Hey a-holes, turn off the high beams

However if the check engine light comes on and blinks, don't screw around, park it, because those are bad.

 

Most auto parts stores around here will hook up a reader for you at no charge.

 

Dad, is that you from the grave?

 

We take our cars to the university garage that services the school fleet. They don’t need the money, so they steer you right. I had what I thought was a burned out back window motor. It just needed to be greased, and they did that for no charge.

And even there, it was $225 or more to replace a bad headlight on the 2013 Subaru Forester.

 

Some of us are probably old enough to remember changing headlights when they were essentially a big lightbulb held in by a bracket.

 

A lot of them still are, even if it’s an LED “bulb” rather than an old-style incandescent.

 

Hell, I changed the shocks on my 1972 Dart when I was in high school, and I'm not automotive inclined.

 

Since the time change, I've noticed more and more people driving with their high beams on ... and not dimming them when you flash your high beams at them. Saturday, I was sitting across an intersection from a car and its high beams were on. New LED ones. I was in my 2006 TJ and flicked my brights a few times and they didn't react. So I reached down and flipped the switch to turn on the 20-inch light bar on my front bumper AND the two ditch lights on my A-columns. In total, I was blasting about 18,000 lumens right in the driver's face.

And they still never turned off their high beams.

 

They don’t know how?

 

They don't know the protocol.
Used to be common knowledge.

 

Is everyone in Atlanta driving with high beams?

In case anyone is confused, high beams are intended for use on unlit and rural roads. When another car approaches from the opposite direction, it is not just a courtesy to dim your high beams, it’s the law.

State regulations call for dimming high beams within 500 feet of oncoming traffic. If you are following another car, you should dim them within 200 feet.

...

The amount of glare can also be a function of a car’s height or alignment, condition, and size of the headlights — all of which can make headlights seem brighter than they are. But while there is an incentive to increase headlight brightness — more light improves night driving — there is less incentive to do anything about glare.

It’s hard to isolate glare as the sole or primary cause of an accident, and less data on the downsides of glare means less action from federal regulators in addressing the thousands of driver complaints about headlights that are too bright.

One 2022 study estimated that glare from the high-beam headlights of oncoming traffic at night accounts for 12% to 15% of all traffic accidents.