Tay_pt wrote:

Envoy, regarding the tail lights, as Kaine said, some times you park your car and need to go around the back in dark places… You can now ask me what am I doing going around dark places…

The thought never crossed my mind

I didnt know that you cold put the reversing lights on as well as the front lights, i can see this as being quite usefull, but not the tail lights  some of my Previous cars
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ENVOY wrote:

I didnt know that you cold put the reversing lights on as well as the front lights, i can see this as being quite usefull, but not the tail lights

The red glow of the tail lights gives that Dario Argento mood in dark parking lots that horror movie fans crave and enjoy. 

My theory on the shaking headlight syndrome, is that there seems to be what I call “eyelids” on the Xenon portion of the headlight units.

My understanding of how the setup works, is that the Xenon lamps have these “eyelids” which are in a drooped position to cut off the beam lower, thereby giving you a dipped or low beam setting. Then when you go on to head or full beam, the “eyelids” flick up allowing the full punch of the Xenons light the road ahead, in addition to the inside Halogen spots coming on.

The Xenons, being a discharge bulb, does not have a double filament like the normal halogen bulbs, nor can they switch on & off to give a high / low beam setting, so the Xenon lamps remain on & unchanged using this “eyelid” setup instead to cut the beam.

I’ve noticed the headlight shake quite noticeably on rough roads, (something we have a lot of here in Ireland ) when the lights are on dipped beam & sometimes also when on full beam & have put it down to these eyelids vibrating.

I found it quite annoying in the early days, but have grown more accustomed to it now.

Rupert wrote:

My theory on the shaking headlight syndrome, is that there seems to be what I call “eyelids” on the Xenon portion of the headlight units.

My understanding of how the setup works, is that the Xenon lamps have these “eyelids” which are in a drooped position to cut off the beam lower, thereby giving you a dipped or low beam setting. Then when you go on to head or full beam, the “eyelids” flick up allowing the full punch of the Xenons light the road ahead, in addition to the inside Halogen spots coming on.

The Xenons, being a discharge bulb, does not have a double filament like the normal halogen bulbs, nor can they switch on & off to give a high / low beam setting, so the Xenon lamps remain on & unchanged using this “eyelid” setup instead to cut the beam.

I’ve noticed the headlight shake quite noticeably on rough roads, (something we have a lot of here in Ireland ) when the lights are on dipped beam & sometimes also when on full beam & have put it down to these eyelids vibrating.

I found it quite annoying in the early days, but have grown more accustomed to it now.

Eyelids? Are you on drugs Rupert??  MY12 SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ebony/Piano/Sidesteps/Privacy/Overfinch Olympus/JLR DRLs

No, not at the moment. But there are times I wish I was !!!

But seriously, have a look at the way the light operates. Actually, if you’re sitting in the car at night, say facing down a quiet street or lane & switch between dipped & full beam, you can see what appears to be a shade or “eyelid” flick up when you select full beam.
T
he Xenon bulb being a discharge lamp doesn’t or in fact can’t switch between two filaments quickly like a halogen can. So something mechanical has to cut or drop the beam for dipped lights.

The inside halogen spots only come on for full beam as a supplement, or when you flash your lights during daytime.

It’s same principal as when I used to work in the stage lighting industry & we used “Xenon Supertrooper” follow spots, or in fact any HID light source, in order to dim the lamp or black it out, there was a mechanical shutter in front of the bulb to do the job.

Tay_pt wrote:

I suppose they do shake because of the adaptive feature, as they are not completely fixed to the car. I have other cars with xenon, that also auto level, but they don’t shake at all.

The "eyelid" is called a shutter and is held up or down electro magnetically to give high or low beam.
As umbertob has said previously part of the problem is that this system gives a very sharp cut off line at the top of the beam pattern and thus it is easier to see any movement.
If the shutter is not held firmly enough it will vibrate. I don't think this is the problem with our lights.
I drive several other cars with these types of lights (BMW & Mercs) and this vibration does not happen.
Perhaps the problem is inside the structure of the light unit itself or where and how the light unit is mounted.
For reasons other than vibration I am experimenting with different (stronger ) bulbs at the moment and if I can shed any more light on this issue (pun intended ) I will post the results.
BTW I'm not talking about the adaptive lights "searching" this is a different movement.......what I'm talking about is caused by road surface vibration.

ivery819 wrote:

BTW I'm not talking about the adaptive lights "searching" this is a different movement.......what I'm talking about is caused by road surface vibration.

I’ve been taking note of the vibration a little more over the past few days.

Now while it’s hard to be sure, I think I can actually see the cut off line of the shutter vibrate on rough roads, which certainly points to the shutter being the cause.

As you say ivery819 other Xenon equipped cars don’t seem to suffer from this. So I wonder is the shutter on the LR lamps not quite as well fixed as others ?

Also, in my case at least, the vibration is much more noticeable when on Dipped / Low beam, thereby further pointing the finger at the shutter as being the culprit. Given that it’s up out of the way when on Full / Head beam.

Rupert wrote:

... As you say ivery819 other Xenon equipped cars don’t seem to suffer from this.

So maybe these Xenons on other cars are not adaptive?  Malaysia Boleh!
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I have to say the adaptives on my BMW don't "shake" - they turn left and right with the steering angle as they're meant to but they don't even "dance" when you switch them on (they raise slowly to a level point) so I suppose even if different mfrs all supply adaptive xenons, they implement them in different ways. 

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Rupert wrote:

I’ve been taking note of the vibration a little more over the past few days.

Now while it’s hard to be sure, I think I can actually see the cut off line of the shutter vibrate on rough roads, which certainly points to the shutter being the cause.

My speed could be below 150KMPH and I see it. If Iam fopllowing another pickup truck I see it too - the signs flicker too.

The adaptive's on my Mercedes(Active Curve Illumination) does not shake either. However - they are speed sensitive so its only based on the speed.

Frisco_TX_RRS wrote:

If I am following another pickup truck

 

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