[Rick_In_CA]

I took screenshots of the info. The top line of each screenshot shows the search link

It works today… thanks.

 

[BillLin]

If reading on a cell phone screen, be sure to horizontally scroll the results. The complaints column was off screen for me.

Edit: Already answered. I was too late in replying.

 

[perrythefarmer]

Perhaps the standards, and manufacture’s adjustment instructions, are based on having some load in the rear seats and cargo area? If so, then driving with only a driver, and perhaps a front seat passenger, will lower the cutoff height.

From what I see is that there are two possible adjustments (maybe). The first is adjusting the housing which may set the minimum. The sensor for auto levelers appear to be an assembly that at least on some Subarus is located just in front of the left rear axle assembly.

Based on everything I see the first thing to do is check tire pressure. On my car all tires are over inflated (and equal) compared to the door sticker. The backs are suppose to be less than the fronts. This may lower the beams.

Maybe that sensor is also adjustable based on how individuals load their vehicles.

 

[Rick23]

Wife’s new crosstrek has a very annoying couple of spots in the headlights. When driving you can see two dark images(one for each headlight), they look like two rear view mirrors hanging down. It’s very distrac to her.
Anyone else see this? Don’t see anything looking in the headlamps.

My wife and I noticed them the other night. Sort of neat to see them move as the headlights turned on corn

 

[rigdonmichelle]

Totally disagree with you. The pattern in the headlights are very similar to a "floater" in your eye. It is dangerous and distracting. I bought a brand new 2024 Outback yesterday and I drove it home in the dark. It was horrible. It is much worse on the highway. It's like someone or something is waving a flag at you to the left in your peripheral vision.

 

[rigdonmichelle]

Agreed.
Distracting.
Dangerous.
Recall worthy dangerous.

The two dark spots are right below the end of the really bright of the low beams. The spots are just inside of the track. Worst possible spot.
Looks like you’re seeing with sunshades down.

I know they look tiny, but they look bigger when driving and “draw your eye” when driving.

What makes it even MORE distracting is what the SRH (steering responsive headlights) does.

Let‘s say I’m going straight and I start a left turn.
(It looks like only the “inside of the turn” headlight moves.)

The blob on the left headlight moves considerably to the left. The one on the right doesn‘t move.

So, as you drive, the blobs bob back and forth across your vision. View attachment 319657

I am considering returning the car (2024 Subaru Outback) that I picked up yesterday. It is dangerous. I am 65 years old and try to avoid night-driving but these headlights are horrible. I did not feel safe on my way home from the dealership.

 

[perrythefarmer]

I am considering returning the car (2024 Subaru Outback) that I picked up yesterday. It is dangerous. I am 65 years old and try to avoid night-driving but these headlights are horrible. I did not feel safe on my way home from the dealership.

Then return it now as you will not be satisfied with LED lights. I just went through a major floater event and unless you are shining the headlights on a building or the car directly in front the spots pretty much entirely disappear with distance. Floaters are shadows.

 

[perrythefarmer]

I probably wont be getting up to Canada, so you’re safe there.

You might have to worry about all the others on this thread who are bothered by this - some to the point they claim they are ready to trade back in.

There are multiple threads here, multiple on Reddit and multiple YouTube videos with comments about this.

Though I can tell by the tone of your comment that you’re just an all around better driver than the rest of us. Hooray for you!

Or maybe you have the SRH off, in which case they are much less distracting.

Or maybe the Japan assembled Crosstrek units for Canada are slightly different than the USA assembled ones for the USA market. The ECE and DOT regulations vary on low beam headlight pattern. Interestingly, the difference in regulations is in the area of the reduced brightness. Are yours ECE or DOT?

Look at this video at 3:38
You can see the “holes” and how they swing back and forth.
I‘m not sure how anyone could not be bothered by that.

Note his low beams on the freeway outshine the low beams on the car that passes him.

Earlier he states they shine 100 yards which is 300 feet which is about double the stopping distance, the length of a football field. They are also shining at least 1/2 the height of a stop sign which I find is about even with the mailboxes I have seen.

This is very typical of LED and HID headlights on low beams.

I find that the automatic high beams work great.

 

[Silver Fox24]

Just to of curiosity, for the guys that have issues with headlights, have you tried to compare the beam with another Subaru? maybe your beams/lights have a problem.

I am considering returning the car (2024 Subaru Outback) that I picked up yesterday. It is dangerous. I am 65 years old and try to avoid night-driving but these headlights are horrible. I did not feel safe on my way home from the dealership.

Returned it?

 

[Lonelydriver_95]

Just to of curiosity, for the guys that have issues with headlights, have you tried to compare the beam with another Subaru? maybe your beams/lights have a problem.


Returned it?

I don't have issues with mine, I am very happy with them. But I have compared them with my GFs 2017 RAV4 SE (a car that tons of people trip over themselves to compliment, because Toyota) and both cars' LED lights seem to project a similar distance and are both very effective on rural, unlit roads IMO.

