could my headlamps be toast?

[Ls400]

You know, I just went out to check on the car and test again, but I had left my low beams AND high beams on...:shakehead...so my battery was flat. It must have sat there with all the lights on for an hour!

I pulled out my battery charger and charged the battery back up. Now, the battery is reading about 13.1 volts rather than the ~12.6 to 12.8 I was getting before. When I turned on the car to check the voltage across the battery terminals, I was getting 14.1 volts! I've never seen anything in the 14 range from this car! Even after I turned on the A/C, radio, low and high beams, I was getting like 13.7 volts. These numbers are way higher than what I measured previously--I was getting 13.6 with the car idling and 13.2 with the accessories on.

I suspect that the fact that I found my lights to be subjectively terrible after I had let the car sit for a month is due to the battery! I did note that it was very hard to start the car after having it sit for that long of a time. The battery was obviously low on charge. I suspect that the alternator charged the battery back up to 12.6 volts and called it a day. I don't believe that car alternators are exactly designed to fully charge batteries.

https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-...nators-are-not-designed-charge-dead-batteries

I suspect that a half-charged battery caused all of this confusion and frustration. I put my charger back onto the battery and I'll let it top off until the evening. Then I'll go for a ride and hopefully my subjective impressions of the headlamps will have changed! Or perhaps I'm just completely wrong and I'm falsely impressed by the battery's "surface charge."

 

[Alaric Darconville]

You know, I just went out to check on the car and test again, but I had left my low beams AND high beams on...so my battery was flat. It must have sat there with all the lights on for an hour!

D'oh!

I pulled out my battery charger and charged the battery back up. Now, the battery is reading about 13.1 volts rather than the ~12.6 to 12.8 I was getting before. When I turned on the car to check the voltage across the battery terminals, I was getting 14.1 volts! I've never seen anything in the 14 range from this car! Even after I turned on the A/C, radio, low and high beams, I was getting like 13.7 volts. These numbers are way higher than what I measured previously--I was getting 13.6 with the car idling and 13.2 with the accessories on.

That high charge should settle down after a bit; fresh off the charger you'll see that pretty easily.

I suspect that the fact that I found my lights to be subjectively terrible after I had let the car sit for a month is due to the battery! I did note that it was very hard to start the car after having it sit for that long of a time. The battery was obviously low on charge.

The charging system should try to compensate for that as you drive, but maybe cold weather and short trips took their toll, and maybe you hadn't yet driven enough to get it to a normal state of charge.

 

[Ls400]

The charging system should try to compensate for that as you drive, but maybe cold weather and short trips took their toll, and maybe you hadn't yet driven enough to get it to a normal state of charge.

That's a possibility, but I took the car on a 1000 mile trip almost immediately after getting it started and I dreaded driving at night with the damn thing. If it ain't fully charged after 1000 miles, I don't think the alternator will ever bring it to full capacity. A normal, 75-80% state of charge, yes, but apparently 100% is out of the reach of this car's alternator. I suppose we'll see when night comes! My battery charger is still reporting the battery, with a voltage of 13.1 volts, as ~80% charged, and it's happily chugging along at ~4-5 amps. Perhaps the 100% charged battery will help with headlamp performance, or maybe it won't. Either way I'll find out !

 

[Alaric Darconville]

That's a possibility, but I took the car on a 1000 mile trip almost immediately after getting it started and I dreaded driving at night with the damn thing. If it ain't fully charged after 1000 miles, I don't think the alternator will ever bring it to full capacity. A normal, 75-80% state of charge, yes, but apparently 100% is out of the reach of this car's alternator. I suppose we'll see when night comes! My battery charger is still reporting the battery, with a voltage of 13.1 volts, as ~80% charged, and it's happily chugging along at ~4-5 amps. Perhaps the 100% charged battery will help with headlamp performance, or maybe it won't. Either way I'll find out !

The longish storage (especially storing radio presets, and if the alarm were armed, and maybe cold weather), on top if this particular incident with leaving the lights on, might have done that battery in. Still, get your alternator checked; Toyota quality is usually quite good but it's still a mechanoelectrical part that can fail.

 

[Ls400]

I'll definitely get the alternator out for a bench test later. I'll have to check the battery as well as I believe the car is still on its original battery.

Anyway, I went driving at night with the charged battery and I wasn't too impressed. I didn't really notice much of a difference from before.

This is what I mean by one hotspot is bigger than the other. Does this look problematic? The vehicle is lined up with the garage wall and although the picture is a little crooked, the wall is level.

http://imgur.com/FqyQaZq

 

[-Virgil-]

I don't see anything notable in this pic as far as beam formation or focus, cutoff, hot spot, light color (quick and easy rough check for adequate voltage and decent bulb condition), or anything else that makes me think the headlamps are faulty or starved.

When's the last time the aim was checked, and how was it done?

 

[Alaric Darconville]

Does this look problematic?

This looks nothing like what I'd expected to see with bulb seating issues ('holes' in the light, blobs going off in strange directions, etc).

Light color looks fine, even considering auto white balance of cameras.

Are your dashboard lights up too high? If that's through the windshield, then the glass looks clean enough, but the dashboard lights could be making things rough on you.