My thoughts on my Xenons

[gibbons]

First things first, I apologize for starting a new thread on the same topic, but the other one was so big that it was taking forever to load on my laptop's modem while traveling.

Second, I am a headlight fanatic from way back. In 1976, while still in high school, I thought enough about safety to put a set of Euro-spec Cibie 7" hi/lo halogens in my Duster to replace the stock sealed beams. Later, I had a Honda Accord with a really trick Euro-spec Cibie quad 5 3/4" set up: dedicated low beam (like a fog) on the left outside, hi/lo on the right outside, high beam on left inside, and "pencil" (like a white laser) high beam on the right inside. It was fabulous. I used Cibie's in 6 vehicles over the years until the standard generic sizes were phased out by model specific lights.

All of the Cibie "low" beams had a distinct beam pattern that cut the light off above a line: black above, white below when shined on a wall. This design delivers maximum light to the road with no scattering or flaring up into oncoming driver's eyes. They would illuminate a long distance, and then the light pattern would abrubtly stop. But the end of the illumination beam was a safe, comfortable distance way down the road. The beam would rise on the right side of the road to illuminate signs.

So, our 04 XC70 (we've had it a week) has Xenons. At first, I completely agreed with the negative comments on this board. On low beam, they don't shine far enough down the road. And the high beams hit the road too close, too. But the low beam pattern is really great, kinda like my old Cibie lights. They have that distinct white light "below the line" design, meaning they have real posibilities. I see on the the "Valeo" name on them, they must be the supplier who designed and manufactured them. Valeo knows lights!

Sooo.... I aimed the XC headlights at our rear garage door, over a laser leveled driveway, with the headlights 50' away. Then I pulled the headlight beams upwards by adjusting the little white hex's. But they still slope downward so as not to dazzle oncoming drivers. I did multiple drive/adjust reiterations to make sure that they shine as far as possible without being offensive, even when approaching road crests is the worst case scenario.

EDIT NOTE 12dec03::  I TOOK A PICTURE OF THE BEAMS AND POSTED THEM 12 MESSAGES DOWN IN THIS THREAD.  CHECK 'EM OUT.

Conclusion (personal opinion): "Adjusted", these are the best headlights I have ever seen. They have a really nice, wide, far reaching beam without any "hot" or "cold" spots in the pattern. The beam pattern does not scatter upwards, the cut off is crisp. When the car approaches, the lights look dim blue. But if you get down on your hands and knees and look below the "line", they are brilliant white. Moving the beam upwards also dramatically improved the high beams, which I now consider excellent. And to top it off, they look cool. I think Volvo was either being conservative to a fault, or mine got aimed poorly at the factory.

Disclaimer: Do not attempt to adjust your headlights as you could cause a dangerous situation.

[jlf]

gibbons....I adjusted mine up also after two weeks with the car, using the little white hex's.....I didn't have a properly leveled driveway to use, so I did it the usual way....trial/error.  I turned each hex 3/4 turn....so far, so good.  Low beam is much better....and I drove my car back from town a few nights back, had my wife drive the x/c behind me, and there was no glare....so I think I can try another 1/4 turn on the hex.

Can you tell me, how far you turned the hex? http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

JF

[Eric]

Which way did you turn the 6mm white hex?  Clockwise 3/4 turn or counterclockwise?

Thanks,

Eric

[gibbons]

Hey, I told y'all I didn't think it was safe to mess with 'em   http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/hehe.gif

Not that I would endorse someone else's light-tuning science fair project, but mine ended up well over a full turn clockwise, but I didn't keep track. As I mentioned, it was an iterative process with a bit at a time, including some lowering.

To self justify messing with them, I consider headlights as a compromise.  Have enough light to make it like day so you can see everything everywhere, and you blind the other guy.  To totally ensure the safety of the other guy, you would turn your lights all the way off.  But then your safety is compromised.  There is reasonable setting mutually agreeable to both parties  I think I am there now, having started way too low.

I love these lights.

[jlf]

I marked the lights before turning, and then turned them clockwise (I think, I'm on the road at the moment) 3/4 turn, which raised them a bit....it was enough to see a significant improvement on low beams.  I'm not real happy with the high beams, the light is not focused down the road but rather at a wide angle....JF

[barrysharp]

I'm of the opinion that the Volvo 2004 Bi-Xenon light system is poorly designed and a safety hazard -- boo hiss on Volvo for inflicting this situation of safety oriented drivers. These Bi-Xenon lights are the worst lights I've ever driven with.

[gibbons]

My car was pulled off the transport truck 12 days ago, maybe there is an in-line engineering change order or something, cuz mine are really nice.  But that's just my personal opinion.  As I mentioned in my first long, long boring post above, I have had lots of really good headlights in various cars.  I guess we can agree to disagree     http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[Mikael]

I agree with you barry !

The lights are dangerous indeed .I`ve had my car for some weeks now and for the first time I drowe on a dark road a couple of days ago. When I´ve been driving this road with my old car with ordinary halogens I´ve had no problems following the road. But with the xenons it was dangerous http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

The lights were pointing to much downwards . I´ve never seen that little of that road before. Scary http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/huh2.gif

So I allso turned up the "northern lights" one turn !
And see what happends, the road suddenly whas there again. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/thumbs-up.gif

As gibbons pointed out: The lights are poorly aimed from the factory but much more crisp than xenons from many other cars which scatters light in many other directions.

I´ve just compared my XC with an Audi and the result was as expected. The XC:s light was much lower and allso wider. Volvo uses alarger reflector (right word ?) than most other cars. This makes the light much more acurate.

Give it a turn. At least one http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/thumbs-up.gif

[XCMark]

I'm just curious, but I'm not following where you guys are making these 'adustments'... anyone able to post a photo where all this is happening?

thanks!