These headlights are starting to become the forums new controversial topic, up there with oil and window tinting threads lol.

 

[Bluefoton]

It's the new 2024+ Crosstrek / Impreza and 2022+ Forester projectors. Subaru flopped it, for no reason whatsoever, by changing the pattern and adding that little "shadow" spot in the low beams. Forester owners are pissed off too.. 2022+ - Headlight Pattern / projector beam cutoff? (merged thread)

Earlier-gen LED projectors (and every single other car manufacturer's, for that matter) simply have a cutoff line and were great. In North America, regulations are backwards and sloppy, so from one car brand to the other, there is a lot of variance in headlamp patterns. Including oddities such as the new Subaru projectors.

A mathematically ideal headlamp pattern, with zero glare and reduced beam elevation on the left towards incoming traffic (ECE regulation) looks like this (Morimoto M Led 2.0):
(NB: some might favour a more gradual cutoff line. The pics below show a knife-edge one, aesthetically pleasing, but more distracting for some as opposed to a more delicate fade)

 

[Silver Fox24]

I don't have issues with mine, I am very happy with them.

Same here. I had Xenon back in Italy on a Seat Ibiza with SRH and I think both systems are very close to each other.

I'm trying very hard to understand what is the problem for who says that they suck.

These headlights are starting to become the forums new controversial topic, up there with oil and window tinting threads lol.

😁

It's the new 2024+ Crosstrek / Impreza and 2022+ Forester projectors. Subaru flopped it, for no reason whatsoever, by changing the pattern and adding that little "shadow" spot in the low beams.

Do you guys think that the spot act as reference for the lights? maybe when they need adjustment.. or the eyesight cameras check something with them?

 

[Silver Fox24]

Did anybody check if the light are really switching on? maybe you are driving with daytime running lights on

 

[Gee6]

Interesting subject that maybe got out of hand. For my part, I am wondering if there is any concensus at to whether people who have issues wear glasses or not? Do the glasses have added coatings? Polychromatic? Anti-'blue' computer? So may variables, but no one is considering the variables.

 

[Bluefoton]

It's not about perception. It's about the bloody design of the new Subaru / Toyota LED projector which incorporates a small rectangular "shadow" in the hotspot of the beam, likely due to the actuator flipping the cutoff blade from low to high beams. Especially when projected on the road, it creates a high-contrast black spot, an absolute oddity in beam pattern design, whose presence and movement due to the SHRs is deemed annoying, distracting, and attention-diverting for many. Seeing the pictures, I can understand how it drives a few people nuts.

NB: None of the old HID or LED designs, up to and including 2018-2023 crosstrek and 2017-2023 imprezas have that issue. We have a perfectly smooth, shadowless beam pattern (save for the appropriate cutoff line and two v-grooves so as to reduce glare to incoming traffic).
Reference: 2018-2022 LED projector beam pattern below:

From Forester forums, the infamous new projectors:

Funny coincidence? Someone rented a 2022 Corolla, pointed it agains the wall and.... guess what, same topic discussed on Corolla/Cross forums.
https://www.corollacrossforum.com/threads/led-headlight-pattern-dark-spots.281/

 

[perrythefarmer]

It's not about perception. It's about the bloody design of the new Subaru / Toyota LED projector which incorporates a small rectangular "shadow" in the hotspot of the beam, likely due to the actuator flipping the cutoff blade from low to high beams. Especially when projected on the road, it creates a high-contrast black spot, an absolute oddity in beam pattern design, whose presence and movement due to the SHRs is deemed annoying, distracting, and attention-diverting for many. Seeing the pictures, I can understand how it drives a few people nuts.

NB: None of the old HID or LED designs, up to and including 2018-2023 crosstrek and 2017-2023 imprezas have that issue. We have a perfectly smooth, shadowless beam pattern (save for the appropriate cutoff line and two v-grooves so as to reduce glare to incoming traffic).
Reference: 2018-2022 LED projector beam pattern below:
View attachment 319959


From Forester forums, the infamous new projectors:

View attachment 319955


View attachment 319956

Funny coincidence? Someone rented a 2022 Corolla, pointed it agains the wall and.... guess what, same topic discussed on Corolla/Cross forums.
https://www.corollacrossforum.com/threads/led-headlight-pattern-dark-spots.281/

View attachment 319958

Unless you are watching on a solid object you will never notice the shadows which align with the location of the driver position in the car in the opposite lane.

 

[Judy Petrow]

Wife’s new crosstrek has a very annoying couple of spots in the headlights. When driving you can see two dark images(one for each headlight), they look like two rear view mirrors hanging down. It’s very distrac to her.
Anyone else see this? Don’t see anything looking in the headlamps.

Oh my Gosh Yes! I only notice it on the low beams. It’s so annoying. I think something is in the road

 

[Judy Petrow]

 

[NE Bob]

I have a narrow garage and I use those little whatever-they-ares to help line up my approach angle. On the road I am zero bothered by them. Thank you Subaru.

 

[Jimsr]

I only notice them when pulling into the garage at night.