Headlights

[G-498755]

Just had to drive two hours at four am to take daughter to the Asheville airport. We have had our Telluride for a year now and in the daytime it is just an amazing car but at night and driving it in the Mountains it can become a really frightening experience. For some reasons if you are not on level ground your visibility becomes very limited and if you are turning at the intersection there is almost no light to see where you are turning. So far Kia has not offered a solution except to tell me there were two options for headlights. I will be honest and say with my prior experience that is one option I never heard before. I do wish they would provide an upgrade that would not cost the consumer A thousand bucks. If you are not aware of this problem I hope my text will help. I will say on level areas the problem is not as bad.

 

[LiquidUte]

Just had to drive two hours at four am to take daughter to the Asheville airport. We have had our Telluride for a year now and in the daytime it is just an amazing car but at night and driving it in the Mountains it can become a really frightening experience. For some reasons if you are not on level ground your visibility becomes very limited and if you are turning at the intersection there is almost no light to see where you are turning. So far Kia has not offered a solution except to tell me there were two options for headlights. I will be honest and say with my prior experience that is one option I never heard before. I do wish they would provide an upgrade that would not cost the consumer A thousand bucks. If you are not aware of this problem I hope my text will help. I will say on level areas the problem is not as bad.

Which lights do you have, the xenon or the LED? Is there a noticeable difference in visibility between them?

 

[DarkMossJustin]

Just had to drive two hours at four am to take daughter to the Asheville airport. We have had our Telluride for a year now and in the daytime it is just an amazing car but at night and driving it in the Mountains it can become a really frightening experience. For some reasons if you are not on level ground your visibility becomes very limited and if you are turning at the intersection there is almost no light to see where you are turning. So far Kia has not offered a solution except to tell me there were two options for headlights. I will be honest and say with my prior experience that is one option I never heard before. I do wish they would provide an upgrade that would not cost the consumer A thousand bucks. If you are not aware of this problem I hope my text will help. I will say on level areas the problem is not as bad.

Some reviewers have complained that the headlights don't turn in response to steering wheel feedback.

I haven't had a problem because I like the LEDs, the candelas, the lumens, the throw, and just the quality of the illumination.

There are cars that have adaptive lights that might be more suited to your driving style, local roads/conditions.

I'll test the Telly's LEDs on a windy canyon road soon when the weather gets a little warmer and I don't have to worry about the ice and falling rocks.

 

[Tellthemride]

You buy a car without adaptive turning headlights or cornering lights, that is how it is going to work. There typically is no alternative add-on any manufacture will offer to make the headlights “work better” when cornering or driving on hilly roads. Aftermarket installed light bars are one option if you absolutely need more light.

The downside of buying a car with projector headlamps (focused light pattern) versus reflector headlamps is they won’t throw light all over the place if that is the type of car you drove in the past. To make things worse, an LED/HID bulb type headlamp is going to make the focused light have much greater contrast ratio compared to the unlit road. If drivers are unable to discern objects at the periphery of the beam pattern and often drive on unlit roads, this will be an inevitable problem no mater what modern car you buy without adaptive/cornering lights.

I am still able to see just fine driving on hilly roads that are completely unlit with torrential downpour and low visibility. I just did it this weekend. The older I get, I will probably need the assistance with more advance headlamps featuring adaptive/cornering lights to see better at night. When that day comes, just need to make sure I buy a car that has that feature. If the Telluride doesn’t have it by then, I don’t buy a Telluride.

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[dark_sxp]

I drove up to Big Bear a couple nights ago. At first I was impressed with the LEDs. The illumination of the road was better than I had ever experienced before in any previous cars. The wifey and I kept mentioning it quite often on our 3 hour drive.

That was until we hit the foothills and the road started getting windy. There is a visible hard horizontal line separating the lit and unlit part of the road. Like the headlights were adjusted downward to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. At times during the tight and twisties, I could only see 10 -15 feet in front of me. There was no moon to light the road so the contrast between the lit and unlit portion of the road made it look like driving into pure blackness. On a unfamiliar mountain road, I would've probably pulled over and waited till morning. Needless to say, I won't be driving the telly up to Big Bear at night anymore.

Other than that, still in love with it.

