[RickC48]

RickC48 2021 Honda Passport...Great vehicle...

Wife & I do not do much night driving. We recently discovered using the headlights going up hills or down hills at night... 2/3 of the upper windshield is blacked out. Dangerous situation. Hi beams...on helps to clear up the black upper windshield..but cannot drive with high beams on all the time...I turned off the Automatic High Beam. Still does not help the situation.

 

[BigJosh]

RickC48 2021 Honda Passport...Great vehicle...

Wife & I do not do much night driving. We recently discovered using the headlights going up hills or down hills at night... 2/3 of the upper windshield is blacked out. Dangerous situation. Hi beams...on helps to clear up the black upper windshield..but cannot drive with high beams on all the time...I turned off the Automatic High Beam. Still does not help the situation.

Is there a tint strip that was added?

 

[RickC48]

Hi BigJosh.. there was not a tint strip added. We bought the vehicle new.

 

[pshadoa]

Headlights may need to be aligned. I have a 2019 Touring and the headlights are great.

 

[RickC48]

Headlights may need to be aligned. I have a 2019 Touring and the headlights are great.

Thank You pshadoa for your help. We sure hope that will take care of it. Have a Honda dealer appt. Wed. morning....Blessings!

Is there a tint strip that was added?

Thank You BigJosh for your help....Blessings...RickC48

 

[Gray_Beard]

Just curious, is the Passport a new vehicle for you? Had your previous vehicles had headlights that have a distinctive cut-off line to them? Older headlight designs had a flood effect to them in that they lit up everything in front of you (only with poor lighting). Headlights now have a hard line to them so that above that line nothing gets lit up, with the logic of not blinding on coming cars. Unfortunately, the one draw back to them is if driving up an incline and the road ahead is not lit up as far as you would like it to be. I leave for work at 5:30am so I'm always in the dark; and we have a lot of winding hilly roads and I'm also cautious of bambi and friends standing in front of me.

 

[RickC48]

Just curious, is the Passport a new vehicle for you? Had your previous vehicles had headlights that have a distinctive cut-off line to them? Older headlight designs had a flood effect to them in that they lit up everything in front of you (only with poor lighting). Headlights now have a hard line to them so that above that line nothing gets lit up, with the logic of not blinding on coming cars. Unfortunately, the one draw back to them is if driving up an incline and the road ahead is not lit up as far as you would like it to be. I leave for work at 5:30am so I'm always in the dark; and we have a lot of winding hilly roads and I'm also cautious of bambi and friends standing in front of me.

Hi Gray_Beard... Yes the Passport is new to us. We previously owned a new 2012 Nissan Rogue....sold it to buy the new Passport. I understand ( I think) what you are saying about the "hard line to them". And yes this is exactly how the Passport is performing. To me this is a road hazard. All this new technology and buying a new vehicle that drives like this in the dark is unheard of.
As far as safety goes...besides not seeing vehicles you are approaching on a hill or decline and cause a rear end collision. Also the bambi's you mentioned.
The way it is set up now I can turn the high-beams on and see 90% better..but..not good at all with on- coming traffic.
I really appreciate your help and taking the time to explain this to me. As I stated in my previous blogs above, we do have an appointment with Honda Wednesday morning Jan 5. I took pictures this evening in my driveway...which has approx. 20 deg. slope. It looks even worse when not driving the Passport...what you can't see ahead of you.
I will let you know what the dealer says. What recourse does a person have if they say this is the way it was designed?
Thanks again...

 

[jasonpp]

It's called low beam and there will be a cut off to reduce blinding oncoming traffic. Why would you see that higher up at night anyway?
All low beam will perform similarly. This shouldn't really be a new issue. It maybe more obvious when the beam is more even on the passport vs hot spots vs your previous vehicle.

 

[storm303]

I find the Passport low beams very good. Almost all new cars have LED or HID lights with lensing that has sharp cutoff and more precise aiming than older cars. It really isn't a safety hazard to not have low beams throwing light to the top third of your window (that is a really long distance on flat pavement) as the light is going where it should and has plenty of throw and more brightness on target. I can see deer further ahead in this vehicle than any previous, and I have had a few from different brands. If you are having trouble seeing a reasonable distance and are worried about running into other vehicles, animals, or objects something somewhere is wrong.

For comparison with a properly functioning Passport or other new car though, older cars with wildly aimed headlights were much more dangerous as they blind other drivers, even if you have an illusion that you can see better. I would suggest that once Honda verifies calibration, try to get used to it and look in feet how far the light actually goes. If you were measuring light in 1/3rds of windshields before, I suspect you may have previously had very badly aimed lights, or very diffuse lenses that were blinding others.

If you use the fog lights, they fill in a small amount mainly below the headlamps but also to the sides ahead. I often use these in narrow urban streets or in the hills and country and it helps reduce the feeling of the sharp low beam pattern and makes vision to the corners better.

 

[RickC48]

RickC48 I went to the Honda dealer today for them check out the "70%" night driving windshield blacked out driving up and down hills. Quote: We adjusted the headlights up 1 1/2 to 2 inches higher. I just drove our Honda in the dark. It appears to be about 30-40% better..with less black-out on the upper windshield. Bottom line: I will get used to it. Always can use hi beams to clear it all up on up and down hills!!
I appreciate everyones help and look forward to passortforums.com!!!