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Hi,

Noticed something odd with my led headlights. I think it's just 'how it is' but I'd like to get others thoughts on this and whether anyone else has noticed this.

When driving at night, I've noticed the headlight beam (mainly passenger side) seems to vibrate up and down slightly when on rough roads.
If you're on smooth roads or you drop into a pothole, this isn't obvious, but I see it when on road surfaces that are a little worn down.

I'd like to get video footage of this, but it's so slight and the vibration is so fast, a camera just doesn't pick it up, it just catches my eyes at night.

Also worth noting is that it's more obvious when in sport mode with the stiffer dampers.
It's like the led housing isn't quite secure, and the bulbs are bouncing around a little inside.

These headlights move up and down automatically, so I'm thinking they mustn't be as secure as the fixed bulbs that don't adjust.

Any thoughts or experiences with this would be great.

Cheers,
Matt

Hi Matt

Cant say I've noticed this before but will be on the look out for it.
What side of the vehicle is your passenger side? Mine is on the left.

OomStu_ZA wrote:Hi Matt

Cant say I've noticed this before but will be on the look out for it.
What side of the vehicle is your passenger side? Mine is on the left.

Yes same.
Might also happen on the other side, but passenger side beam (left) is slightly higher so easier to spot.

Driver side isn't quite as high so hard to tell if it behaves the same.

I’ve got LED headlights on my Peugeot 308 and have not noticed the headlight wobble on that car.

I’ve added the LED headlights onto my Polo as I find the ones on my Peugeot are really bright on dark lanes.

Be interesting find out what causes this issue on the Polo.

The headlights aren't independently damped from the body. If you're on rough roads and the body shudders a bit, the lights will too. Always more noticeable on cars with Xenons or LEDs because they have a sharper beam cut off. Is the light heroines more pronounced in Sport (stiffer damping) than normal? As expected.

monkeyhanger wrote:The headlights aren't independently damped from the body. If you're on rough roads and the body shudders a bit, the lights will too. Always more noticeable on cars with Xenons or LEDs because they have a sharper beam cut off. Is the light heroines more pronounced in Sport (stiffer damping) than normal? As expected.

Yes sounds exactly right, except they seem to bounce at a different rate than in the car.
I sort of expect the beam to vibrate at the same rate as the car, but doesn't seem to happen.

Since the LEDs are attached to a motor for the adaptive levelling, I'm thinking there must be a bit of play in there.

We are only talking an inch or so of beam movement when following another vehicle (white van is a good vehicle to follow for this).
So this would mean 1mm or so of movement in the headlight housing.

Probably well within tolerances but still, when you see it you see it.

My previous car (mk6 Golf GTD) with xenon headlamps used to do this. Noticed it when I first got the car but got used to it to the point I no longer noticed it after a few months. Can’t say I’ve noticed a beam wobble on my previous generation Polo GTI with LED headlamps - maybe they do but because I got used to it on my Golf, its not something I’ve noticed.

I saw this happen yesterday for the first time while in a shopping centre parking garage.. the road surface was corrugated and while going up the ramp the vibration from the LED's was VERY noticeable. Other than that it hasnt happened again. Interesting though.

Very noticeable on mine on bumpy roads. The led lights do wobble more than the body of the car. Saying that though it doesn't bother me in the slightest and doesn't change their effectiveness of lighting the road ahead.