Headlamp adjustment

[Peter_Bull]

My offside headlamp is out of alignment and is pointing far too high when its on dipped beam. The wife was complaining afte I folled her the other day.

I expect if I took it to the OPC for aligment it would be an arm and a leg so I want have a go and just tweak it down myself.

Can anyone ponit me in the right direction of how I go about adjust the beam.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

It's all in the driver's handbook. What it doesn't tell you though, is that you need a LONG hexagon wrench (allen key) - at least 150mm long - preferably a ball driver.

 

[Peter_Bull]

Thanks Richard.

What I failed to say is they are Liptronic and I have since found out [from the handbook!] that they self adjust.

I will check out to see if they are seated properly since I had them out lasst year for the PEYT run and they may not be correctly seated or the power cable has come off the self leveling mechanism.

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

Litronics are self-levelling, not self-adjusting. Assuming you haven't got a fault with the levelling motor they can be adjusted in exactly the same way as conventional headlights. (At least, mine can).

 

[Tony Daniel]

Peter, I told you years ago that your headlights were set to high so its unlikely to be a fault only adjustment required.

It is worth checking though that none of the arms on the 2 levelling sensers are broken, somebody managed to snap one on mine at its last service.

 

[garyw]

ORIGINAL: Richard Hamilton

Litronics are self-levelling, not self-adjusting. Assuming you haven't got a fault with the levelling motor they can be adjusted in exactly the same way as conventional headlights. (At least, mine can).

Mine were on my 6 and still are on the 7

garyw

 

[Peter_Bull]

ORIGINAL: garyw

Mine were on my 6 and still are on the 7

garyw

Gary - can you explain what you mean? Thanks.

Took the headlamp out and all the connections were OK - but the left to right hand drive lever was set to the left ("I") position! No wonder I was being flashed so often. They were OK up to a few weeks ago so I can only assume that the lever was not fully engaged when I switched it over last year. It must have been the wife driving over rough ground when she borrowed it the other week!! That's my story and I am sticking to it!! [PS - don't tell her I said that!]

 

[Peter_Bull]

ORIGINAL: Richard Hamilton

................LONG hexagon wrench (allen key) - at least 150mm long - preferably a ball driver.

Hi Richard - can you let me know what size the allen key is and I can get one made and extended at work today!
Thank you.

 

[Peter_Bull]

ORIGINAL: Tony Daniel

somebody managed to snap one on mine at its last service.

I wonder how that happened - what were they doing at the back of a headlamp unit doing a service?? Where was it serviced??

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

ORIGINAL: Peter Bull

ORIGINAL: Richard Hamilton

................LONG hexagon wrench (allen key) - at least 150mm long - preferably a ball driver.

Hi Richard - can you let me know what size the allen key is and I can get one made and extended at work today!
Thank you.

It is 5mm. They recommend a ball-ended driver if you have one.

 

[mik_ok]

All HID lights have to be self-levelling ~ ie they adjust downwards automatically to avoid blinding other drivers if the car is more heavily weighted in the back.

This is achieved via simple sensors which trigger moving the lights from the "datum" position by a set amount. This is a non-intelligent system and it relies on correct initial setting of the datum positon.

If the light is pointing towards the sky at datum and you put a rhino on the back seats, the lights would automatically adjust so the beam was still pointing towards the sky. Note: this can damage interior trim.

 

[Tony Daniel]

ORIGINAL: Peter Bull

ORIGINAL: Tony Daniel

somebody managed to snap one on mine at its last service.

I wonder how that happened - what were they doing at the back of a headlamp unit doing a service?? Where was it serviced??

No no no! The leveling sensors are under the wheel arch, with links running to the shock absorbers, I had new shocks and springs fitted and they managed to break one of the links, there only plastic.

 

[garyw]

ORIGINAL: Peter Bull

ORIGINAL: garyw

Mine were on my 6 and still are on the 7

garyw

Gary - can you explain what you mean? Thanks.

Peter, I was referring to self leveling and litronics, they were self leveling on my 996 and are on my 997 - they should still be adjusted for setting as per Richards comments

The "I" switch only flattens the headlamp pattern, it doesn't change the pattern over, so I'd doubt if that was the problem... however never say never []

garyw

 

[minny]

After reading another thread about headlights, i decided to check the alignment on my '99 996 with litronics prior to the MOT. I always thought they seem to illuminate the left of the road too much. I have a headlight beam tester at home. When I checked my lights, they were pointing too low and too much to the nearside equally so must have been set as such from the factory. I adjusted both the lateral and vertical aim (my car has 2 adjusters, upper one is lateral aim and lower one is vertical aim). At the MOT last week they were reading exactly as I had adjusted. Thank god I checked or I would have failed the MOT here in Northern Ireland where its done at the DVLNI station.

 

[geoffpfc]

[8D]I would imagine that putting a Rhino in the back would damage the lining, but who did you manage to do up the seat belt?

 

[RichardLW]

It could also depend on how well house trained the rhino was.

 

[sailor]

You do NOT want to meet a badly-housetrained rhino.

JohnC
993turbo

 

[Peter_Bull]

ORIGINAL: sailor

You do NOT want to meet a badly-housetrained rhino.

JohnC
993turbo

Agree with you there John - had a few of the two legged versions during my time in the RN !!! Nearly drove me to be a tea totaller.

 

[vitesse]

Could be the horn of a dilemma-still there seem to be plenty of people think you can put discharge lamp kits in to replace normal bulbs without the self-levelling mods.