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Lighting up the tree tops

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I have seen quite a few threads regarding the lights of the Model 3 dazzling other drivers as they are way too high. I’ve also read the comments in that some find the recalibration corrects the issue, and other comments is that the lights are aimed right but they are very bright which other drivers perceive as being left on main beam.

I rarely drive in the evenings but I too have had the flashes from other drivers – not the odd one but the majority of cars coming towards me on unlit A roads. I tried the main beam – and that was absolutely nuts – illuminating the tree tops – so I did the recalibration and thought no more about it.

Last Saturday I went to see a band in Sheffield – left Sheffield around 11.30hrs to return to Leicester – Just the odd car on the roads – but when I was on an unlit section of the A61 heading towards Chesterfield I noticed my headlights were illuminating road signs hundreds of yards away – tried the main beam and that was once again lighting up the tree tops – as an aside It made me wonder why my car wasn’t auto engaging main beam as that’s is what I have it set to do – so I played, seems the system should be called auto dip beam as you have to have main bean engaged and it dips when a car comes towards you or you enter a lit up area (didn’t know that before)

Clearly the “Calibration” function doesn’t set the lights anywhere near acceptable and therefore I assume the car has a fault with one of the sensors. The car is awaiting the recall from Tesla to have the rear camera cable checked (Mine is perfectly fine as I checked it) so I will raise this issue with them at that time.

To my question – Has anyone who had their lights so high they were constantly being flashed by other drivers taken the car to Tesla and they discovered a faulty sensor? Or were told the setting is correct but they are still not convinced.

In the meantime I’m manually adjusting my headlights to the proper settings with a home made piece of kit rather than take to the local MOT station and have them set them, don’t really want to pay for them to be set only for another update to come along that resets the headlights to what the car calls calibration – and as I say I rarely drive at night so its no inconvenience.
 
as an aside It made me wonder why my car wasn’t auto engaging main beam as that’s is what I have it set to do – so I played, seems the system should be called auto dip beam as you have to have main bean engaged and it dips when a car comes towards you or you enter a lit up area (didn’t know that before)
No need to play about - its in the manual:

Auto High Beam

If you turn on Auto High Beam, your vehicle automatically switches from high beam headlights to low beam headlights when light is detected in front of Model 3. See High Beam Headlights.
Clearly the “Calibration” function doesn’t set the lights anywhere near acceptable and therefore I assume the car has a fault with one of the sensors. The car is awaiting the recall from Tesla to have the rear camera cable checked (Mine is perfectly fine as I checked it) so I will raise this issue with them at that time.

To my question – Has anyone who had their lights so high they were constantly being flashed by other drivers taken the car to Tesla and they discovered a faulty sensor? Or were told the setting is correct but they are still not convinced.
Others have had issues with the adjustment being out:
In the meantime I’m manually adjusting my headlights to the proper settings with a home made piece of kit rather than take to the local MOT station and have them set them, don’t really want to pay for them to be set only for another update to come along that resets the headlights to what the car calls calibration – and as I say I rarely drive at night so its no inconvenience.
Not sure how you're adjusting, but Instructions for adjusting can be found here:

Also vid here, but not sure if instructions have changed since:
PreviewPreview7:49How to actually adjust your Tesla Model 3 headlightsYouTube · Wonk8 Sept 2020
 
I've traded my M3 in for MY now, but I had oncoming traffic flashing me. I had the lights corrected by a professional (didn't know I could do it myself).

I got a call from him a couple of weeks later, the lights on his M3 had gone out of alignment and he said it was down to an OTA update that came out at that time and he said I was likely to have the same problem. Sure enough next time I went out at night oncoming cars were flashing me ...

... trading the car in for MY seems to have fixed the problem !!
 
From other threads around here you'll find the "plane-spotting" headlights are a fairly common issue and can particularly occur after a OTA software update and especially if your car is normally parked on an incline.
Resetting the beams is simple and explained in the 'friendly' manual - just find a flat parking area with something to aim the beams at.
It initially auto-sets at a modest level then you can tweak each beam up or down from that setting.
There are probably several you-tube videos on it as well.
Perhaps OTA updates on model Y's don't include the free 'plane spotting' bonus? :)
 
No need to play about - its in the manual:

Not sure how you're adjusting, but Instructions for adjusting can be found here:
Thanks @init6 - I'm a man - reading the manual??? Just out of interest, Is the manual on the car screen updated each time an over the air update is released?

I'm adjusting the lights using the onscreen adjustment individually. I've seen the videos of using tape on a wall - 60cm high, centre point marked and two more marks 72 cms either side of the centre line - car placed 9.5 mtrs away from wall - and done on level ground. I've made out of baton wood the horizontal line, a raised centre point and the two points either side of centre, plus folding legs so it neatly goes in the car that places the horizontal line at 60 cms, and added a level bubble in case the ground at the wall isn't level with a blob of blu-tac to make sure it stays where i put it on the wall - sanded it and painted white. Another two pieces of wood joined with a 9.5mtr string to get the distance from wall correct.

Tesla must have a method to statically set the lights at the calibrated position (an adjustment within the light units) - so each time the auto calibration is used the motors drive the lights to their default position and the suspension sensors fine tune the beam aim to account for load. I'm convinced my static initial setting has been done incorrectly.
 
Oh yes. I forgot to mention. Anyone following the Instructions as posted and linked by init6 bear in mind the instructions are for the left hand drive cars for driving on the right - the only difference is that the UK lights have the raised section of the beams going up to the left (to illuminate roadside signs) The instructions show the adjustment for the lights with the upswept beams going up towards the right.
(Just in case anyone looks at their beams and the instructions and wonders why their light beams look different to the pictures)
 
Overall though, this can't be right.

