Auto high beam - puzzled on how it's supposed to work

[Trapdoor]

Picked up my wife's Sport Nav with the Safety Pack back in July, but haven't driven it much in the dark until recently.

Even though the safety pack doesn't specifically state, ours does have Auto High Beam, or High Beam Assist. But I'm struggling to understand how it is supposed to work, especially since having used it, I'm getting 'high beamed' by disgruntled incoming drivers.

If you switch the lights to Auto and then push the stalk forward to where you would normally have manual high beam, if you are driving in the town with street lights, the high beam won't come on. Go into a dark section of road, no street lights and the high beam comes on, the blue high beam light comes on and that's fine.

The issue is when a car comes towards you. There is certainly an apparent dipping of the lights, but I'm not convinced it's quite the same as if you manually pull the stalk to the non-high-beam setting, also the blue high beam lamp in the cluster remains lit. It is at this point that sometimes I get flashed.

In my Range Rover, the HBA works as I'd expect. It's full beam on a dark road and goes completely dipped beam when a car approaches and then full beam after the car has passed. The blue light in the cluster mimics this.

The Mazda manual is useless about this.

If I have to manually dip the headlights when a car approaches, then it isn't auto high beam. But if I leave it on auto, it doesn't appear to completely dip the headlights.

Anyone have a definitive insight or view to this? These are the adaptive LED headlights on a MY17 car. Just to add, I've watched the video on the Mazda site - still no wiser as it appears I'm using them correctly.

[anchorman]

Have a read of this. It’s on the CX-5 but it’s the same system. Ignore the headlight flashing, any cars with LEDs get flashed. See if it answers your questions.

I high beam cont.pdf

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[Trapdoor]

Thanks anchorman ... it certainly explains how the system works, but seems to be missing any info about the blue high beam indicator in the cluster that seems not to follow the apparent action of the system.

I wonder, reading this, whether my forward looking camera is misaligned a bit. When we bought the car we specified the dimming rear view mirror and I wonder if the camera was moved out of alignment when that was installed?

The awkward thing is that it is almost impossible to test yourself as the headlights switch to low beam below 12mph.

I agree about the LEDS being bright and getting flashed. The LEDs in my RR are retina burning bright and doubly so on high beam so if I get flashed when I know it's on lo beam Inusually flash back - just so they get the idea!! The system on the RR is much more definite and positive, and is indicated by the blue high beam light in the cluster. Thing that throws me with the CX-3 is that the blue high beam indicator doesn't go out, but I wondered if that was just to warn you that high beam was selected on, not to actually show the state of high beam ... but the manual and video (and your document) are silent on that point.

[santa]

There's a green light showing HBA when it's turned on (it look like the blue one but with an A in it).
The blue light should then only be on when high beam is on and off when high beam is off.
It works perfectly in mine and I can't remember when someone has actually flashed me.

[Strangways]

Hi Trapdoor,

As I mentioned in a previous thread, use auto lights with caution.

"I never use the auto-light setting anymore it's far too risky. My lights turned themselves on and a guy waiting to pull out of a side turning thought I was indicating that he could pull out. I don't know how I managed to avoid him, but needless to say I have reverted to using my own eyes to tell when it's dark."

[Trapdoor]

There's a green light showing HBA when it's turned on (it look like the blue one but with an A in it).
The blue light should then only be on when high beam is on and off when high beam is off.
It works perfectly in mine and I can't remember when someone has actually flashed me.

This is the ‘issue’. Yes, when it’s dark enough and the stalk is pushed forward, then the green indicator with tha A in is illuminated. When the lights go high beam, then the blue indicator in the cluster comes on BUT if I then get a car approaching or I approach a car from behind, even though the high beam looks like it’s dipped (it more sort of dims/fades rather than a sharp switch off) the blue indicator remains lit.

