Recently purchased 2015 tdi prestige with adaptive light. Is there ever a case that the adaptive light is just self leveling and not with "curve/ left to right movement"? I read that the lights do a self check when you start the car which I tested. I definitely saw that move up and down, but pretty sure not left to right. I do have the original window sticker as well as the option code sticker. What is the option code for the adaptive light with curve? Or alternatively the adaptive light without curve if that exists.

Thanks

 

You should have them with the prestige trim.

They only go up down at start up.

At night, with the switch on auto (manually turning on the lights disables adaptive lighting) driving over 30mph and swerving between the lines you should see them moving left to right.

At lower speeds the headlights don’t move and the cornering lights come on in their place.

 

On our 2011 Prestige I never saw any side to side response from the headlights. Only the cornering light bulb turning on in the direction the wheel is turned at low speed. We had Prestige A6 prior to the Q7 and it’s headlights DID steer side to side. Our current 2015 premium plus Q7 and S5 do not have the cornering light. I miss it.

 

Our '15 Prestige does have the adaptive lighting w/cornering bulbs that fade in/out under certain speeds. I can be barely moving and also see them moving side to side, tracking the wheel movement...not when stopped, but once I take off, those headlamps are tracking. They kind of freaked me out the first time I drove the car home from dealer and saw them moving when i entered curves, etc. It's a very cool and driver-centric safety feature. The adaptive headlights also have a 'highway beam' feature, which opens the adjustable shutter inside the unit wider, and provides a tighter, longer-reaching beam for higher driving speeds. It is designed not to dazzle oncoming traffic and provides additional reaction time, etc., improving highway safety if you cruise beyond it's activation speed threshold. You do have to have the switch set to Auto to get the benefits of the adaptive lighting, otherwise you just get the auto-leveling and lights locked straight ahead. You can go in and customize the 'auto' to turn on headlamps earlier, or when it's raining (wipers running in auto mode).

On my '10, it compensates for leveling, but doesn't have all the tech tricks of the '15 adaptive headlamps, so I bought the best HID bulbs (Osram Nightbreaker Lazer), which puts out lots more lumens than the OEM bulbs, and stuck Hikari's 'Eye of Megatron' LED bulbs in the fog housings (you can code the car so no resistors are necessary for LED fog bulbs), which are nothing short of amazing on dark roads/low visibility.

On any of these cars, read the user manual; there's just way too much to explain to you here.

 

@dreadlocks Posted a vid a few years back that showed the effect of the prestige lights in action. Its a subtle effect until you've noticed it in action. Its best observed in total darkness when driving at which point you'll notice the beam change direction as you move down the road.

 

Thanks for all the insight. As I learn more about this car, I definitely have adaptive lights. It has the additional bulb at an angle that lights up at low speeds.

 

Believe it or not, that's actually not the adaptive part. The lights will actually swivel when you turn the wheel when driving. If you have the prestige package you have adaptive headlights. They will also go into an extra bight mode when driving over 80mph and return to 'normal' when you slow down to 70mph - this is not high beam mode just a high power mode - I never notice it when it turns on but I always notice it when it turns off after its been on.

 

makes me wonder if this feature varied by model year. Our 2011 prestige Q7 had the extra bright at high speed and the corner mounted bulbs that come on when turning but I never saw the side to side swiveling. Our 2006 prestige A6 did have the swiveling and it was very noticeable. It was expensive too when one of the swiveling motors failed and I had to replace a headlight.

 

Its a subtle effect that you really only notice when you're actively looking for it.

Took me over an hour of searching for this video but I remembered that dreadlocks had linked me to it in the past - here you guys go -

 

Thanks for the video. That is exactly what our 2006 Prestige A6 did. Our 2011 Prestige Q7 did not do that at all however. It only had the cornering bulbs that came on when turning sharply. Coded out or not there? No clue.