2018 RX350L Low Beam Image

[ingenious]

The attached image shows what my brand new Lexus low beams look like at night.  This is without fog lights turned on.  The transition to the dark side is approximately 60 feet in front of the car but I plan to measure it to get an exact distance.  It is probably under 60 feet.

I took it to the dealer and they said the lights are fine and they expressed no concern over the photo.  At 45 MPH, you quite literally can't see crap in time to react so I really need to slow it down to like 30.  That solution is non-viable to the poor !Removed! behind me.  Fog lights coupled with low beams is maybe a very slight improvement.  I think all it is really doing is washing out the sharp transition from light to dark and not really providing any more visibility distance wise.

I've showed the photos to my car enthusiasts friends and they all agree that something is wrong.  Yes, I could try the auto-high beam feature and I have, once.  I was on an unlit road known to have wild hogs and was clipping along with high beams at 45 MPH.  A car coming toward me forced my high beams off and suddenly I had to slow way down because I just couldn't see anything at a great enough distance to react and it was made worse than normal with the other cars headlights coming toward me.

Anyway, the picture is to 1) give everyone a feel for what I am seeing at night and 2) to encourage others to post some 2018 RX350(L) pictures of their low beams at night so I can get a comparison.

I plan to return to the dealer and talk to the salesperson who sold me the car so I can maybe do a side-by-side compare with another car exactly like mine.  If the other car is better (correct) then I will have something to be armed with when I talk to the service department.  If both cars are the same, then I can at least say it is a systemic problem.

I know the lights should be adjustable though the dealer claimed they were not.  I've seen the other posts on that subject and that may be my solution in the end but, for now, I want to validate it is indeed a problem.

Thanks for reading!

Jim

[1990LS400]

None of the three headlight systems available on the 2018 RX get the IIHS highest "Good" rating.  The adaptive bi-LED system gets the second tier "Acceptable" rating and the other two systems (triple beam and LED projector) get the next lower tier "Marginal" rating.

You can read about the 2018 RX headlight ratings at https://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/lexus/rx-4-door-suv

Based on the IIHS tests and complaints from RX owners, the triple beam headlights appear to be the least effective of the three systems.  Which system do you have?

The main purpose of fog lights is to light up the road edges when driving in poor visibility conditions at low speeds, e.g. no more than 30 to 35 mph.  Fog lights are not going to supplement the range of low beam headlights.

 

 

 

[Paul Hughey]

Hey Jim, did you ever get any resolution to this problem? We have a 2011 rx350 with what seems like the same issue. We had a deer hit us and did significant damage to front right, headlight unit replaced, when we got the car back from shop all of a sudden we have this issue. We took it back and the put in genuine Lexus headlight unit, it didn’t help, we took it back and they there is nothing else they can do. next step is to prob take to Lexus dealer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 
paul hughey 615-969-8199