2013 CX- 5 - Touring awd -problem with the HID headlamps with auto leveling

NascarSigEp · Apr 24, 2013

That is good to know. I have had numerous vehicles in the past that the Auto leveling feature worked with the gradiant of the roads slope and not just under load. It would be nice if the Cx-5's Auto level worked in this way.

Seminoles said:
The lights will only auto-level if you load the back down with so much stuff that the front starts to aim up a little. The dial is not for auto adjusting headlights, but rather in Europe and Asia lots of cars come with manual adjusters, which is what that dial is. The CX-7 had a manual HID controls.

nXt · Apr 24, 2013

Wow, what a ridiculous thread the OP started.
I've been in Mercedes S500, BMWs, Lexuses... Lexi?.... the Mazda CX-5 HID lights are one of the best I've seen. Love it on my 2014 Touring/Tech.

I'm curious, the OP never mentioned if the headlights are fine when he's driving down a straight level road. I bet you it is, maybe he sinks into his seat when he's driving downhill and thus not having proper view of the road.

WYOMING92 · Aug 25, 2013

davidhbrown said:
The very sharp cut-off on the headlights does take some getting used to. We drive our cars about forever; our CX-5 is a replacement for a failing 2001 Grand Caravan. My wife's '95 Saturn is holding up better while she waits in hope that truly compact pickup comes to the USA, but its headlights are very weak compared to the Mazda's. After taking the CX-5 out one night, she commented how odd it was that they put a tint on the upper half of the windshield. Took me quite a while to realize she was perceiving that projector cut-off as dark glass!

WAS curious if you went to the dealership with this issue......or did your wife get used to the projection of the headlights.....Bought a 2014 cx5 w/o the tech package about a week ago....Last night while driving home in the early AM my wife and I experienced the same issue.. There is such a distinct line in front of you from where the headlights project, that it does appear that the windshield is tinted 1/2 up and across the entire thing. Being tall it seems to be right in my field of vision. Was wondering if they can be 'raised' a bit.

nXt · Aug 25, 2013

WYOMING92 said:
WAS curious if you went to the dealership with this issue......or did your wife get used to the projection of the headlights.....Bought a 2014 cx5 w/o the tech package about a week ago....Last night while driving home in the early AM my wife and I experienced the same issue.. There is such a distinct line in front of you from where the headlights project, that it does appear that the windshield is tinted 1/2 up and across the entire thing. Being tall it seems to be right in my field of vision. Was wondering if they can be 'raised' a bit.

This is completely normal. Raising the headlights will only blind oncoming traffic.

MikeM. · Aug 25, 2013

nXt said:
This is completely normal. Raising the headlights will only blind oncoming traffic.

Not necessarily. It's possible the headlight's are adjusted too low.

A simple headlight adjustment will remedy that.

On a level road, when properly adjusted, the cutoff should be far enough down the road that it is not an issue.

Gusmorgan · Sep 13, 2013

I have had the exact same experience. I bought my car 2 days before a cross country trip and it was near impossible to drive the speed limit on level roads at night because the car was overdriving the headlights. There was a very distinct cut off to the beams with the left being shorter than the right (there was almost a V of darkness in between the beam from the left and right headlights). I actually had to flash my high beams on some times to see the road markings or risk driving off the road. I decided to drive with the trucks which drive at a lower posted speed. The posted speed for cars on I40 in Texas is 70 mph and it was impossible to drive on the level road if there was a curve at that speed. I could clearly see them adjust left and right slightly on curves and the seem to bounce slightly when hitting a dip in the road but they never illuminate enough of the road to drive the speed limit on the freeway.

nohackle · Nov 20, 2013

OP..........same here. As accurately described above the car 'overdrives' the projected light and also have had to drive below speed limit in some circumstances or resort to high beams to drive safely. My 2014 CX5 was just towed from my garage last night with a dead battery at 9K miles, another issue that apparently is not limited to my experience. Hope to have the headlights adjusted while in the shop. Love the car nonetheless.

bc

jesse03 · Nov 29, 2013

I have a 2014 GT and have the same issue. The hid lights point too low. About 25 feet from the front. It's a lot worse on any street that has a slope. When I get right behind a car that doesn't have its rear plate well lit, my hid lights don't illuminate it. I plan to bring that up at the next dealer trip along with a squeak from the rear windshield wiper. Maybe some hydraulics to raise the front will fix the issue.

jk

raden · Nov 29, 2013

I had the same issue with mine. I raised mine manually, all it took was a level surface, a solid gray wall, and a quarter. Now I have excellent visibility and I've never been flashed by oncoming traffic for annoying them.

deuce_WI · Dec 3, 2013

Tips:
- Mark your adjuster with a sharpie so you have a reference of where it was adjusted to stock.
- Make small adjustments and test drive to see the changes.
- I settled on 1/2 turn (180 degrees) up on both lights. Visibility is great, and it's not to high for oncoming traffic.
- 1 full turn brought them up way too high, it was like driving with the high beams on all the time.
- A fat phillips screwdriver works great.

raden · Dec 3, 2013

deuce_WI said:
Tips:
- Mark your adjuster with a sharpie so you have a reference of where it was adjusted to stock.
- Make small adjustments and test drive to see the changes.
- I settled on 1/2 turn (180 degrees) up on both lights. Visibility is great, and it's not to high for oncoming traffic.
- 1 full turn brought them up way too high, it was like driving with the high beams on all the time.
- A fat phillips screwdriver works great.

