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The phenomenon of people driving around with their headlights on full beam all the time seems to be growing - has anyone else noticed this?

I have seen it twice in the past two days - one was a guy in an M3 on the motorway who might just have had his dips on the maximum height setting, but today's in a Mondeo was obvious as the main beams illuminate separate bulbs in the headlamp cluster.

I was tempted to get out at the lights and suggest he dipped his lights, but decided I didn't want to risk getting a crowbar embedded in my head.

If done deliberately, it is hard to conceive of more selfish, inconsiderate and frankly c**tish behaviour

Why is there never a traffic copper around when you need one? (don't answer that question)

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

I have to agree. Many drivers REALLY just don't care. "Screw everybody else! I can see!" is a prevalent attitude. Whether coming towards you, or following behind, the number of 'badly adjusted' dips or blatant use of main beam is rising. My standard dips are pathetic by design, but I'd never selfishly dazzle another driver. I WILL however, flash my main beam on rural roads prior to then coming into direct veiw to let them know I'm there & give them a chance to 'pre-dip' before dazzling me. Would it be wrong of me that if they don't dip when I'm directly ahead, they get a few seconds grace then on goes everything I own, for a second or two....or until they DO get the message. Naughty I'm sure, inconciderate - not so sure.

I wouldn't say I've really noticed an increase in what I could definately put down to the main beam, but I definatly think there is an awful lot of cars going round with very badly adjusted headlights, which amounts to the same thing in my book. On the same theme there are also many with a bulb out, and either just on sidelights or out altogther. Is it really that difficult to get out of the car every now and then and check all the lights and indicators are working?



I know how you feel, even if the request(anything, not just full beam) is made in a very friendly non-confrontational way people can get very aggresive. I thought twice the other day about whether to tell someone that neither of their brake lights were working - in the end I did as I'd want someone to tell me. The guy was appriciative, but I was braced for the "so f'ing what?" response.

I know it's naughty and it's childish and it's dangerous and all of that, but I still have to own up and say that on the occasions when I've been out in road rally cars a quick blip of a pair of Cibie Super Oscars results and "Full Beam Man" can't dip his lights fast enough!

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

Oh, the M3 guy got a lengthy blast of full beam once he had passed me

Doubt whether it had any effect...

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

We could repeat this thread for rear fog lights. I often turn mine on for a few seconds after finally managing to overtake some moron with them turned on in good visibility.

There is actually another issue. Dipped headlights focus left. There's a road near me where approaching traffic blinds you when using dipped lights, because of the angle of approach on the slight bend and gradient. Last time we went that way my wife flashed the approaching driver. I had to point out to her that he was in fact dipped.

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Brian

Certain cars dont help with this problem either, for example on my old VW, you pull on the stalk to flash your lights, but pulling on the stalk also toggles full beams on and off (it does not latch)

Where this gets annoying is that it even toggles if your lights are switched off at the time, so unless you do an even number of flashes, the next time you switch your dipped beams on (with a completely separate controll, located on the dashboard on the other side of the steering wheel) you get full beams.

As an added bonus, both the dipped and full beams on the VW are crap, so it's unlikely you'll notice unless you actually look at the little blue light on your dash. It generally takes me a few seconds to notice, but I would not be suprised if many people never notice at all.

Annoying isn't it? The standard blue indicator is completely hidden behind the sterring wheel as well, so I had to add a second blue LED as an extra one. I keep meaning to add a seperate flasher button too but haven't got round to it.

I just want to replace the stalks with ones that wern't designed by a complete retard (and for left hand drive vehicles at that)

The indicator belongs on the right like the other two cars in the household, the light stalk belongs on the left and should be push for fulls, pull for flash.

I wonder if I can just fit stalks from another vehicle.

[/DERAIL]

This really opens up a new topic - do manufacturers listen to feed back from drivers?
I am taller than your average Frenchman, and find many features on my Peugeot which are totally inadequate for taller drivers, and the blue indicator lamp for hibeam has been hidden on most of the cars I have had since my Maestro!! The reason is the Maestro had a much larger wheel, which you could see through!!

I also find the pull to flash, pull to toggle hi-lo beam is also common since the Maestro, and a real inconvenience. At leat the Renault ones had a real positive "click" when you reached the point at which they toggled!

Maestro's had an on/off switch on the side of the steering column. Present trends seem to put EVERYTHING on the stalk, including fog lights!

If anyone is wishing to convert any of their lights to LED's, then you might wish to try this site - it's not the only one, but the prices include VAT, and they are helpful to the extent of displaying customers projects - one of which includes improving the dashboard indicators!
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I'd never encountered this stalk arrangement until the works Caddy van, and then my own VW, none of the other cars I've driven over the years (including Mk4 and Mk5 Golfs) had this problem and the only car where I've had an issue with the design of the stalks is the indicators on the Vectra. How do you cancel them?


