[mjt57]

How good are the i30 headlights? As I live in country Victoria (Australia), a decent set of headlights is a must.

The best headlights I've seen were on my 2002 SS Commodore. Current car is a Mazda Tribute. Its headlights are OK but not as good.

I'm hoping that the i30's will be as good, if not better.

Hopefully I'll find out today. The car's finally arrived at the dealer and is being "pre-delivered".

Sadly, I think you will be disappointed. 

[Ultralights]

honestly, they suck..  55W High beam,  needs a miniumum of 100W for Aussie long dark roads.  low beam is pretty average also, and the fog lights are atrocious. just 25W, i have brighter LED torch in my camping kit.

[Lakes]

As you have already been told, the i30 headlights, are impressive to look at but when you put them to use it's an anti- climax !!
but not to worry there are a few threads on how others solved the problem. i think if you can find posts from OURi30 Bob you can beleave everything you read. he lives in the country too, does not post now as think too busy, but told me he still has the car well over 100,000k runing sweet.
i'm on my second i30 CRDi this ones 6 speed, i do enough country NSW k's but just left my light as they came. i try to drive in daylight in the country and avoid sunset & sunrise & too many Big Roo's were i go. to me the light seem to be focused a bit low. but  i'm not trying to adjust them as about one year ago, i had the missfortune to be followed by an i30 2.0 petrol with his lights focused too high. boy were they bright! i tried letting him pass but he stayed behind me, was on the NSW south coast, so when we hit some hills & twisties i pulled away they were giving me the ......'s. i can't remember another experience like that so i descided to just leave mine as they are but might see an auto electrician i know one day. cheers don't be turned off they are a great little car!

[mjt57]

Thanks for the responses, folks. If what you're saying is correct, then that's disappointing in this day and age.

As for the wattage, 55w is standard, even on my SSes which had excellent lights. and foglights aren't meant to be used to see where you're going. Rather, they alert other traffic to your presence in the fog. I'm still in two minds as to whether they do any good in other poor vis. conditions.

In any case I'll look for OurI30 Bob's posts and see what he has had to say about this.

[Phil №❶]

mjt57

If you're unhappy with your lights, an alternative would be to install HID, HIGH BEAM ONLY lamps. HID's are actually illegal in Oz, but who would know. They are not used around built up areas and must be off for oncoming traffic. Their output is reputedly 3 to 4x halogen lamps, long life & only 35 watts. This would be better that running into wildlife etc. Something for you to consider. 

[mjt57]

i think if you can find posts from OURi30 Bob you can beleave everything you read. he lives in the country too,

I did a search for him. Found this one to start with:

https://i30ownersclub.com/forum/index.php?topic=528.msg4088#msg4088

Unfortunately some of the links to other posts/topics and to the site where they got their globes from no longer work.

 

I'll see how the OEMs go first before I make any decisions to upgrade them.

[Ultralights]

My falcon had great Hi beam, 100W standard,  the subaru was typical japanese, ok low beam, poor hi-beam, so i upgraded to 100W hi beam, and was happy.  the fog lights on the subaru were great, not the spot lights some cars have, that cause as much if not more glare than normal low beam, but are proper thin beam fog lights, and a good 65W bulbs,  they were great in wet weather and fog, i regularly drove south from Sydney to the south coast and spent many trips in heavy fog around Bulli. the lights were aimed perfectly. off the sides of the road up to about 100mtrs up the road, could see every reflector and white line on either side of the road with the beam no higher than your shins.  perfect for looking for wildlife, and seeing the sides, lane markins and reflectors on wet unlit roads.    sadly the fog-lights on my i30 arn't capable of doing the same.  they are aimed wrong onto the road about 5 ft from the front of the car, and have a pitiful output.

[beerman]

Compared to the wives BA the high beam is a dissapointment and I really notice the difference when I jump in hers at night. But from my experience the headlights on the ba-now falcons show most cars up.

That said I did a 4000k trip Bris/Syd, Syd/Melb and then Melb/Bris. At least 70% of this was at night, and I wasn't too worried by the performance.

[neptune]

If you don't want to play with the cars original globes, then buy yourself a set of HID spotties and put them on a number plate bar holder. That way it is easy to slip on and off and no need for a nudge/roo bar

[Dazzler]

Hi Mjt ..

It would be worth browsing through here

https://i30ownersclub.com/forum/index.php?board=10.0

and here...

https://i30ownersclub.com/forum/index.php?board=62.0

for threads about light upgrades

They are as weakness (fortunately we use our other car for most night driving)

[accim]

Hm.. After reading this topic it sounded, like you are driving with lights off at night  Okay, I guess the conditions in Australia, especially in some areas, are quite different then the ones we have here, but.. The lights I would say are about average. Okay, the stock lights (hi&low beam) are not that bright, but still not that bad either.

