Projector Headlights

[NYEngineer]

So a month or so ago, my wife picked up a 2021 Chevy Traverse. I had not even driven the car until two weeks ago when we took a trip to Florida. On the way down, she was driving through the night. At about 4 am, I woke up and took over. I start going and the car is incredibly smooth at 75, then 80….
I feel as though I’m starting to outdrive the headlights so I hit the high beams. All that happens is a little more light sorta lights up the trees on the side of the road. I keep it under 75 until the sun came up.
Later that night, I went out to the car and hit the high beams. All that happens is a shutter opens at the top and allows a little more light by. I looked and it only has the single projector, no separate high beam.
So…. I will say, the low beams are very good. The high beam is about useless. I don’t know if they’re LED or HID. Anyone know anything about getting a better high beam? I’m even thinking of maybe putting something more piercing into the fog lamp housing and wiring it so it comes on as a high beam.

 

[el Nuke]

The fogs will be turned off by turning on the high beams. You could wire them up to remain on with the highs, but that will be trouble if you ever have to take the car in for warranty or recall work on the wiring.

 

[kebabaluba]

Where i`m from it quite popular to install auxilliary high beam lamps in the front grille. Is that a option for you?

 

[RooflessVW]

I suspect they're HID and there's not much you can do without opening the headlights.

Auxiliary high beams are the way to go.

 

[Hal-9000]

How about slowing down to a more reasonable speed?

 

[repairman54]

I've got a '20 with the HID's. I agree the highs are not as good as I like. They are weak IMO. And I hate the auto high beam function so it's turned off.
My 'nox and my Tahoe have HID retro's in the lows and PIAA incandescent in the highs and put a lot more usable light down the road.
'nox has projector lows and Tahoe has factory shielded lows so beam patterns are spot on with the HID in the lows.

 

[1 SX]

We have a Acura in the family with these same projector type headlights, HID bulbs, with a shutter. High beams are not great to say the least, and this car is now old 08. So manufacturers have been doing this for sometime. Then once age set's in, and they "fog" over a little, you really cant see in the rain on a dark night.

 

[RooflessVW]

We have a Acura in the family with these same projector type headlights, HID bulbs, with a shutter. High beams are not great to say the least, and this car is now old 08. So manufacturers have been doing this for sometime. Then once age set's in, and they "fog" over a little, you really cant see in the rain on a dark night.

That Acura has some really great projectors. Before modern retrofit projectors became commonly available they were highly sought-after as an upgrade to other cars.

New bulbs and clean lenses will bring the performance right back.

 

[Vinner210210]

Bi-xenon headlights will have that shutter/shield that moves out of the way when you activate your high beam switch meaning the bulb itself is basically producing the same amount of light the whole time it’s on; activating your high beam switch will move the cover and allow more light to get projected instead of being limited by that cutoff.

While this high beam pattern is more reliant on the projector and shutter itself (not much you can do about that unless you are good at taking apart and customizing headlights), HID bulb hotspots and light dispersion can also affect high beam output. I recently replaced some Osram D2S bulbs on my car which tended to throw the high beam light vertically down the center aim of the car. When I switched to Philips XV Gen 2, in addition to overall better light output, the high beam pattern improved to cover more area including upper sides.

 

[Astro14]

How about slowing down to a more reasonable speed?

It is also possible that the lights on the new Traverse just plain suck, and in that case, the solution is not about slowing down, it’s about making lousy lights adequate for reasonable driving.

 

[NYEngineer]

My Suburban has great hi beams. We could just use that on trips.

JK…. I‘ll work something out. Maybe add driving lights if I can find something what won’t ugly up the front of the car. I’m not adverse to opening up the housings to make a change if I knew it would be a solid upgrade. I have time. No more big trips for a while.

 

[RooflessVW]

My Suburban has great hi beams. We could just use that on trips.

JK…. I‘ll work something out. Maybe add driving lights if I can find something what won’t ugly up the front of the car. I’m not adverse to opening up the housings to make a change if I knew it would be a solid upgrade. I have time. No more big trips for a while.

Check out https://www.theretrofitsource.com/

 

[NYEngineer]

Yep. Seen that. Thanks.

 

[97prizm]

If they are hid then they would be bi-xenon if the projector has both hi and low.

 

[UG_Passat]

Lower trims of the Traverse are HID and higher trims are LED.

The shutter opens expose more of the lower projector lens to let light focused from the reflector to pass through. My old Tiguan bixenons had great high beams, with decent enough low beams.

 

[Kira]

Little cheap flappers in costly, hot headlight assemblies designed and assembled by disgruntled workers.....BIG 'NO THANK YOU' on that one good buddy.

Our 2005 Saab 9-5 Aero wagon had little cheap flappers which were touted as good for winding roads.

They just plain broke. A real good example of GM garbage. Actual junk which soured the GM name for many.

So many people have said to me, "I'll never buy a GM car". And yes, I know these sentiments fade and shift with time.

 

[Vercingetorix]

Maybe try aiming your headlights?

 

[SubLGT]

2021 Chevrolet Traverse 4-door SUV

2021 Chevrolet Traverse 4-door SUV - midsize SUV

www.iihs.org

Low beams
On the straightaway, visibility was fair on both sides of the road. On curves, visibility was fair on the sharp right curve and inadequate on the gradual right and both left curves.

The low beams created some glare.

High beams
On the straightaway, visibility was inadequate on both sides of the road. On curves, visibility was inadequate in all 4 tests.

 

[SubLGT]

......I’m even thinking of maybe putting something more piercing into the fog lamp housing and wiring it so it comes on as a high beam.

Driving lamps to improve long distance visibilty will not work well when mounted at fog lamp height.

 

[UG_Passat]

2021 Chevrolet Traverse 4-door SUV

2021 Chevrolet Traverse 4-door SUV - midsize SUV

www.iihs.org

You only quoted the HID assemblies (Poor), but the LED assembly got better marks (Acceptable)


Low beams
On the straightaway, visibility was good on the left side of the road and fair on the right side. On curves, visibility was good on the gradual right curve, fair on the sharp right curve and inadequate on both left curves.

The low beams created some glare.

High beams
On the straightaway, visibility was good on the right side of the road and fair on the left side. On curves, visibility was good on the gradual right curve, fair on the sharp right curve and inadequate on both left curves.

High-beam assist compensates for some limitations of this vehicle's low beams on the straightaway and all 4 curves.