Friend of mine got 2011 Outlander GT, bought on this auction: http://www.cargoloop.com/guestview.aspx?lot=BU007610
To his surprise, high beam was not working - HID lamp glows, but no switch between high/low beam - the lamp screen inside the headlight is always in restricting position, like this:


Besides, no solenoid click is heard while switching from low to high and back.

Is there any way of having high beam factory-disabled due to some US regulations?

Or it is an electric problem?

 

Wow, 50 views and not a single idea?

So that guy is the only one experiencing HID high beam issue?

 

i havent tried mine more than twice. maybe the high beam fuse, which should power the switch. do the outlanders have headlight levelers like the sport? maybe, just an idea, cant switch if the low beams are on the high setting? but i would start with the fuse.

 

Problem is solved.
The high beam relay was missing for unknown reason. Once relay is back, everything's fine now.

 

My new 2011 Outlander XLS has a worse problem. The Xenon headlight is uneven (left side and lower than right side). If I shine the light on the wall (10 ft away), it will show about 1 feet difference between sides and a big slope in the middle. I can see my light basically is about 45 degree on the car in front of me while I am driving. The light on the ground shows enhanced effect because the image will be enlarged. Dealership and the district manager said that is normal. However, I have seen hundreds of cars and this is the first car which shows that. They did show me another 2012 GT with the same pattern but the 2013 model has a flat pattern. I wonder if there is anyone out there has the same issue with the the same headlight? I doubt the car is designed like this originally. Something could happen to the car.

 

That's by design and unfortunately a common misconception. My '12 HID headlights look the same. If you're worried about it, you have two options. One, take it to a shop that can aim them properly with an optical beamsetter (your dealer is a good place to start). Or two, do it yourself by following this guide: Daniel Stern's Lighting Consultancy: Headlight Aiming.

 

That is normal and required by law. It is properly aligned as per US DOT regulations:
Purpose of HID Cutoff Line Pattern onex-hid-cutoff-line-step-dot-ece-pattern

It's made so you don't blind oncoming drivers on dark highways.

 

+1, here is mine from a bit bigger distance:

 

I should have added; don't just adjust them arbitrarily. If you're going to do it yourself, you MUST adjust them following Daniel Stern's guide. If you just wing it, you could accidentally aim them higher then safe (legal) height, causing immense glare to other drivers, which could cause an accident.

 

Thanks for the information. If this is the regulation, I wonder why 2013 outlander has a flat line pattern. Otherwise, the information above explains it very well.