Underwhelmed by LED headlights
 

I'm in NYC and tonight was the first time I drove my Q7 at night while it was snowing and the ground was wet. The LED headlights were abysmal. I could barely see the road. My 20 year old sedan with HID headlights lit the road better than the Q7.

Anyone have similar experience with their Q7's LED headlights? Anyway to upgrade them/make them brighter. FYI, I have already adjusted the level so that it lights the road further as mentioned in another thread.

Do you have the aux lights activated, they really help light up the sides of the road

Maybe the brighter light of the LEDs is creating more reflection on the water/snow/ice than the HiD's?

the more/brighter the light, the more reflection especially from icy/snowy/wet surfaces

If the light is indeed being reflected, it wont illuminate properly

I've shared my opinion on here many times, but these LEDs suck, and probably the most disappointing thing about the Q. I frequently drive in unlit roads, and without the high beam these are pretty bad. There are other features missing verusus a Xenon from 7 years ago, but I wont go into that. You are correct.

I'm not sure they care or will do anything. It's not like they'll swap out your headlamp assemblies...that's all they got. Its just a crappy product. On the other hand, the Xenons on my BMW auto level on hills, sweep the curve as I drive and turn the wheel, and can light up the sky in high beam. I was so looking forward to LEDs, because I feel headlights are so important, but this was a let down.

It's because Xenons are HID's and HID's are way brighter than led's.

The base lights on the Q7 are Xenon plus. Audi of America has upgraded all North American models to LED. So complaining to AoA may have some impact.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...579942518b.png
Source: Audi.de Q7

We find the Q's LEDs to be quite good, but we do not get snow.

https://www.xenonpro.com/led-vs-xenon-hid-headlights-which-are-better
https://bestheadlightbulbs.com/led-vs-hid-which-is-brighter/


look at the pics leds by far brighter

Reading this, I guess I'm happy I DONT have LED headlight in my Q7, instead the standard Xenon and I think they are as good as my other vehicle with Xenon lights.

IME the LED lights are fine, could they be brighter sure but I haven't been in a situation yet were I said to myself "these lights are horrible".. Now I will say that driving in the snow Sunday night and other storms the lights do get reflected which IMO dims them somewhat even though I have the aux lights activated.

You want to talk about horrible lights, I have the Xenon Plus in my Allroad and those lights are horrible. They don't "throw" the light anywhere close to the LEDs in Q7 and the LEDs (IMO) are much brighter. I wish I had them in the Allroad, I never thought I would be in the market to upgrade the headlights on an Audi, but I am going to start looking into upgrading the Xenon bulbs with something brighter...

Actually my complaint is not really about the brightness, but about the other (non-existent) features that have been around for years in other cars. And no, I shouldn't have to park against a cinder block wall to adjust lights on my $70k vehicle either!

What technology are the lights in the sedan? I too thought I wasn't happy with the brightness of the LEDs, but it was different (like more white than Xenon), and over time I got used to the brightness and quite like it. However, the one issue I have is the cutoff. The white light also makes for a very sharp cutoff, after which it's pitch black. I bit unsettling.

Same impression. The lights by themselves are fine. The high beams work excellent. This is the cutoff in low beam mode that is not allowing to look far enough to be comfortable.
P.S. I wonder if folks who were trying to adjust headlights assemblies with a screwdriver ever done re-calibration of the lights leveling system? My guess is that it has not been done, in which case upping the lights only reduced the level of beams adjustment available for driving downhill. So this was rather worsening light operation than improving it.

I wish the Q7 had matrix in the US. To me the brightness is fine but the but like someone said the Cutoff is low. It no issue on well lit roads but on slower dark/poorly lit streets it a bothersome. It's areas where the high beams are overkill /relatively busy but the low beam cutoff is too low. The night vision help ease that situation tho as I can see up the street. I did the coding to raise headlight at speed, but it only activates at 70mph. Which it does help a little at higher speeds. I know these imo are the best lights I had in bad weather, especially when it rains on a black surface. With the aux lights on I can see the wet road better than our mdx. But maybe I should use autobeams more

My BMW has Xenons, which are fantastic. My MB ML has halogens, which, after using Xenons and LEDs are completely useless...LOL!

Theres a website sell the matrix headlight retrofit kit for $7999 that's crazy

Better off waiting for the model update than spending that sort of money! All these LED lights, inc. BMW and Mercedes, are made by HELLA.

https://www.xenonpro.com/images/led-...ights-demo.png

https://www.xenonpro.com/led-vs-xeno...ich-are-better

Hmmm, these guys sell a HID conversion for my ML....Anyone use them before and know if this works?

Kufatec set is like 4k.

These two pics pretty well represent my experience when I drive the Q7 with LED's and then the Allroad with the Xenon's. Even the high beams on the Xenons are basically useless, they do nothing.. My middle son's 8 yr old Acura's Xenon's are so much better it's not even close.

Tried giving it some time so that maybe I get used to the LED lights... It's been a few months now and I still feel the LED headlights are not as bright as the HIDs I had. I see the picture you attached and my experience/perception is the direct opposite. The top picture looks more like my HID headlights while the bottom looks more like the LEDs on the Q7.

Any new/newer Q7 4M owners have the same experience as me, where the Q7 LED headlights just aren't bright enough?

All I can say is that my 2019 Q7 LED are better than the LED on my Honda Ridgeline (my only available comparison) and the Ridgeline RTL-E has the some of the best headlights of any pickup according to IIHS. But then pretty much all of the other pickups were rated very poorly, headlight-wise, so maybe that is not a great comparison. I do know that the matrix LED on the 2020 are generally accepted as better but the 2019 are more than plenty good enough for me. I guess it is all about what you are used to (or expect) but I have no problem with the ones on my Prestige.

What I think really sucked, light-wise, on the '19 Q7 were not the headlights, but the backup lights (which are just standard bulbs on all trims). Really bad! Maybe they only use reverse in the daytime in Germany! ;) The good news is that I got the Auto-LED replacements for about $50 and they are now acceptable.:)

These pictures are a fantastic example of how to use imagery to mislead. Even if these two picture are of the same stretch of road (and they might NOT be), they were taken at different times. In the upper picture it has snowed since the lower picture was taken. Also,the road has been plowed and the build up of snow along the edges is reflecting light at a MUCH higher rate than in the lower picture. Thus, the "LED: light appear to be much brighter and to be providing "better" coverage than the HID lights. In other words, this is an apples to oranges comparison and was designed to mislead!

That being said, overall I like the LED headlights in my three Audis; however, on low beam I sometimes question their overall coverage. But on high beam they "carry" a long ways.

Yup, reminds me of those old cosmetic "before" and "after" ads where the exposures were clearly different. Not saying it was deliberate in this case, but just that is is not an ideal comparison. The only way to do that would be the same stretch of road on the same night and the same conditions with the camera set to manual exposure so the exposures were identical.

Hid are better depending on the projector. GM and Cadillac are absolute garbage and the q7 is superior to those. Ford is meh. Porsche, lexus, most acuras have great hid projectors. Acuras leds are pretty good too. Leds will surpass in the near future.