Hi to all,

Just wondering is there a handy way to align your headlights?

You'd hear about pieces of boards placed front of the headlights, and mark their position on the boards, then roll the car back 20-30 feet and turn on the headlights and see where they shine on the boards in relation to the marks.

Is this how most diyers do them?

Are there other methods? Like to know if there are.

Thanks for looking.

John.

I do mine against the Mancave wall.
Lights about ten feet away, main beam first (easiest to see the centre of each beam), then mark beam centre with anything (masking tape works for me). Set initially be eye and 'feel', then road test.
Park in same spot and readjust as necessary. I blank one beam with a heavy blanket while I'm adjusting the other.
Bit of trial and error involved, but as I check my vehicles each autumn I've got a good 'feel' for fine tuning the lights.
I also put the dashboard adjuster on the middle setting before I start.

You can gauge how successful you are by the 'flash test'.
Does anyone flash you at night on dipped beam as you are driving towards them?

Sweetsixteen said:

I also put the dashboard adjuster on the middle setting before I start.

Click to expand...

Adjuster should always be at zero when setting the lights.
Each increment drops the lights to compensate for a load in the rear. There should never be a reason to raise the lights, so the zero setting it the start point.

portland_bill said:

Adjuster should always be at zero when setting the lights.

Each increment drops the lights to compensate for a load in the rear. There should never be a reason to raise the lights, so the zero setting it the start point.

Click to expand...

Fair comment.

The reason I do that while going through the adjustment procedure is to give me a baseline when testing. If I find that I need to reset the lights while out test-driving, I can easily get a good idea by using the setting control - either up or down - as I drive. Then I make a final adjustment.

In the remote area I live in, I often use the setting wheel to raise my lights when travelling down lanes. Cars round here get hit by overhanging branches, and raising the lights when you're obviously the only one on the road gives a 'heads up' on such paint-scratching obstacles. With lower branches soon, because of snow, this makes sense to me.

Hi Sweetsixteen,

Thanks for your reply, and the information on which procedure you use when aligning your headlights.

Only today I was discussing this very issue in passing. Apparently, when you bring your car in for the NCT (this test is used in ireland for testing vehicles), the tester, so I've been informed, sets the lights for the highest pitch, which I believe is no.4 on the Panda. I didn't know this was the procedure they used when aligning headlights.

Something to consider when you do it yourself. How true this is, I can't honestly say. As for the testing procedure they use in the uk, again I wouldn't be sure.

John.

Highest point is the zero mark.
Each number increment drops the lights to compensate for a load at the rear.

portland_bill said:

Highest point is the zero mark.
Each number increment drops the lights to compensate for a load at the rear.

Click to expand...

Hi portland bill,

You're dead right .............................I got it the wrong way round.

Thanks for putting and pointing this out.

John.