Is it possible to lower the Main beam independantly on a 2002 A Class

[Submariner1]

I sucessfully upgraded all the bulbs to Osram Night Breaker Unlimiteds H7 and H4s
Very, ver pleased, with strength of besm and improved whiter look - but whereas the dipped beam headlamp cuts off at the right height. It appears the main beam is a little high. It seems to be illuminating the trees on the side if the road quite high up.

I am positive the bulbs are in properly.
Other than when I pushed them quite firmly to check they were in ... could I have bent the angle up?

Is there a way to independently lower the beam angle of the main beam only?

Regards
Peter

 

[mercedes13156]

You should be able to shim up the top headlamp fixings. On our previous A Classes, you had to lift the headlamps out to change a bulb. I always thought that the beam was a bit high, so I put a bog standard steel washer about 1mm thick under each of the upper fixings to the bodywork. That reduces the angle by a couple of degrees and concentrates the dip beam on the side of the road and gave a better beam pattern and better visibility further along the road. It also had the effect of putting more light on the lower down stuff when using full beam.

 

[Craiglxviii]

You should not be mucking around with headlamp settings. Dangerous and MOT fail if they're not aligned properly. Take the car to a local garage and have them check alignment.

 

[mercedes13156]

You should not be mucking around with headlamp settings. Dangerous and MOT fail if they're not aligned properly. Take the car to a local garage and have them check alignment.

They were aligned properly. Marks were made on the chassis and the headlamp mounts to get them back to the correct settings after I had changed a bulb. They passed the MoT every time. I just lowered the beam a couple of degrees which was about halfway between the top and second top standard settings on the car, each click of which took about 20 yards out of the forward visibility as the beam pattern was lowered.

The top setting was too high and the second setting was too low.

 

[Submariner1]

You should be able to shim up the top headlamp fixings. On our previous A Classes, you had to lift the headlamps out to change a bulb. I always thought that the beam was a bit high, so I put a bog standard steel washer about 1mm thick under each of the upper fixings to the bodywork. That reduces the angle by a couple of degrees and concentrates the dip beam on the side of the road and gave a better beam pattern and better visibility further along the road. It also had the effect of putting more light on the lower down stuff when using full beam.

Thanks, I could only see 2 adjustment screws one lateral and one up and down. Its due an MOT this month, so will push it through that before fiddling.

 

[Submariner1]

You should not be mucking around with headlamp settings. Dangerous and MOT fail if they're not aligned properly. Take the car to a local garage and have them check alignment.

Not a bad idea, maybe ask the MOT garage to check it first.
I am not sure what it should be like as I never drive that car.
Maybe its the same as before but then the bulbs were so weak one might not have known where the light was going. :-/

 

[LostKiwi]

Thanks, I could only see 2 adjustment screws one lateral and one up and down. Its due an MOT this month, so will push it through that before fiddling.

This is generally correct.
For most headlight units the idea is the design is such that when low beam is correct high beam will also be correct hence the separate high beam adjustment is not required. This is certainly true of W210 and W203 headlights.
If you think back to the good old H4 bulbs they were exactly the same - you couldn't adjust one without adjusting the other.

 

[mercedes13156]

This is generally correct.
For most headlight units the idea is the design is such that when low beam is correct high beam will also be correct hence the separate high beam adjustment is not required. This is certainly true of W210 and W203 headlights.
If you think back to the good old H4 bulbs they were exactly the same - you couldn't adjust one without adjusting the other.

The reason I had to shim the light fixings was because the screw adjusters on the lamps had been broken by a previous owner / mechanic trying to get the beams right and adjusting the things past the point of no return so they didn't work anymore.