This is what makes me think it’s not operating quite correctly. As per my Range Rover I’d expect the blue full beam indicator to mimic what the lights were doing, and I’d expect the lights to quickly switch between high and dipped, not sort of fade up and down ... it doesn’t seem right but then again it might be. My Rangie has such good cutoff between high and dipped, as did the Xenon in my BMW, but the CX-3 isn’t like that.

Perhaps a visit to the dealership,is in order to get it checked out and possibly adjusted.

[santa]

There's a green light showing HBA when it's turned on (it look like the blue one but with an A in it).
The blue light should then only be on when high beam is on and off when high beam is off.
It works perfectly in mine and I can't remember when someone has actually flashed me.

This is the ‘issue’. Yes, when it’s dark enough and the stalk is pushed forward, then the green indicator with tha A in is illuminated. When the lights go high beam, then the blue indicator in the cluster comes on BUT if I then get a car approaching or I approach a car from behind, even though the high beam looks like it’s dipped (it more sort of dims/fades rather than a sharp switch off) the blue indicator remains lit.

This is what makes me think it’s not operating quite correctly. As per my Range Rover I’d expect the blue full beam indicator to mimic what the lights were doing, and I’d expect the lights to quickly switch between high and dipped, not sort of fade up and down ... it doesn’t seem right but then again it might be. My Rangie has such good cutoff between high and dipped, as did the Xenon in my BMW, but the CX-3 isn’t like that.

Perhaps a visit to the dealership,is in order to get it checked out and possibly adjusted.

Yep, sounds like a visit to the dealer is required.
I can clearly see when the high beam is on or off and the blue light switches on and off accordingly, while the green indicator with A remains illuminated until I deactivate the HBA.

[jtonline]

...The issue is when a car comes towards you. There is certainly an apparent dipping of the lights, but I'm not convinced it's quite the same as if you manually pull the stalk to the non-high-beam setting, also the blue high beam lamp in the cluster remains lit. It is at this point that sometimes I get flashed...

... If I have to manually dip the headlights when a car approaches, then it isn't auto high beam. But if I leave it on auto, it doesn't appear to completely dip the headlights...

Just my two pennies worth, but what you're describing doesn't sound like High Beam Control, it sounds like the Glare-free High Beams of the Adaptive LED Headlights -

"ALH’s high-beam headlights consist of an LED array divided into four blocks, each of which can be switched on and off independently. Using a windscreen-mounted camera to detect other vehicles’ headlights and tail lamps, the system temporarily dims individual LED blocks to control the area illumination and avoid dazzling other drivers."

http://www.mazda.com/en/innovation/tech ... afety/alh/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUVyEimx4UI

I've had a look at the 2017 Owner's Guide and it says "...The high beams will dim while driving at a speed of about 40 km/h (25 mph) or faster.
When the vehicle speed is less than about 30 km/h (18 mph), the beams switch to the low beams. NOTE The headlight high-beam indicator light turns on while the high beams are on." Which seems to match what you're experiencing.

Of course if you're still sometimes getting flashed then the headlights aren't as glare-free as Mazda makes out, but that's common with modern bright headlights. The system isn't infallible either, just take a look at the list of conditions where the system "may not operate normally".

[Trapdoor]

@jtonline ... sorry, been absent for a few weeks but yes, you are completely correct.

We booked the car into the dealership and actually, their tech was puzzled, went back to Mazda and it is exactly as you describe. In his words “Mazda haven’t done a very good job in being clear what Adaptive LED headlights provide”.

I think the issue here though is that ‘most’ drivers coming towards you expect to see a sudden cut from high to low beam, and if they don’t see that, then get the nark on and flash you. But I’m not sure that the system is that good that it doesn’t dazzle a bit - after all, there must be some circumstances where one of the lit beams glances the oncoming car.

So I have now decided that sod them ... I will just use the ‘Glare-free’ system as it’s designed and not give a monkeys if the oncoming traffic think I haven't dipped my lights (because technically I haven’t) - after all, it must be them that has the problem as they clearly don’t understand how modern LED lights work.

[jtonline]

Thanks for the update, Trapdoor.

I think I ought to get a job with Mazda customer support