[Fred]

Anyone else find their low beams are poor. High beams work great but low beams are terrible. Seems like it may be poor design since I have heard that what I am experiencing is normal. Hope not and that someone can tell me how they corrected this issue.

 

[ReD-DrAgOn]

They correct it by...

You buying a H11 HID Kit from DDM or similar company.

 

[dunston]

I did not have any issues with my stock low beams. Do you drive in snowy or rainy conditions a lot?

 

[deezmazda3s]

I had the same issue. Changed low beams from H11 bulbs to H9's and adjusted the headlights up a lil bit. it made a world of difference.


this thread shows how to adjust the headlights.

http://mazda3revolution.com/forums/2010-mazda-3-performance-mods/1827-headlight-adjustment.html

 

[warlord]

Haha, that thread seems like it was a million years ago. I've since switched to HID's. If anyone is interested in buying my Osram H9's I'll sell them cheap. Only have maybe five hours on them. :threadjacked 1:

 

[Fred]

Anyone talk to a factory rep and tell them their headlights are dangerous. Hard to believe Mazda would ignore such an obvious design flaw in light of what Toyota is going thru. I will pursue this with my dealer and report back.

 

[spwalker09]

eh i dont think it was a design flaw. i never had a problem w/ my headlights but i switched to HIDs anyway. might just be an aiming issue (as suggested earlier) but not a design flaw. i've owned cars with WAY worse headlights

 

[Desertnate]

Anyone talk to a factory rep and tell them their headlights are dangerous. Hard to believe Mazda would ignore such an obvious design flaw in light of what Toyota is going thru. I will pursue this with my dealer and report back.

I don't think the lights are dangerous or an "obvious design flaw". That's going a bit far.

Are they aimed a bit low...probably. Could they be better...sure. I'd say they are some of the best stock lights I've had on a car. My complaints can probably be easily fixed with a little adjustment and a set of SilverStars.

 

[Fred]

Glad to hear that a simple adjustment will suffice. I will cross my fingers and hope for the best. Just seemed like what I was hearing was that "it is what it is". My wife has a 2010 sedan 3 so I will compare to my hatch.

 

[warlord]

Mazda may have purposely aimed the lights low on the hatch under the assumption that people with hatches put stuff in the back. Which would then raise the nose up and blind oncomming traffic. Just trying to give Mazda the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Fred]

Glad to hear that a simple adjustment will suffice. I will cross my fingers and hope for the best. Just seemed like what I was hearing was that "it is what it is". My wife has a 2010 sedan 3 so I will compare to my hatch.

Took our sedan for a spin last nite and the low beams were better than our hatch. Both cars need to have lights adjusted so will be taking to dealer asap.

 

[Desertnate]

No reason to take them to the dealer. You should be able to do it yourself. Last time I looked the adjustment points were pretty easy to get to. I'm going to do it myself as soon as I have a weekend with good weather.

 

[jermz238]

yep, its easy. 8mm bolt, silver color as opposed to the rest of the unit being black. iirc "loosening" raises them, "tightening" lowers them.

 

[StitcH]

How much did you change yours, jermz?

 

[jermz238]

too much at first, since they looked fine about 6 feet away, but were aimed too high from 20-30 feet. but a good amount of cranking. I've adjusted them 4-5 times to try to find the sweet spot, just raised them a little more this morning, we'll see if I overdid it again or not.

 

[twowings]

You need to park the vehicle 25' away from the focusing surface....

 

[jermz238]

i know, but i do not have 25 feet of level ground with a wall at the end.

 

[Chris19]

Does this work with auto levelling as I have the GT HB?

I don't have much stuff in the trunk and I still think it's aim too low.

 

[ingram1225]

my low beams are bright enough to see the road just fine. The high beams i'm having an issue with... do i dare say too bright? when approaching a white speed sign (in the US) the white sign is so bright from the reflection that it blurs out the black letters. I'll try to remember to take a picture some day! it's cool lol

 

[2010mazda3s]

Has anyone put 55watt balts HIDs in for the headlights yet? I was considering doing it but I burned the housing on my last truck with having a higher wattage fog light. From what I have read the halogens are 55w, I just don't want the HIDs to be any hotter (hot enough to burn the housing or lens). Any Ideas?