I've never had any car that I've needed to manually trigger some calibration of the lights. These cars have had all different types of headlights, HID and LED for example.

They should not be drifting so badly out in the first place.

I'd be surprised if there isn't some manufacturer regulation covering this with regards to headlight safety.

I've had both headlights replaced recently (water ingress) and the new ones haven't attracted anyone's attention yet, but I did use to get other drivers flash their lights at me on the original set. I have noticed the beam pattern on the new set is more to the left, which I think helps.
 
Overall though, this can't be right.

I've never had any car that I've needed to manually trigger some calibration of the lights. These cars have had all different types of headlights, HID and LED for example.

They should not be drifting so badly out in the first place.

I'd be surprised if there isn't some manufacturer regulation covering this with regards to headlight safety.

I've had both headlights replaced recently (water ingress) and the new ones haven't attracted anyone's attention yet, but I did use to get other drivers flash their lights at me on the original set. I have noticed the beam pattern on the new set is more to the left, which I think helps.
Totally agree with you, If the lights can auto calibrate then there isn't a logical reason why a manual adjustment process is needed, sensors on the suspension fine tune the settings or should do. It all leads me to believe that the light calibration feature takes a snapshot of default position and the suspension sensor and once exiting the set up the lights wouldn't respond to say a load placed in the boot - couple of bags of sand - I've not tried that yet but i will.
If they do indeed respond to load automatically then it confirms the initial light unit set up on my car has to be wrong.
 
There are a couple of issues, AUIU, based on what I've read. 1. It only calibrates headlamp offset due to load at the start of a drive - and therefore miscalibrates somewhat if you start the drive on a slope. This one can be fixed by opening and closing the driver's door once you're on level ground. 2. There's a bug whereby the load offset sometimes becomes permanent after applying a software update. This one particularly affects you if you perform software updates when parked on a slope.

Someone on Facebook did a nice writeup of the issues some time roundabout Christmas. After attempting and failing to get a response from Tesla they reported it to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. I'll see if I can find the link again, if no one beats me to it.

EDIT: The broader issue is that headlamp beam patterns and standards are completely different in North America and Europe. The automatic load adjustment is also a European requirement which doesn't exist in North America. (If the headlights were any brighter they'd be obliged to do auto levelling whilst driving, but it rather seems that they deliberately chose to make the headlights just dim enough that the full auto levelling requirement didn't apply.) As with a lot of things Tesla, it rather seems that features that are only relevant to non-US markets don't get as much attention as they probably should...
 
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Thanks @Roy B , if you do find the document you mentioned I would be grateful. Due to the rather challenged wifi the car has, my car has to be in my garage for the car to detect and connect to my wifi (Even though i get a good signal at the end of my driveway on my phone the car refuses to detect it) - so all my updates are completed on level ground - and, I have always garaged my car when not in use - I actually use my garage for its proper purpose - so the start of most journeys are from level ground, My driveway is on a slope and most days I have the car out of the garage and its on the driveway - so some journeys do start with the car being on a slope. The slope is significant enough for the car to refuse to move using summon - the app reports the car is on too greater incline, though it isn't what i would call significant.
Its an interesting point you have raised regarding the potential to miscalibrate if the vehicle starts its journey from parked on unlevel ground although my driveway slopes upwards from the garage (I always reverse into my garage) so any miscalibration should therefore set my headlights on the low side I would assume, and my lights aren't just a tad too high they are excessively high.
If the car is indeed calibrating the lights only at the start of every journey (rather than constantly adjusting as load would dictate) then there will be a lot of cars that have incorrectly aimed lighting as some public roads have significant incline and most owners - garage/ driveway or not tend to park on the road.

I am going to get to the bottom of this issue and find a solution, If Tesla reports there is nothing wrong with my headlights or the suspension sensors and the auto calibration is working within spec then I will make a modification to the suspension sensors by increasing or decreasing the actuating lever length so auto calibrate will always think the car is carrying a load in the boot - and therefore lower the headlamp aim to compensate.
Whatever modification I make It will be adjustable and easily reversible. (problem solving, logic and engineering understanding is one of my skills)

Its a shame Tesla do not respond to owners (as you identified regarding the facebook article) - and I assume do not make available to the public enough technical detail of how the cars work so we can make things work better.
I am going to manually set my lights up and test out the cars reaction to load live and load on a new journey.
Thanks for your contribution.
 
Taking the advice of @init6 here - I have just read the section of the manual that relates to adjusting the headlights.

Tesla says ": Proceed with caution when adjusting headlights. Tesla has carefully calibrated the position of the headlights to be in an optimum position for most driving scenarios. Tesla recommends that you do not adjust headlights unless you are familiar with how headlights should be adjusted. Once adjusted, you will be unable to automatically restore them to their originally calibrated position. Contact Tesla for assistance when adjusting headlights."

So this confirms that the settings you make using the "adjust Headlights" function in the menu becomes the default calibration and any other adjustment required according to load will be initiated by the suspension sensors - good news.

My car was 6 months old when i bought it, It was a lease car but the driver took early retirement from his company during the lockdown and the car was returned to Tusker to sell. I was not given the previous owners details when i bought the car but found the address within the in car systems and wrote to the address, he responded by email - so I did ask about the cars history. During his ownership I must conclude he adjusted the headlights and those adjustments became the default settings - So if you enter the headlight adjustment feature the lights will perform their up/down sequence and stop at their last "default" setting - If you exit without making any adjustment the default remains - if you adjust then on exit it saves that adjustment as the default setting.

So this is all clear now, So I will set the lights up correctly, and any updates that influence or change the headlights aim will be rectified by accessing the Calibration function and exiting without making any changes (The up/down dance the lights do will stop at my settings)