Adjusting Headlights... Any tips?

[Frey7190]

Ok so my headlights are everywhere... The left one was too low the right one was too high... So I went to the malls underground parking lot at like 10:30 and drove close to a wall ( about 10 feet away ) and took out my screw driver and played with the adjusters. I used the brights to level out each side evenly, but my low beams (xenon) are not one straight line... There like a upside down Z... They have what look like "steps" in them... I tried lowering the lights with the high beams off to see if I could get them straight but it never works... Any ideas?

Also there are 2 screws to adjust the lights on each lamp... Which one controls what?? When I turn the ones closest to the fenders they do minimal difference then when I move the ones closer to the engine...

[onceover]

they should be EXACTLY as you descibed it, a backwards z. its meant to be like that to prevent blinding oncoming traffic

[diagnosticator]

Okay, this is the deal:

The cut off shield, is stepped from left to right, rising. The DOT and the Ecode cut off profile si different.



The adjustment of the low beam aim is done in the order: First set the vertical elevation, of the lowbeam cut off line, by turning BOTH adjuster screws equally. When the vertical aim is correct, adjust the lateral position of the kick up, by turning the INNER screws only. The high beam is not used to aim the headlights, when the low beam is aimed properly, the highbeams are correct also.



A aiming layout setup on a vertical wall using 1" masking tape, must be according to specification, or else the headlights will be set wrong.
See:http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html

[Frey7190]

gotcha! thanks again diagnosticator, before I went to the mall, I had just dropped them in and they were so uneven.. One driver flashed his brights at me thinking I had my brights on (maybe b/c of the city light) and ppl in front were driving slow cuz they were pissed... Tomorrow night im going to fix them like you said...

Also BTW my headlights dip everytime I turn them on... Does that do anything special to my personal adjustments??

[wolfdog]

I fyou mean you get the dash warning light, odds are the bulb is (going) our or the connection between the bulb and socket isn't solid. when I removed my bulbs, I was surprised to see them a bit browned like they were slightly burned over time.

[kwimberly]

The Daniel Stern article linked above is what I used - worked great. Note - you need to be 25 feet away, not 10.

[diagnosticator]

Also BTW my headlights dip everytime I turn them on... Does that do anything special to my personal adjustments??

By "dipping", you mean they move down then back up again, right? Thats normal, its the auto leveling servo motors re initializing as a functional check. Make sure you follow the correct procedure with vag-com, or the basic setting aim wont be correct, and a warning error will result.

[rxrep]

The adjusters are 6mm hex, so unless you are using a screwdriver that fits that, you may be adjusting the wrong things. Of course, your only other option is torx bits for the headlight housing itself, so I'm gueesing you're doing the right thing.
My ecode and my old DOT US version has the same exact beam pattern. Once, I parked my car next to someone with ecdoes and we shined against a wall. Same thing.
Since I've gotten ecodes, I actually taped the beam pattern on my garage door with the US DOT version, just so I could make sure the ecodes were set right. The beam cut off pattern was identical.

[A4 Moda]

John,

you're telling me that my S4 Bixenon Ecodes are supposed to frog eyed?


pointing away from each other to the side?

I was about ready to lay in front of my car, on a hill, and let go of the E-Brake because of this issue.

[diagnosticator]

No, I did not intend to imply that. The long axis of the low beams, is properly parallel with the opposite side. By adjusting each side to the lines marked on a suitable vertical wall, the results should be parallel, not diverging or converging, at least over the 25 to 30 feet used for the adjustment distance to the projected cut off image.

The diagram I posted should have included the vertical center point of each projector, the distance between the two vertical lines being equal to the measurement of the separation distance of the projector centerlines on the car. The kick up point in the cut off, that rises away from the horizontal, is the center line reference to adjust the lateral aim of each headlight. With this relationship defined for each headlight aim laterally, independent from the other, the geometry of the headlight low beam pattern is a rectangle, not a section of a triangle. Each low beam forming the long sides, and the aiming target the far short side, and the line between the two projectors on the car forming the near short side. There is no angles other than right 90 degree angles between the rectangular test/beam aiming stage lay out forming the rectangular relationship described above. Does this make sense? If not I will try and explain some other way using some other examples.