Fog lights is a bit silly, but my Legcay has pretty much everything else on the stalk. Right stalk, push, fulls, pull flash, up and down indicators, and there is a little swively thing 1/3 the way down to alter the dashboard light brightness. The left stalk has wipers (down only, 4 steps), pull for a single front wipe, rotate the end for rear wash/wipe, push a button on the very end for front wash, and a swively thing 1/3 the way down to alter the intermittent wipe frequency.
Beleive it or not it actually works well! I hear some mercs fit all that crap onto a single stalk though. o_O



If you do this, please do not ever drive in front of me, I hate LED taillights as they flicker visibly and it's very distracting.

I am puzzled as to why this should be - I have never noticed this effect.
Many high level lights utilise LED's already. Perhaps the instalation is faulty, OR is it the brake lights which flicker - some have been designed to do this?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I am aware that there are many OEM lights doing this. Mercedes ones cause me the same problems, for example.

The lights do flicker, some of them do it to vary the intensity (eg stop/tail lights) some so that they can drive them at a higher brightness without knackering them so quickly, relying on the human eye's retention of vision to make it appear solid. it is this latter point where the problem lies as some eyes are more sensitive than others. I can see the flicker on a normal TV for example, which is why I own a 100hz TV to reduce it.

Did you see Clarkson's Ford GT on last weeks Top Gear? as his sidelights flicker at a different rate to the rate at which the film was running, they appeared to be blinking on and off randomly (though it is possible that this is simply because he drives a Ford )

It's possibly due to the way the alternator rectifies AC into DC, producing high frequency pulses of DC. Bulbs can't flicker at that speed since they lag too much, but LEDs are responsive enough to show some flicker.

[quote="Lum"]...only car where I've had an issue with the design of the stalks is the indicators on the Vectra. How do you cancel them?
[quote]
You can't. They are on until the end of the world, no matter how many times you flick them. If you flick them the other way, then you will be indicating the other way until the end of time. This applies up until the moment you are going round a mini roundabout for instance, and the bloody things turn off. I have now got into the habit of holding the sodding things on as I use them

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The LED systems fitted by manufacurers are to improve the reliability of lamps and to reduce power consumption. The LEDs need to be run at high current levels to produce the required brightness so, to reduce the dissipation, they are strobed on and off at high frequency. Some people are more sensitive to this effect than others but generally, persistence of vision makes it look like they are on continuously. As you saw on Top Gear, the camera scanning does produce the on/off effect because of this.

On stalks, I much prefer this:

- lighting stalk always on the left
- pull towards you to flash
- push away to a detent position to select main beam
- pull back to the centre for dip.

I really dont like the pull towards you to select main/pull again to go back to dip toggle design - it takes too long to switch over and you can't see or feel which position the switch is in.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Turning this on its head, does anyone here actually prefer column stalks where you pull for dip, pull for main beam, pull for flash? I hate the damned things.

My car has a nice sensible push for full / centre for dip / pull for flash, which I see as better in absolutely every respect. Quite apart from anything else, you can tell whether the lights are in the dip or main beam position by feel, without having to take your eyes off the road. Thus if vision deteriorates I can turn the lights onto dip without looking down. In my wife's car, which has the alternate system, there is no alternative but to turn them on (right hand) and hope that they are dipped, quickly swapping hands to dip them with the left hand if they turn out to have been left on full beam.

Worth a PR to car manufacturers? I can't believe that cars are still made with the latter type of system.

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

I used to have the pull/latch system for main beam on a Kangoo that I used to drive for work. At first I hated it, as I didn't seem to have the finesse to flash, I just got the main beam. But soon got the feel to it, and I see it does have a slight advantage in one respect, but also a down side.

Comparing against my car, which is a standard pull for flash, push for main beam the advantage of the Kangoo was that the stalk was in the grasp of my fingers without letting go of the wheel. Thus, when travelling on a country road where you need to frequently altenate between dipped and main I could turn the Kangoo's main beam on and off with ease, just stretch my fingers out, whilst my thumb and palm remained in contact with the wheel. However, when I push for full in my car, my fingers won't stretch far enough(comftably) to bring it back to normal if another car comes the other way, I have to take my hand off the wheel. It may sound very petty, but on a road where your on/off dipped and main often, I found it more comftable with the Kangoo's stalk operation. The negative aspect to it though was that very occasionally I would pull too hard when trying to flash and get main beam instead. This could confuse the other driver or may even see it as agressive. I much prefer the flash operation on my car.

It's difficult to call which of the two I prefer, both have their advantages.

Having had cars with both styles, I very much prefer pull to flash, push for main beam.

I am somewhat confused by Lum saying that the Indicators are on the right, Lights on the left, as pretty much every vehicle that I have driven has lights and indicators on the left stalk, with washers on the right. We currently have two UK spec Subarus (Forrester and Impreza) and both have lights on the left and washers on the right, so I am a bit puzzled that his Legacy has these reversed - is it a non-UK car?

Correct, my car is a Japanese import twin-turbo Legacy.
However my GFs UK spec Nissan 200SX (s13) also has the indicators on the right, and this seems the most natural place to put them as it means you can indicate as you change down a gear.