Headlight Adjustment query

[Veridian]

Hi folks - hopefully a straight forward question, with the earlier nights Ive noticed that on full beam, my nearside main beam is slightly too high and to the left - ie lighting up a bit too much trees and hedge than the road. It's not that bad, but just the sort of thing you wish you could adjust after a few miles

I want to tweak it down a bit, but having checked the manual and WIS its not overly clear which one of the two adjustment screws on top of the headlamp unit you need to adjust. Any ideas what each one does? Is it something like Outer one - up/down and the Inner one side-to-side? or does one do the Dip and the other the Main beam?

Cheers

 

[television]

Does the lamp go up and down with the light adjuster, its vacuum controlled
http://www.detali.ru/cat/oem_mb2.as...623722.632&CT=F&cat=45Q&SID=80&SGR=015&SGN=01

the pipes can come off the lamps

 

[Veridian]

Hi television, Great to have you back ! Yes, the light adjuster works fine, I think its just the Main Beam which is set a tad too high & left. I can live with it, but if I can tweak it a bit with the screws than that will help. Its one of those things you forget about in the summer, and its only when driving back through the countryside the other night that I noticed it and thought I need to try and sort it!

 

[television]

Thank you its easy to do if you have a garage door and have the car about 6-8 ft back, turn the lights on and adjust the lamp so that the beam is the same as the good one, if you do this on main beam the light on the door should be roughly the same height as the lamp bulb on the car and have the adjuster set for max up

 

[Veridian]

No Garage door to hand, but a set of 6ft fence panels opposite my drive will do nicely Ill give it a wiggle tonight and see what I can do! Thanks for the tip - and see you at Amberley
Cheers

 

[wireman]

Dont forget to run the engine while you adjust them or the level adjustment control does not work.

There is one screw for vertical and one for horizontal adjustment, if there are integrated fogs in the unit a third screw for fog vertical is present.

The lamps dipped beams should fall at 1.1%, so park against a wall and mark the point on the wall where the cut off sloping bit goes level with a sticky tape cross, pull the car back 10 metres and the beams should be on target horizontaly (ie still shining forwards) but 110mm (one brick or hand) lower verticaly (ie shining down).

Cover one head lamp while you adjust the other.

This aiming test is valid to E11&MOT standard but does not of course measure illuminous intensity as the little box that thickfit charge £20-35 for does.

Malcolm sorry to hear about the valve caps.

 

[Veridian]

Thanks for that detail Wireman. I personally avoid Thickfit at all costs.. Could tell you a few stories that both myself and my neighbour have had with them.. his resulted in a payoff to keep it out of the papers... 'ALLEDGEDLY'.. a race to see which of the idiots working on each side of the car could change the brakes the quickest...one cheated as the resultant crash showed :evil:

I can do the measuring bit quite easily as there are fence panels across the road from me... instant 10 metres then.. and one 'fence slat' dip .
Luckily I have a VERY freindly MOT garage that I use.. cant remember the last time I paid full price for a MOT.. prob early 90s!!!

Hey Malcolm, a friend of mine across the road had very nice valve caps too.. until the local street urchins helped themselves to them and tried to sell them back to him the cheeky sods.. mind you he's gone and got himself a 730d now instead the traitor

 

[whitenemesis]

The main beam cannot be adjusted seperately. One must adjust the dip correctly and the main folows..

If the dip is fine and the main is definately "high", check the bulb fixture.

I see you have Bi-Hid upgrade, is that OEM or after market? Could this be upsetting the aim?

 

[Veridian]

Hi folks, as its dark Ive been outside with the screwdrivers and got the offending beam where I want it
WhiteNem, My Bi-Hid is an aftermarket - albeit a good one - Philips equip throughout, was over £150 per bulb and ballast! - I checked the bulb seating in the holder and thats fine. Im wondering whether it may have exaggerated an already slightly out of line headlamp, as the offside setup is fine. Strange as it was only the Main that I had a problem with. Oh well, just one of those things I guess!