2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds conducts a Long-Term Test of the 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe and tries to re-aim the headlights.

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bankerdanny

This seems like the kind of issue that shouldn't be subject to Edmunds' sometimes lackadaisical attitude towards bringing a vehicle in for service when the issue doesn't involve engine/transmission/brake problems.

dg0472

Consumer Reports, the only organization I know of that actually rates headlights, noted the distinct cutoff but said that the low-beams reached a good distance. BUT they always check alignment before they do their tests. So sounds like it's time to take it in for a check. No need to discuss HIDs or auto-leveling in a '13 model as in the linked post's comments because there was no such option for MY '13.

fordson1

How hard can it be? Well, it's hard enough that after almost 4 months, you're only now figuring it's time to confirm that they're not aimed right. So probably right before you get rid of it, you're going to address the issue - ? Or not.

quadricycle

Just do yourself a favor and get it aimed by a dealer with an actual optical aimer. If you do it yourself, you're probably going to get it close, but you'll either be glaring other drivers more than you should or sacrificing seeing distance. Don't let the dealer shine the lights on a wall and simply raise them a little. I hate it when they do that.

stovt001_

"How hard can it be?" Do you never watch Top Gear?

agentorange

Maladjusted headlights straight from the factory seem to be the norm these days. Add to that the DoT rules that screw us all out of decent lights.

quadricycle

The Department of Transportation does not screw us all out of decent headlights, manufacturers have decided that the NA market doesn't really care about lighting. Regulations on headlight performance here are pretty lax, if that's what you mean, and that's because those same manufacturers pushed for it to be that way, so they could employ low cost options.

GEM6330

2013 Santa Fe has a controller for the headlight height. It is located in front of the drivers side rear tire. If gravel etc breaks the wires on this module, the headlights adjust themselves to the lowest possible height making night driving almost impossible. The module is meant to compensate for heavy loads in the baggage area. Has happened to me twice now. Quite expensive ($500) to fix!