[rickyraccoon]

Well this might be a dumb question, or not. Don't know. So I have an '04 Optima that for a long drawn out series of reasons that have little to do with the subject so I won't go through here but suffice it to say it's not a car I've driven much . So I haven't really noticed things about it. I thought I was going to be using it quite a bit and so recently switched out the headlamp halogens for some direct drop-in, fanless LEDs. Oh I love the way every single vendor's webpage seems to list the highbeams wrong- I had to come here to verify (I didn't want to handle the halogens until I was ready to replace them) that it's same bulb as the lows. So anyway....

Is it normal that when you flip the high beams on, the low beams cut off???

I'd noticed something was sort of lacking when I am driving it with the high beams on. And then I realised. The low beams cut out. None of my other vehicles do that, with high beams on I gots me four 1-2-3-4 lights shining the way. But nope my Optima has to be different. Is that an Optima thing? A Kia thing? A 'you-put-LEDs-in-it' thing, though I can't imagine why that would make a difference? I have poor night vision and haven't driven it much at night, and the stock halogens left much to be desired anyway, so tbh I don't know I would have noticed this behavior until actually changing out the lamps and paying attention to things like beam dispersal pattern.

Thanks much!

 

[rickyraccoon]

Wow, okay so no replies. I take it that it's merely designed that way. I did find discussion on a pickup forum, which got a little heated, with self-important types declaring that cutting out low-beams when switching to high, preserved your night vision. Which I find to be a poor argument- this old fart still needs to see the edges of the road/lane. And countless vehicles do not do that. I still need a low beam pattern to see the boundaries of the road. And the fact remains out of four vehicles, my Optima is the only one that has the cheek to cut my low beams off when switching to high. I'm going to have to figure out a way to bypass that, it's unacceptable for me. It makes me not want to drive it after dark.

 

[rickyraccoon]

Also I finally figures out my Optima is apparently later in the production year- the headlamp data matches '05 fitment- apparently there was a late change during the '04 production run. I've had cars like that before, always nice when they spring little surprises on you.