[Chipshot]

I think we should all road trip out to Utah for a big headlamp-aiming gathering at Gibbons.   http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[rrock]

I too recently adjusted my bi-xenons (1 turn) and it has made a huge difference!  I am now completely satisfied with the low beam performance on my '04XC.

[barrysharp]

To be clear as to my statements. I don't have Bi-Xenon on my '03 XC70 but do on my '04 S60R. The XC70 lights are great but the S60R lights are down right dangerous, AND I've adjusted high beam up some to no real advantage. My low beam on S60R is OK but I had to adjust the fog lights up to compensate for the blackness the low beam adjustment caused.

No matter how much adjustment I tried the S60R Bi-Xenon high beam lights cannot address the safety issue for me.

[gibbons]

OK, a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are my Bi-Xenon light low beams shining on my high tech diagnostic instrument rear garage door. Notice the distinct line, with no flare ups. Notice the nice even pattern on the driveway. By the way, the car is sitting direcly over the first "mark" line in the concrete from the right, so it's centered on the right half of the door, not the middle. I hope that makes sense. And those are residual wet spots from rain, not oil http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

What could you possibly do to this beam pattern to make it better? I tell ya, it can't get better than this. They are wonderful. I rest my case.

[gibbons]

Hey Chipshot and all, come on over, we'll dial every one in. I don't know what the SUV driving neighbors will think of all of us... I'm sure they think I'm an oddball for buying this car.  Some people just don't get it... I know I didn't.

Here is a picture of the car, finally.  This is the back side of the house, that driveway leads to the back garage shown in the picture above.  That single garage door on the house is for the rear bay of a double deep bay.  The Chevelle lives behind it.  

We love this car!

[Eric]

Thanks for the info. I was conservative and turned them up 3/4 of a turn and I am satisfied.  Might turn them up another 1/4 turn to one full turn.  I used liquid paper and made a white index mark on the black housing and a black Sharpie marker on the white hex so I know where I started.  The only issue is that the right light seems to have a little higher setting (seems to maybe be the reflector inside).  I will tweek it a bit.

[gibbons]

The final test for making sure they are both set the same level is to get on your hands and knees and raise your eyes into and out of the beam.  You want to make sure that when doing this, they both look like they "come on" at the same time.  It's really obvious and easy to check.  Fine tune from there.

[XCMark]

gibbons,

We've heard all about it, even seen the garage door it 'lives behind', so how about a peek at the Chevelle? http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/happy.gif

BTW, very nice sharp lines with the lights, I'll have to try that with mine and compare... based on your description of where your car is, I presume that means it's just out of the frame of the picture and not waaay back?

[gibbons]

Mark,

If you look at the pic with the XC in it, you seen how the garage parallels the driveway.  When aiming the lights, the XC is parked along side the house, with the headlights about flush with the rear wall of the house, right next to that single wide garage door.  It's 50' to the rear garage door (double wide) where the light beam picture was taken.

Here is a pic of the Chevelle.  IMHO, the best looking car ever made.  They came out when I was in the 4th grade and I wanted one ever since.  Oh, yeah, it doesn't have Cibies, because they don't look "correct".  That's OK, it never gets driven in bad conditions anyway.

[XCMark]

Very nice Chevelle, gibbons. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/thumbs-up.gif Way to end up with what you liked back in 4th grade! http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Outrageous]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Eric @ Dec. 14 2003,19:36)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"> The only issue is that the right light seems to have a little higher setting (seems to maybe be the reflector inside). I will tweek it a bit.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I think the stock setting has the right light higher.

[Chipshot]

Thinking ahead (perhaps way ahead), when might Volvo produce its first car with LED headlamps? &nbsp;While they have been used on many concept cars (maybe even some Volvos), I don&#39;t believe they have &quot;hit the road&quot; yet.

[stain]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (jlf @ Dec. 11 2003,18:03)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I adjusted mine up also after two weeks with the car, using the little white hex&#39;s.....[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I would appreciate if someone post a picture giving a clue which screws exactly need to be turned clock-wise.

Thanks in advance&#33;

[stain]

Well, I opened the hood, quickly found these white plastic hexes (close to front-side corners). I made a mark on a wall right at the current light edge. Then I turned the left hex:
3/4 clock-wise - no effect
1 full turn - no effect
2 full turns - no result at all.
(Same story for the right one)
The beam had the same height as before. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[Art]

Just in case anyone was still wondering, here&#39;s a link (http://www.volvoxc.com/resources/how-to/headlamp-adjustment.html) to those headlamp adjustment knobs that Stain was referring to in the resources-how-to section of the site. Compliments of Saabstory. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[deckard]

Seems there&#39;s been a change since Saabstory took the picture - at least in the 2004 XC.
There is only one knob pointing up now. The one pointing back is gone. The whole mechanism is a bit bigger now with a little &nbsp;black box underneath.
They probably changed the automatic height adjustment mechanism.

http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[stain]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (deckard @ Feb. 03 2004,02:05)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">There is only one knob pointing up now. The one pointing back is gone.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
That&#39;s what I noticed too. One vertical knob at the each front corner of the hood. And perhaps these are X-adjusters so this might be a reason why it was not working for me, damn http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/unhappy.gif

[stain]

After the second look, I found another couple of vertical knobs. They are hidden under the black metal pane and hardly accessible. Although they are visible through the holes of the pane. Fortunately, this time it worked out well. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Chipshot]

How about taking some photos and posting them for us, Stain?

[stain]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Chipshot @ Feb. 06 2004,07:53)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">How about taking some photos and posting them for us, Stain?[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Here we go:

[stain]

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