2017 headlights are awful. Add driving lights? Change housings??
 

They really fudged the lights. Although the housing and DRL design look great, the actual beam pattern is terrible.

I went for a few drives in the hills at night, and I can't see anything through the corners. There's a giant dark zone straight ahead, so elevation changes are all bad. Uphill parts are completely dark. Then there's a giant dark zone at each upper corner.

Possible solutions:
(please save your hero comments. I won't blind people by accident. There are no other humans where I go driving.)

1-Light bar behind the grill
Pros: Been done before. Fairly straightforward install. Light bar is mostly out of sight
Cons: This doesn't seem very useful because of the limitation in aiming the lights. I don't want more light in the same area, I need lights aimed up and out to the sides

2- Add adjustable driving lights on the lower part of the front bumper, in front of the fog lights, so they can be aimed up and out.
Pros: Light where I need it. Adjustable. Cheap
Cons: Ugly lights out in the open. Have to drill into the bumper.

3- Change headlights?? I don't know if this is actually an option. If anyone has info I would greatly appreciate it.

Basically I want rally lighting, but I don't want to make my car look ridiculous. Maybe suction cup mounts and put them on the hood???

Any other ideas?

Sell your car. Lol

Looks to me like your headlights off. Try adjust the headlights leveling screw to your needs.
Mine where pointed way to low when I first got my car the factory's level setting was useless. A few turns up and bam. Perfect angle.

Ill trade you my 2014's

I'll trade you (plus I'll add in some cash) for my Release Series 1.0 headlights :thumbup:

I thought the 2017 lights were not adjustable. And regardless, the low beams are already aimed too high. I get high-beamed all the time at night. Going higher would make that worse.

Tell the dealer to check the aim of the headlights, also is there other lights on inside the car? Phone screen, head unit too bright? That will throw off what you see in front of you.

That's not the problem. The lights are very bright, and pointed "correctly", but still too high (low beams). . Re-aiming them is not an option. The beam pattern is just not good. Essentially, the low beam is too high, and the high beam is too low


Another , sort of different, complaint about the new LEDs
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...99&postcount=1

You sure? Did you read your manual? I'm pretty sure they could be aimed down. Either way if your not happy about it i say just to back to the dealer to have them checked out. Maybe you're the lucky one that has some bad bulbs or something.

Sorry. Let me clarify. They're fine for the street. Not good for the hills and canyon driving at night compared to the HIDs. I didn't mean to make it sound like they're bad for normal use

Weird. I haven't had many cars but.. these headlights are amazing IMO. Unless I cared about other people's retinas. Low beams are wide as hell and the highs light up everything.

NE Ohio represent.

2017 BRZ (and maybe the 86) do _not_ have the adjustment dial.

why would they make the headlights not adjustable... that is pretty stupid. I guess your only option is to loosen the headlight bolts and tighten them down in a specific manner in order to get the aim you want

Many years ago (well I am old) we would strap a wood bar with suction cups on the bottom with a pencil, driving and two fogs across the front of the hood of the old MG. Fogs pointed outward other two strait ahead. It worked well for night rallies. Looked ugly as sin though.
Most of the less expensive light bars are not well aimed and have a broad pattern, they also have very different light out puts, it might work for you.

AFAIK the MY13+ HIDs are self leveling, it's automatic adjustment by a sensor connected to the suspension. It's how they are here in the UK. I'd assume that the LED lights are done in a similar fashion.

I know the 86 is supposed to be a light weight sports car, but I always wished it had adaptive headlights that moved with the steering... Hell, all cars should!

I have never heard of auto-leveling headlights in the USDM versions. for my MY15, there's a scroll wheel next to the trunk release to change headlight levels. there's also a manual adjustment behind the actual headlight housing.

Auto leveling is usually combined with HID, halogen gets the scroll wheel.

must be the EUDM and JDM ones then. USDM definitely doesn't have it. you guys also got the headlight washers too... all the cool stuff are overseas lol

The USDM '17's do have automatic leveling, it's a sensor connected to the left rear control arm. I didn't reinstall mine after swapping out control arms since there really wasn't a spot for it, and I didn't know what it was, and my beams got pretty freaky. I personally love the new headlights, they're a nice wide beam, too bright, and I don't have that dead spot you mentioned.


http://www.ft86club.com/forums/pictu...ictureid=10931

Great info! Thanks

The dead spot is me being picky. Comparing it to other cars I've owned, as well as the HIDs on previous year twins. I assure you guys my lights aren't malfunctioning. Like I said above they're great for on-road use other than the low beams being aimed too high and getting high beamed all the time by oncoming traffic. I suppose an interesting project would be to see if I could manipulate that sensor, or sensor signal to make the automatic levelers do my bidding


For now, here is what I have come up with as a fix. One of these under each fog light, facing up and out

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00T8UY53Q

And one of these in the grill, facing up

https://www.amazon.com/Auxbeam-7200l.../dp/B00T7GYDTC

You shouldn't need all those lights. Have your eyes checked if you need that much light.

So you plan do drive around on the street with on coming traffic with these lights? Have you seen what the beam pattern these light put out?

These are made for off road or work vehicles that need a full beam pattern in front of them, lighting up everything. You will blind so many people coming the other way. And you live in Cali, the cops will be on you like a fat kid to cake. This is a very poor option.

In California you'd actually have to have the light covered every time you get on the highway.

24411.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a vehicle may be equipped with not more than eight lamps for use as headlamps while the vehicle is operated or driven off the highway. The lamps shall be mounted at a height of not less than 16 inches from the ground, or more than 12 inches above the top of the passenger compartment, at any place between the front of the vehicle and a line lying on a point 40 inches to the rear of the seat occupied by the driver, shall be wired independently of all other lighting circuits, and, whenever the vehicle is operated or driven upon a highway, shall be covered or hooded with an opaque hood or cover, and turned off.

No of course not. And yes.

Researched beam patterns and decided to try flood first

Do you have any better ideas?

Yup...gonna make some DIY leather covers

It's not about the amount of light..it's about where it's pointing. The lights just happen to be bright

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjHttdyw7EE"]Rally Lights Explained - YouTube[/ame]

If you're not interested in rally lighting, go read a different thread?

Thanks for your helpful opinion

I know this idea is overly technical, but it would be cool to tap into the steering angle sensor to have the right and left pointing lights to turn on and off when cornering...

FYI. my wife's 2015 Outback does that with its foglights from the factory, There's a button on the dash for SRF, steering responsive fog-lights.

I wonder if that whole system would swap over...

Does it just take a signal from the canbus? I'm not really privy to how automotive systems work. In theory you'd need some kind of trigger at a certain steering angle to activate the lights. Which it seems would require some software

Is this on USDM twins as well?

Yes, this is a USDM twin.

Did not know that, hmm.

2017 86 here, the lights are LED and I beleive auto leveling. They DO have an adjustment knob. Either 8mm or flathead will raise the beam up or down.https://i.imgur.com/6T92T3X.jpg