

 

[GTIfan99]

You can't. On the newer headlights, you adjust the screw and the next time it powers up it balances back to where it was set. You need to put it in program mode, adjust height, then confirm to get it to work.

I don't think that's true. I have a 19 and adjusted with the screws and they didn't "go back" to where they were before. I had the opposite issue, mine were aimed to low from the factory and were comically low after installing lower springs. The cut off was 10 feet in front of the car. I've adjusted with the screws and they're staying exactly where I adjusted them.

Where did you get the information they would go back to pre adjustment level with manual adjustment?

 

[amsr]

Ive had this issue also. It makes me think they were not calibrated correctly.

 

[dietcokefiend]

I don't think that's true. I have a 19 and adjusted with the screws and they didn't "go back" to where they were before. I had the opposite issue, mine were aimed to low from the factory and were comically low after installing lower springs. The cut off was 10 feet in front of the car. I've adjusted with the screws and they're staying exactly where I adjusted them.

Where did you get the information they would go back to pre adjustment level with manual adjustment?

it's been that way for a long time now on VW and Audi with auto leveling headlamps. I also did the manual adjustment then followed the vagcom. Triggering the program mode without doing anything else reset the position lower. Now each time I hit that program mode after setting the new position, it's at the correct higher spot.

I don't know when the car will trigger the reset position, but it happens at some point. Why have all the programming options in the headlamp controller if there was no point at all?

 

[Carlosfandang0]

You can't. On the newer headlights, you adjust the screw and the next time it powers up it balances back to where it was set. You need to put it in program mode, adjust height, then confirm to get it to work.

This is not (entirely) correct! When using a diagnostics tool (VCDS, OBD11, ODIS) to calibrate the headlights it does not know where the adjustment screws are, adjusting the screws does not adjust any component that can be electronically adjusted, the program mode as you call it calibrates the levelling sender that is attached to the chassis , the workshop manual calls for the diagnostic tool to be connected during headlight adjustment (with the screws) because the levelling sender needs to know where level is, you cannot set the beam position with the diagnostic tool, you can only set the level, and the level is where you have set it with the screws! If the car has the level set and stored and you then adjust the screws it doesn’t alter where the set level is in the eyes of the ecu, all it does is adjust the beam to a new height for that set level as seen by the levelling arm attached to the chassis, so if you then run basic settings again the beam level will not adjust back to the previous screw settings because it has no idea where the screws are adjusted to.

 

[sloopercat]

I have the VCDS cable on order. Have not done all the research that I need to do. Dealership service is just not something I want to do if I can do the work myself. They may charge me a diagnostic fee. Looking for a good tutorial. From what I can glean so far is I can at least try to see if the car will self correct, but more likely I need to go into a mode in VCDS that allows me to set the beam height. Do I need to do that for each light or is there an adjustment that I can do to reset what the car thinks is level?