 

[2020Telly]

I've been thinking about a roof top mounted light bar to help with road illumination when driving in rural areas without street lights.

For example:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1178027246549905409

SEMA: Kia’s 2020 Telluride Will Be Gutsy Adventure Vehicle

Kia’s all-new Telluride large crossover will carry eight passengers and have enough power and capability to venture off-road.

www.trucks.com

Kia Telluride Rolls Into SEMA With 4 Capable Concepts

Kia's new Telluride is making a show-stopping appearance at the SEMA show in Las Vegas with four stunning concepts.

www.motor1.com

 

[LiquidUte]

I've been thinking about a roof top mounted light bar to help with road illumination when driving in rural areas without street lights.

Yes, if I were in a situation like described where I frequently had to drive twisty roads at night I'd probably add some aftermarket lights like what my buddy has here near the a-pillar of his tacoma.
You can see they are angled out about 15 degrees.

These combined with the headlights, fogs, and light bar behind the grill lit up the road in pitch dark Utah nighttime wilderness almost as bright as day. Just don't forget to switch them off when traffic is coming the other way.

 

[Pappy]

I drove up to Big Bear a couple nights ago. At first I was impressed with the LEDs. The illumination of the road was better than I had ever experienced before in any previous cars. The wifey and I kept mentioning it quite often on our 3 hour drive.

That was until we hit the foothills and the road started getting windy. There is a visible hard horizontal line separating the lit and unlit part of the road. Like the headlights were adjusted downward to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. At times during the tight and twisties, I could only see 10 -15 feet in front of me. There was no moon to light the road so the contrast between the lit and unlit portion of the road made it look like driving into pure blackness. On a unfamiliar mountain road, I would've probably pulled over and waited till morning. Needless to say, I won't be driving the telly up to Big Bear at night anymore.

Other than that, still in love with it.

Interesting that you are reporting this with the SX LED's. Just curious, did you have the fog lights on?

Most of the other reports of poor lighting come from those with the Halogen lights on the lower trims. I have an S model and have swapped out the bulbs for LED's and it's much better now. However, I think that the physical design of the KIA projector assemblies will always limit how much lighting you will get on the sides no matter what bulbs you use. I also found it scary on dark winding rounds when we went camping last year. Really the only fix is installing a set of fog lights or a light bar.

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[dark_sxp]

Interesting that you are reporting this with the SX LED's. Just curious, did you have the fog lights on?

Most of the other reports of poor lighting come from those with the Halogen lights on the lower trims. I have an S model and have swapped out the bulbs for LED's and it's much better now. However, I think that the physical design of the KIA projector assemblies will always limit how much lighting you will get on the sides no matter what bulbs you use. I also found it scary on dark winding rounds when we went camping last year. Really the only fix is installing a set of fog lights or a light bar.

Yeah fog lights were on. The thing that was surprising was the hard cutoff line was not only on the sides but directly in front of me. It's hard to explain as I've never experienced this before but if you can imagine looking straight ahead and the top half of your vision is black while you can see clearly with the bottom half. Goin through tight turns while going uphill only gave 15-20 feet visibility at certain points.

Have you seen astronauts in space during a space walk? While in direct sun, everything is as bright as day but if he takes his arm and moves it into the shadow of the space station or shuttle, it disappears into the blackness. That's due to no ambient light. It reminded me of that driving in the mountains with no moonlight. It was trippy AF.

 

[Tellthemride]

Here is an example of driving on unlit mountain roads with projector headlights. Not all drivers will be comfortable driving with these headlamps in this type of environment without additional off road lighting. (Video is of a 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer, but similar to what I experienced.)

Here is an example comparing unlit trail driving using led projectors versus raised pod lights. (Video is of Toyota Tacoma)

Started video link at 1 minute for comparison purposes. Off road lighting example starts at 2 minutes.

So if you drive on unlit roads often and are uncomfortable with the light output from modern day projector headlamps, would be good to invest in additional off road lighting for the Telluride.

It is certainly doable to drive on unlit roads with and without hills/bends in the roads using stock LED headlamps. Just not preferable for all.

 

[2020Telly]

Not bad for what I estimate to be about a $40 investment!

• Pod Lights
• Wiring harness
• Hood mount brackets