Head lights and snowing

[moehni]

Hello,
a couple of days ago I drove through heavy snowfall. After a few minutes I recognized a loss of power from the headlights. At first I thought of a defect (and wanted to blaim the software), but then I imagined what could had happened. It became so dark on the road with only a minimal output of the headlights I had to stop and took a look at the front. And indeed, the headlights were crusted in snow. So it is an issue because of the upright position, and there is no solution to it. It does not snow often here in our region, so I can live with it. But the Jean Mercier in me wants to solve this issue. Because of the similarity to the G-Class it would be possible to mount a washing-device near the headlights, exactly like MB.
Do you think this is a good idea or overkill? But driving in the dark on a highway was an expereince I don´t want to have regularly.

 

[emax]

It is not an issue here (mid Germany) for 350 days a year, and in some years not an issue at all. But it in fact means, that you can NOT go anywhere with your Grenadier: Iceland, Scandinavia, the Alps ...?

For a car as modern as the Grenadier, I consider this annoying.

If there are transparent heating foils, I would try such a foil. But that's just a guess.

Beheizte Scheinwerfer am Auto? Warum eigentlich nicht!

Details zu: Beheizte Scheinwerfer am Auto? Warum eigentlich nicht! ➜ exklusiver Einblick in Tipps, Produkte, Infos & Co. auf tuningblog

www.tuningblog.eu

 

[AZGrenadier]

Happened on our GX for the first time last year. Exact same issue. We had close to an inch of ice build up on the glass. I think that is a problem with LED, they simply don't get hot enough to keep the ice from building. Not sure what the solution would be.
Maybe some sort of heating element/grid that fits over the top?

 

[Eric]

Hello,
a couple of days ago I drove through heavy snowfall. After a few minutes I recognized a loss of power from the headlights. At first I thought of a defect (and wanted to blaim the software), but then I imagined what could had happened. It became so dark on the road with only a minimal output of the headlights I had to stop and took a look at the front. And indeed, the headlights were crusted in snow. So it is an issue because of the upright position, and there is no solution to it. It does not snow often here in our region, so I can live with it. But the Jean Mercier in me wants to solve this issue. Because of the similarity to the G-Class it would be possible to mount a washing-device near the headlights, exactly like MB.
Do you think this is a good idea or overkill? But driving in the dark on a highway was an expereince I don´t want to have regularly.

I think it is more to do with the outside lens temperature of LED lights rather than being upright.

 

[stickshifter]

Snow build-up is a common issue with Jeep Wranglers, and will likely be common with the Grenadier for the same two reasons: (1) vertical headlight that is also a bit recessed (forming a snow trap), and (2) the use of LED lights that do not generate much heat.

If you frequently drive in conditions that lead to snow build-up on your headlights, one possible solution is to replace them with something like a JW Speaker headlight that has a heating element. The heater usually comes on automatically when the sensor detects temps below freezing, but some could be wired so that the heating element had a driver-operated on/off switch. I had JW Speaker headlights in my Jeep, and they were excellent. They are built for off-roading, as well as lighting up the night. Another very good aftermarket headlight company for rough 4x4 use is Truck-Lite, probably as good as JW Speaker, but a little cheaper.

There was some discussion of this issue about a year ago on this forum here:

Nolden Headlights

So I was looking for a little more info on the headlights. They appear to be a different arrangement to any in Nolden's product range. Although, it looks like the very early prototypes were running aftermarket Noldens: Ineos should have a word with them about changing some of their...

www.theineosforum.com

 

[Tom D]

The old halogen lights produced so much heat that they would melt the snow, LED’s are much cooler. Here the build up.

 

[pete54]

Last drive in my fantastic discovery 4 today (before selling tomorrow)- early rise in Edinburgh (5am) for a wedding in Fife (catering gig - bbq weather!). Went to sleep with the forecast showing -2 to -3 (centigrade) and clear but woke up to fairly heavy snowfall for 30 miles. Obviously caught the gritters on the hop as lane slow single traffic. Lights got dimmer as snow built up but never a real issue. Also toasty warm inside and sure footed. Switch to the Grenadier on Tuesday. Hopefully it will cope with standard Scottish weather without need for comment!

 

[Lollo050968]

I will try to fix this problem, with a Nano Coating for glass like RainX. Maybe a first an cheap solution.

 

[parb]

Fwiw rain-x degrades optical performance. Probably won't matter on a headlight.

Someone put that on one of our engineering vehicles at work and we immediately noticed that the cameras we have behind the windshield degraded more than expected in rain. Hard for human eyes to see but the camera picks up a smearing effect that really messed with it in a way that had unintended results as the neural network tried to analyze the image.

 

[Lollo050968]

Fwiw rain-x degrades optical performance. Probably won't matter on a headlight.

Someone put that on one of our engineering vehicles at work and we immediately noticed that the cameras we have behind the windshield degraded more than expected in rain. Hard for human eyes to see but the camera picks up a smearing effect that really messed with it in a way that had unintended results as the neural network tried to analyze the image.

So at the Grenny we have no Camera
I used an italian brand: Allchem 467 Glass cleaner and protector.
At the moment with good result! I put it on our Audi TTRS and on my BMW 5series, both with camera. No negative impact until now.

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