The modern car feature that will jack up your repair bill

There’s no doubt about it, in the last five to 10 years, the headlights in many modern cars have become nothing short of amazing.

That’s in no small part due to the evolution and refinement of light-emitting diode (LED) technology, and how manufacturers are using it to not only make their headlights brighter and offer more visibility after dark, but also to make them safer.

We’re talking LED headlamps, matrix LEDs and laser headlights. The future is here, and it’s very bright.

All this tech and light performance comes at a cost. While matrix and laser LED lights can illuminate the road up to 600 metres ahead (that’s six football fields in length) and can dip certain segments of their light output to avoid blinding oncoming traffic while still lighting up the rest of your field of vision, they do so at the expense of simplicity.

If a light goes out or you’re involved in a minor bingle, it’s no longer as easy as stopping by your local auto parts store and swapping in a new set of globes.

Matrix LEDs utilise cameras, control modules, and, as the name suggests, matrices to do their thing. They are undeniably impressive, but they’re undeniably complicated as well. 

Matrix LED headlights, typically found in some new cars, are costly to fix due to the complex repair process.

Let’s say you accidentally bumped into someone at the lights or forgot to put your car in park and got up close and personal with a brick wall. It happens.

But now you’ve got a cracked headlight, and your insurance company is probably going to give you a stern talking to. 

As we mentioned, in the dark old days, you’d hit the wrecker for a new headlight housing, throw in a new globe and be on your way for a couple of hundred bucks.

But with great technology comes great price tags, or whatever Spiderman says, and your fancy matrix headlight is most likely going to set you back an amount that has three zeroes on the end, and the first figure isn’t a one or two.

Repair can be in the thousands, which is enough to ruin anyone’s day. Repair is also generally not an option, at least by the home mechanic. The lights almost always require coding, alignment and fitting with specialised dealer-only hardware.

Modern matrix LED headlights generally utilise numerous electrical components, such as cameras and sensors, that can add thousands to the repair bill. Picture: iStock

If you’re replacing your halogen headlights with an LED aftermarket alternative, there are a couple of things you need to do and check. The first is to make sure they’re E-stamped and road-legal for your vehicle.

This usually means that if a model variant of your car came with LED headlights, then it should be sweet. If your car never came with LED headlights, it may require engineering or some sort of roadworthy inspection depending on your home state’s rules. 

Once fitted, you must also make sure to adjust them so as not to give any oncoming motorists inadvertent cataract surgery. This is probably the most ignored part of fitting aftermarket lighting, and don’t be surprised if it leads to a fine and potentially even a defect notice.

The rule of thumb is that the light must not reach more than 500mm high on a wall on a low beam with your car parked 25 metres away.

But check with your installer and specific state regulations before doing anything. Don’t be that person with the blinding lights; everybody hates that guy.

Depending on the car, aftermarket LED headlights can be retrofitted, but may require specific requirements and adherence to local laws.

A matrix is a mathematical array of numbers arranged in rows and columns in a rectangular or square shape. That is why they call them matrix LEDs: the individual LEDs are arranged in a grid. That, and it sounds cool and Keanu Reevesy.

First introduced with the 2013 Audi A8, the matrix LED array doesn’t emit light in front of the car as a single ‘beam’ but rather as a series of horizontal and vertical strips.

This allows the control model to create square ‘shadows’ within the overall area covered by the lights. The headlights are connected to a forward-facing camera that monitors the road ahead for oncoming obstructions, traffic, or even people and adjusts the lights accordingly.

So, if you’re driving along, usually above a predetermined speed, the lights will automatically adjust to high beam. Then, when the camera senses another oncoming vehicle, it dips the headlights in the areas of light coverage where the other vehicle is.

Your high beam is on your side of the road, far left. Once the other vehicle has passed, full light coverage is re-established.

Newer models of matrix headlights can even flash a pedestrian who may be stepping into the path of your vehicle, or in the area where a vehicle you’re following is driving.

Essentially, they allow an infinitely variable high beam that delivers maximum light everywhere, yet can dim it down in areas where it may be inconvenient for other road users. 

Matrix LED headlights can automatically adjust their brightness depending on road conditions.

Laser headlights were a bit of a flash in the pan for European car manufacturers a few years ago, and were effectively hamstrung by US lighting laws that limited headlights to 150,000 candela, whereas European laws allowed up to 430,000 candela of headlight power.

Long story short, it more or less killed the tech, and BMW has since discontinued its research into laser lighting. 

However, if your car has them, they function in much the same way as matrix headlights do, except they include a feature that allows long-distance light penetration previously only available with aftermarket high-powered spotlights. 

Inside the headlight are blue laser beam emitters that are bounced off a series of mirrors, then passed through a yellow phosphorus element.

This produces a light that’s roughly equivalent to staring directly at the sun, so a diffuser is used before it’s pumped down the road for a roadkill-grilling 600 metres. 

Again, this technology, while fantastic, was seen as a bridge too far by the American market and more or less was dead in the water once they’d drawn a line through it.

Can’t fault it for its effectiveness, though, and it’d make driving the Mitchell Highway between Dubbo and Bourke a hell of a lot easier at night. Oh well. 

In the past 15 years as an automotive journo and 35-plus years of inveterate car-guy antics, Dex has worked across numerous titles and has even occupied the occasional editor’s chair when nobody was watching. He spends his downtime doing engine swaps (plural) on the nature strip out front and also once ripped a handbrake spin into a perfect car park. His parents remain indifferent.

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