I drive at night every day - not much (approx 50 km) and don't have any problems. Of course, the beam can always be stronger, but it's not that weak. I also go with my mothers Volvo V40 from time to time, which has xenon lights in and of course, it's brighter, but the beam is quite low (and it's leveled automatically so you can't do nothing about it). As for the hi beam.. I must say it's about the same, if not ever worse! My friends Renault Clio has about the same and the lights in friends Citroen Xsara seemed much worse to me.. So don't know..

The thing is, that i30 has lenses and there is no light above the "cut off", whereas in "ordinary - reflector" lights, there is some extra light/glare also beyond the "cut off" point. I'll show you what I mean with next pictures:



PS: The "cut off" is also different from the one on this picture (here is an example of "USA" cut off, and the ones we have - I think yours is like ours)

OKAY I take most of the written back, as I've just checked that Dazz has lenses/projector lights also in his Hybrid. Dazz, is there really a significant difference between the i30 and the hyb?  I've driven few cars and they all seemed about the same.. But most of them were Hyundai's, maybe that's the "problem" 

And can you explain what's the difference? Is it the brightness of the beam or the height/length of the beam, is it wider,..?

[eye30]

HID's are actually illegal in Oz, but who would know.

So they are sold openly are they........

[Phil №❶]

Yes you can, the risk is if the cops see them & they are not fitted at the factory then they do not pass our road regulations. That is a significant fine I believe. But if they are only  High Beams then they would not normally be on unless you are alone on a country highway.

Neptune's idea about fitting spotlights is another quick alternative too.

[Lakes]

mjt57

If you're unhappy with your lights, an alternative would be to install HID, HIGH BEAM ONLY lamps. HID's are actually illegal in Oz, but who would know. They are not used around built up areas and must be off for oncoming traffic. Their output is reputedly 3 to 4x halogen lamps, long life & only 35 watts. This would be better that running into wildlife etc. Something for you to consider. 

Well we had a guy named thumper here for a while he did some home rigged ( for a better description ?) HID lights he claimed got oked at RTA. all it was was a series of  plates in front of the HID lights, as these type lights to be safe need to self leavel as so bright if the car went down in the rear so lights face upward more the plates would work like a shade to block the light. if you search for thumper you'll find that. but myself i'll just make do with what it has. if i wanted light, i think i'd fit a roof mount with lights on the roof like a rally car. but i just drive slower at night in the sticks.
i'm going out the bush in NSW tomorrow.

[Lakes]

Accim, sorry i posted last post without reading all the posts then saw your great post.
well i don't know what conditions are like in Euro as i've never been there yet. i have travelled a lot of USA by road & drove through the back woods in Louisiana one night & it was no different to here just was on right side of road, so at the start every car or truck coming towards me seemed like i was on wrong side of road but got used to it quick. i think the best lights i've had stock came on my last two Falcon Utes they were bright in the high beam and could set the perfect just lift bonnet and had hand adjustable beam leavel. but they don't have roo's at night in USA, those b a r s ta rds come from anywhere & the can jump a fence at full speed.

[mjt57]

Interesting posts. Thanks, guys.

Finally, yesterday afternoon we took delivery of the new car. Last night I went for a drive to check out the lights' performance.

Not too shabby, I must say. It was not a real good test because of other traffic forcing me to continually dip to low beam. But I can't complain, I s'pose.

[Dazzler]

Interesting posts. Thanks, guys.

Finally, yesterday afternoon we took delivery of the new car. Last night I went for a drive to check out the lights' performance.

Not too shabby, I must say. It was not a real good test because of other traffic forcing me to continually dip to low beam. But I can't complain, I s'pose.

I've driven quite a number of i30's now and there is some variation in the lights I think it is to do with adjustment of the elevation as (John) Lakes hinted at

[accim]

Yeah, maybe the beam could be higher, I agree with that. When you have low beam on, it does look kind of short. Because of that, it's very friendly to oncoming drivers (when you meet i30 at night it doesn't blind you like some others do), but isn't the best for the driver.

Maybe lifting it few mm could help..? But you really need to be careful with that. Once you get it "off", it will be very hard to align it to the right height. And don't mess with the left-right positioning of the light. I've done that once on Elantra and couldn't get it right, nor could the service guys (that was a surprise, but okay). It was okay, but just not 100% right.

[Surferdude]

Interesting posts. Thanks, guys.

Finally, yesterday afternoon we took delivery of the new car. Last night I went for a drive to check out the lights' performance.

Not too shabby, I must say. It was not a real good test because of other traffic forcing me to continually dip to low beam. But I can't complain, I s'pose.