Great write-up. What does the inward/outward adjustment do?

deuce_WI · Dec 3, 2013

raden said:
Great write-up. What does the inward/outward adjustment do?

Moves the beam left and right?

I didn't mess with it. Our CX-5 has the auto-focus auto-follow thing which seems to work fine when it comes to horizontal aim. Vertical just needed a tweak up so you can actually see where you're going. The low adjustment from the factory defeats the purpose of buying the upgraded HID lights.

Personally, I prefer the manual dial for height adjustment on my 3 (which also needed to be tweaked up a bit even on it's highest setting from the factory).

I'd go take a picture, but the CX-5 is the wife's car. The service manual diagram is actually kinda lousy. Maybe tonight if I remember.

raden · Dec 3, 2013

deuce_WI said:
Moves the beam left and right?

I didn't mess with it. Our CX-5 has the auto-focus auto-follow thing which seems to work fine when it comes to horizontal aim. Vertical just needed a tweak up so you can actually see where you're going. The low adjustment from the factory defeats the purpose of buying the upgraded HID lights.

Personally, I prefer the manual dial for height adjustment on my 3 (which also needed to be tweaked up a bit even on it's highest setting from the factory).

Thanks for clarifying, I adjusted the height on mine as well. I previously had a 3 too, and did the same thing. Marking the stock position is a good idea, I wish I thought of that when I adjusted mine.

racecar · Dec 27, 2013

Do all cx5's have auto leveling headlights? I am praying the answer is no.

nXt · Dec 27, 2013

racecar said:
Do all cx5's have auto leveling headlights? I am praying the answer is no.

Only models with HID has auto leveling.

Tricia · Nov 4, 2014

davidhbrown said:
The very sharp cut-off on the headlights does take some getting used to. We drive our cars about forever; our CX-5 is a replacement for a failing 2001 Grand Caravan. My wife's '95 Saturn is holding up better while she waits in hope that truly compact pickup comes to the USA, but its headlights are very weak compared to the Mazda's. After taking the CX-5 out one night, she commented how odd it was that they put a tint on the upper half of the windshield. Took me quite a while to realize she was perceiving that projector cut-off as dark glass!

I just purchased a CX-5 GT without the technology package and was shocked to see how poor the low beams are. The cut-off is so extreme that it does seem like a black shade is covering the windshield from the top, downward leaving clarity with just the lower 1/4 of the windshield. When I'm on a road with no street lights, I have to keep my high beams on, regardless of on-coming cars or cars in front of me.
I've attached a couple of pics showing the tint.

pdxa4 · Dec 26, 2014

Guys I have a new GT with tech package, is this manual adjustment option that "deuce_WI" posted possible on our car ?

pdxa4 · Dec 28, 2014

deuce_WI said:
Tips:
- Mark your adjuster with a sharpie so you have a reference of where it was adjusted to stock.
- Make small adjustments and test drive to see the changes.
- I settled on 1/2 turn (180 degrees) up on both lights. Visibility is great, and it's not to high for oncoming traffic.
- 1 full turn brought them up way too high, it was like driving with the high beams on all the time.
- A fat phillips screwdriver works great.

I glanced in at the back of my headlights today, (GT with Tech).
I could see the two adjusters in your example.

It looked like the "inward/outward" adjusted was more towards the outside of the car and up higher, it also had a white plastic cap on it.

The "upward/downward" adjuster was more towards the center of the car and sitting lower, one could more easily see the metal gear on the adjuster when looking down at it.

Does this make sense with my description ?

I may have to adjust our headlights as they are exceptionally low (and yes I have owned several cars with HID, and sharp "Euro" cutoff beams".

deuce_WI · Dec 29, 2014

Yep, the up/down adjuster with the metal teeth should be easy to turn with a phillips screwdriver.

If you're making adjustments against a wall or garage door or something, a small change will make a big difference down the road.

Rarebreed · Jan 14, 2015

Thank you for this! On a recent road trip, I noticed the extremely sharp cutoff of the headlights. Speed limit was 70 MPH, but the road was curvy, so I could only see about 15 to 20 feet ahead of me. I had to slow down to avoid jerking the steering wheel. I'm going to raise my headlights a little bit tonight!

2013 CX- 5 - Touring awd -problem with the HID headlamps with auto leveling

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