DIY: Headlight Adjustment/Alignment

[Hollywood D]

Recently my left side headlight went out of alignment and was pointing too high and blinding oncoming traffic. I don't know how it happened but it did. Here's how you can do it yourself in about 5 mins. I have also seen complaints that the headlights aim too low from the factory and visibility at night is poor.

Pop the hood. The adjustment screw is right behind the headlight module. It looks like this:



I used a flat head screw driver to adjust it. You could also probably use a philips head. Turn it CW to adjust it down and CCW to adjust it up. One full turn is a good sized adjustment so experiment carefully with it.

To check if your headlights are adjusted correctly you can park 25 feet from a wall on a level surface. Measure the distance from the ground to the top of your lights. The cutoff line where they hit on the wall should be no higher than the measurement of your lights. Meaning, if your headlights are two feet off the ground, they shouldnt be shining any higher than 2 feet on the wall. And even if they are that high they will probably be blinding oncoming traffic (they should have a slight downward angle to them).

And if you have an E92 it looks slightly different under there but I don't have any pics of that.

[mryakan]

Do you have HIDs?

[shazzy04]

Can't see the picture, not sure if its just me

[Tony P]

I have lazy headlight. Thanks for the info!

[mniemiec]

Do yours adjust automatically? Are you saying that even after they adjust automatically one was off?

Mine seem to level by themselves, not sure how, as sometimes I am parked at an incline so I am not sure how they know they are level. hmm...

[mryakan]

Do yours adjust automatically? Are you saying that even after they adjust automatically one was off?

Mine seem to level by themselves, not sure how, as sometimes I am parked at an incline so I am not sure how they know they are level. hmm...

That is the reason I asked if had HIDs. The HIDs all come with the auto-leveling mechanism to avoid blinding oncoming traffic if you go over bumps, etc.

[Kernel Kurtz]

I believe the screws still adjust the baseline height for the auto levelling

[Hollywood D]

I believe the screws still adjust the baseline height for the auto levelling

Correct. I have xenons. I know that the regular headlights (halogen) are adjustable also. Not sure if it works the same though. Even with auto leveling they can still be out of whack.

(I fixed the pic, it should work now).

[mryakan]

Correct. I have xenons. I know that the regular headlights (halogen) are adjustable also. Not sure if it works the same though. Even with auto leveling they can still be out of whack.

(I fixed the pic, it should work now).

Cool, thanks for clarifying. Remind me to move this to the DIY section once it has stewed.