I'm rather at odds with the other posters.
I'm nore than happy with my i30's lights and they are standard.
Having spent many years driving rally cars I've been spoiled for choice over the years but really don't find a problem with the i30 lights. Even on winding, hilly country roads I don't feel unsighted.
As to the fog lights. I had no idea about the strength of the bulbs fitted but I sure have a real issue with fog lights per se. They are illegal to be used unless the car is IN FOG. Yet these days, in Australia, more and more vehicles are coming out with them and people seem to have no idea of their purpose. On a 4WD they are mounted so high they defeat their purpose and are just blinding to oncoming cars.
As fog tends to hover just above the ground, fog lights are traditionally mounted low down to help illuminate the road surface under the fog and make it more visible for the driver. They are also only designed to be effective at low speed which is what you should be doing in fog. If you can see well enough to drive at anywhere near normal speeds, LEAVE THE BLOODY FOG LIGHTS OFF!
If the fog lights are bright or too high all they do is reflect back off the fog into the driver's eyes.

[Lakes]

i'm with you Trev. my new car has fog lights but i don't use them, but did try them in car park to see what they are like, i think in a fog they could be helpful as are very low. but i don't turn them on as have not had any fogs .

[accim]

i'm with you Trev. my new car has fog lights but i don't use them, but did try them in car park to see what they are like, i think in a fog they could be helpful as are very low. but i don't turn them on as have not had any fogs .

We've had some fog for 2 weeks now almost. Especially in the morning and in the evening and sometimes even during the day. Just fog fog fog. The fog lights illuminate the area in front of the car and low. They are not strong, but that's a good thing about them. Some cars have very strong fog lights and just give too much brightness, making them not so useful anymore. I usually don't drive with fog lights on, even if there is some fog. The fog lights are the best if the fog is so thick you really can't see anything in front of you. I've had that 2 times at night and when driving on unknown road. I turned off my "driving" lights (low beam) and had only fog lights on! Just so I could see the holes in the road (btw the road was really crappy). I was going I don't know.. I think 30 km/h then. Rear fog lights are also quite useful thing, especially if you are driving slow on the highway.. For example.. Few days ago, when I was driving on the highway, some tourists were crossing Slovenia and were driving 40-50 km/h on the highway (because it was really foggy and they didn't know the road). But the thing is, that some of them did not have fog lights on.. But okay, what made it worse, was the fact, that local drivers (knowing the road) were driving 100 km/h and more (two were going above 160 km/h) and now imagine those, who are driving too fast, when they meet a car in front of them, going really slow.. = recipe for disaster. Especially if the one with 160 km/h is overtaking the one with 100 km/h and both heading towards the one with 50 km/h But using rear fog lights in any fog or when driving in the city can really really really be annoying..

[Surferdude]

^^^^^^^

That's really scary accim.
I might stay down under for a bit longer.

[mjt57]

I like the way that the fog lights are turned on - flicking a spring loaded switch. This requires a conscious effort to turn them on, unlike other methods with on/off switches where people may turn them on once and forget about them.

Since the initial drive to try the lights I've not had any other chances to test them except for the drive home from Melbourne where we rolled into town a bit after dusk. I think that they'll do...

[diablo]

I like the way that the fog lights are turned on - flicking a spring loaded switch. This requires a conscious effort to turn them on, unlike other methods with on/off switches where people may turn them on once and forget about them.

Not got foglights on my Comfort. Don't really need them very often though.

My Renault Laguna had foglight which were on the same stalk as the headlights and I'd sometimes find I'd turned them on by accident - which was annoying. They'd then come on all the time until I noticed - there was no warning light either!   Maybe it was a faulty switch or me being clumsy but I'd have liked them on a separate switch.

Not used my headlights on country roads too much but they were just about passable rather than good.

[Surferdude]

I like the way that the fog lights are turned on - flicking a spring loaded switch. This requires a conscious effort to turn them on, unlike other methods with on/off switches where people may turn them on once and forget about them.

Since the initial drive to try the lights I've not had any other chances to test them except for the drive home from Melbourne where we rolled into town a bit after dusk. I think that they'll do...

My fog lights are turned on via the headlight stalk, so they must have changed something along the way. Mine are factory fitted BTW.
My Impreza had a separate switch on the dash but it was a bit hard to reach.

[mjt57]

My fog lights are turned on via the headlight stalk, so they must have changed something along the way. Mine are factory fitted BTW.

The current i30 SLX has a rotating spring loaded bezel on the headlight/indicator stalk which you turn against a spring and it flicks back to turn the foggies on.

Not sure why you think that my comment has suggested that something's been changed.

[2i30s]

still the same as my wife's 09 cw. 

[accim]

Yap, I can also confirm. The same in '08 and '11 i30 

[2i30s]

HID's are actually illegal in Oz, but who would know.

So they are sold openly are they........

its surprising how many products can be sold legally,that are infact illegal when you put them into practise.