Hid Lights In Snow

[ken1mod]

Gentlemen,

 

My Silvy has regular headlights but I was driving my Acura last week and hit a powerful snowstorm south of Flagstaff. The perfectly aimed hid headlamps were reflected in the snow flakes to the extent that I had to turn them off in order to see at all.

 

Is this a common problem with hid lighting or was this a strange experience with large snowflakes , or whatever.

 

Is this a serious problem with the hid system? It was really bad. Dangerous. The Acura headlamps are fine under normal conditions and the aim is flawless. The car was really undrivable under snow falling conditions.

 

Are these lights so powerful that the reflections are dangerous? Has anyone experienced this??

 

Ken

[SoCalChris]

We haven't had a whole lot of snow since I installed the HIDs in my truck, but they seemed to do good in what we have had. I didn't notice any more glare than the stock headlights, and the HIDs seem to cut through the snow better. We haven't had any really big flakes recently though, so I'm not sure how they will do in those.

[bryanhunt]

Its all about your headlight angle in relation to the particles hit by the light as well as your own height (of course the type of particle will affect how much light is returned, the angle between you and the headlights deturmines if you're getting just a glancing reflection or a full one). There are several different methods to get around reflections, the classic is of course fog lamps which are farther from your eye angularly than are your headlamps (most people think of them as shooting out under the fog).

 

The unfortunate part is anything you do to increase the difference between your lights and your eyes ends up creating a problem for fellow drivers.

 

So its not so much the fact that they were HIDs, its more about the fact they are brighter than normal... and you are typically a lot closer to your headlights in an automobile versus in a truck.

[mark72501]

Gentlemen,

 

My Silvy has regular headlights but I was driving my Acura last week and hit a powerful snowstorm south of Flagstaff. The perfectly aimed hid headlamps were reflected in the snow flakes to the extent that I had to turn them off in order to see at all.

 

Is this a common problem with hid lighting or was this a strange experience with large snowflakes , or whatever.

 

Is this a serious problem with the hid system? It was really bad. Dangerous. The Acura headlamps are fine under normal conditions and the aim is flawless. The car was really undrivable under snow falling conditions.

 

Are these lights so powerful that the reflections are dangerous? Has anyone experienced this??

 

Ken

 

I'm not expert on the Acuras but I have noticed often that the Acuras with the HID headlights...they appear to shine at a higher angle that most others. Nine times outta ten if I'm meeting a car that I can tell has HIDs and they seem noticably brighter than others it ends up being an Acura. Not dissing the Acuras (I love 'em!), just giving my observation.

 

Maybe you could adjust the angle down slightly and see if that helps? Just a thought...