Headlight Trouble

[chrissoto312]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

this is a good idea to try, only calls for philips screwdriver and attention during adjustment...

worth trying

Sounds good. Where is this located? Does anyone know? I'm at work now. I'll try to post a pic of the insides when I get home.

[TwinsPoppa]

Originally Posted by chrissoto312

Sounds good. Where is this located? Does anyone know? I'm at work now. I'll try to post a pic of the insides when I get home.

See the white knobs at the top of the headlight? I can't remember which one is for horizontal adjustment. Disregard the red arrows.

[Ricky Bobby]

I dont know which is which, but see if you can turn the right headlight to the left more, like Twins said, almost sounds like the right headlight turns to far out of range.

[X5SND]

Im still trying to work this one through, but it sounds to me like you have one of two (maybe both) things going on. Either you have a bad horizontal aim motor or something is jamming/getting caught. The fact that you state there's a jerky motion of the light is a good indication you've got something out of alignment.

Before we go any further, just to be sure, take a look at the pic below. Look closely at the top of the highbeams....see how they're nice and level?
Yours should be (more or less) the same from about 25ft, and as you back up should stay aimed straight ahead.


Look closely at the shroud of the low beam (the chrome piece around the glass eye)....if someone who didn't know what they were doing previously adjusted it, it can cause the projector shroud to jam up against the outer shroud. If it looks like you have decent clearance around the shroud get someone to turn the key on and watch when it moves side to side. If it checks out the next step would be to try your motor. They can be interchanged between sides but I'm not sure if the horizontal and vertical aim motors are the same. You should be able to easily swap them once you remove the housings from the vehicle.

Seeing as you don't have the headlamp washers, removing the housings is a simple task. Just remove the the 4 screws on the housing (theres 2 black ones right up front on the top, and 2 silverish looking ones on "ears/wings" at the lower back of the housing.

More to come as I'm still digesting this thread...

[chrissoto312]

Originally Posted by X5SND

Im still trying to work this one through, but it sounds to me like you have one of two (maybe both) things going on. Either you have a bad horizontal aim motor or something is jamming/getting caught. The fact that you state there's a jerky motion of the light is a good indication you've got something out of alignment.

Before we go any further, just to be sure, take a look at the pic below. Look closely at the top of the highbeams....see how they're nice and level?
Yours should be (more or less) the same from about 25ft, and as you back up should stay aimed straight ahead.


Look closely at the shroud of the low beam (the chrome piece around the glass eye)....if someone who didn't know what they were doing previously adjusted it, it can cause the projector shroud to jam up against the outer shroud. If it looks like you have decent clearance around the shroud get someone to turn the key on and watch when it moves side to side. If it checks out the next step would be to try your motor. They can be interchanged between sides but I'm not sure if the horizontal and vertical aim motors are the same. You should be able to easily swap them once you remove the housings from the vehicle.

Seeing as you don't have the headlamp washers, removing the housings is a simple task. Just remove the the 4 screws on the housing (theres 2 black ones right up front on the top, and 2 silverish looking ones on "ears/wings" at the lower back of the housing.

More to come as I'm still digesting this thread...

Thanks guys!! Will try out all of this helpful info when I get home!

[TwinsPoppa]

Originally Posted by X5SND

... Seeing as you don't have the headlamp washers, removing the housings is a simple task. Just remove the the 4 screws on the housing (theres 2 black ones right up front on the top, and 2 silverish looking ones on "ears/wings" at the lower back of the housing.

More to come as I'm still digesting this thread...

Unless I'm mistaken, he can only move his headlight forward even w/o the washers. He can't completely remove them without loosening/removing the front bumper.

The ballast under the headlight will hit the bumper.

[X5SND]

Seeing as checking alignment is the easiest thing to check here's a bit more info:

Many people misunderstand a projector headlight as having the same aiming requirements as headlights and will (more often than not) aim them incorrectly.

In addition to the picture above, here's what you should see from your low beams when pointed at a wall:



From what I understand, the adaptive feature doesn't work in reverse...so to test the alignment of your lights here's what I'd do:

Drive about 25ft from the wall, and put in park.
Turn X off
Make sure headlamp switch is on Auto.
Start engine - allowing lights to level/center
Select reverse and back STRAIGHT up slowly watching the cutoffs closely.

As per my previous post, this pic shows the areas that you should watch closely for contact. The reflector (the inner one) has a lip that extends about 3/16" behind the stationary piece...so while it's possible to have contact there and not see it......as long as your clearances are Ok on the projector side, it's unlikely.



If this all checks out, from here I'd remove the backing plates on the housings and check everything inside before swapping motors.

[X5SND]

Originally Posted by TwinsPoppa

Unless I'm mistaken, he can only move his headlight forward even w/o the washers. He can't completely remove them without loosening/removing the front bumper.

The ballast under the headlight will hit the bumper.

Doh! Yes you are correct!

...Forgot about that, as my ballasts now reside INSIDE my housings. Oops!

Edit: Excuse my brain fart.....yes the bumper does need to be removed to get the headlamp housings out.

[chrissoto312]

Ok, sun is setting so it's still early to tell, but when I went and just fiddled with the passenger light adjustment (white knob).

First I adjusted it back and forth to get somewhat a good positioning (like I said, sun is setting, still too early to tell)

BUT, when I went and turned the ignition on and put in drive and turned wheels L2R and back again, the green indicator light stayed constant, didn't start blinking indicating the adaptive failure. I'll try again when it gets dark to make sure.

[TerminatorX5]

ooooh!!! are we getting somewhere???