Headlight Adjustment

[flying_violin]

I tried to aim my lights, but ran into a snag... I ended up getting a set of the euro smiley headlights, as they supposedly have much better light output, look cool, etc... Ordered them from Germany (used, of course!) and this is what they look like:


(For the other unit, hold your monitor up to a mirror.)

Fantastic! I looked up some installation write-ups, and went out to improve the old daily driver. Installation was a breeze, and I thought the car looked rather sharp with the new lights. Then I waited for darkness to fall, and went for a drive. After hitting nearly every pothole within several miles, I came to the conclusion that the lowbeams were aimed much too low, although the highs seemed to be pretty good.

The following day, I went out to the local hardware store and picked up a couple packs of washers, and stacked approximately four or five washers under the lower two mounting screws of each unit. That allowed me to at least see the potholes with enough time to brace for the impact when driving in the dark, but they were still aimed too low. The high beams were now very high beams, and were lighting up street signs a mile away! Fortunately the pattern is large enough that the bottom of the beam lit up the road in an acceptable manner.

Several weeks later, when I grew tired of betting my oil pan, control arms, and whatever other suspension components against the diligence of the road construction crews, I removed the euro units and re-installed the US spec units. I really like the euro units, so I got all the adjusters working on them, except for the vertical low beam adjustments, shown in the bottom of this picture:



I know that these were supposed to hook up to the interior adjuster knob, but is there a way to get them to raise the beam a little without having to hook up hydraulic lines to them?

[AndrewK]

Best thing would have been to aim the old lights at a wall, mark the beam centers, then install the new lights and aim to the old locations. Since it's a bit too late for that try the procedure in the Bentley E30 manual. If you don't have it (and why not? :rolleyes: best manual ever) here's what I've done in the past.

Fill up the gas tank. Find a flat surface with a wall. Put the nose of the car against the wall and mark the centers of the low beam lights with a big +. Move the car back 25ft from the wall. Put weight of a person in the back seat and weight of person in driver's seat. Using the adjusting screws, aim the most intense light of the low beam just right of the + and just below the centerline. Don't go too high or you'll blind oncoming traffic. For the high beams I aimed mine straight ahead.

[bmwm3owner]

It kinda was what I was looking for. I found a procedure for the E34 BMW. This one required that the car be 25 feet from a wall. I need to make sure that they are pointing in the proper direction.
Any other idea?

[Mdriver]

There should be adjusting screws located around the headlight. Install the headlights and twist/adjust the screws. Do this at night with your car parked 5 feet away from a wall so you can monitor the level.

I hope that was what you were asking?

- gabor

[bmwm3owner]

I recently purchased some Hella Smoked Smileys and I now need to adjust them because, well, they are pointing all over place. Does anyone know where I can find information pertaining to this? I did search s14.net but came up empty handed. Thanks in advance

Sash K