Auto-level headlight too low
 

Good evening everyone, I have done some searches on here regarding the autolevel headlights for my 03 4.6is, so I apologize if I have missed it somewhere.

The vehicle is fairly new to me, and I notice when driving at night the headlights are pointing too far down (towards the road, they are not high enough).

When I turn the car on at night, I can see the headlights raise and stop, but they do not raise high enough. Is this a simple adjustment?

Thank you

It sounds like the auto-level function is working...to verify though, find a wall or bright surface and from a stop, punch it. As the front of the vehicle rises, you should see the cutoff dip downwards and opposite under hard braking. If this is the case, you can simply adjust them using the screws on the housings.

If I recall, the inner (closest to radiator) is for vertical adjustment and the outer is for lateral.

I will give it a try, thanks.

Pulled it in front of the garage tonight and made the adjustments. Turned the white plastic screw counterclockwise a couple of turns to both headlights and they raised nicely.

Glad to hear everything worked out!

I'd be careful adjusting the headlight angles, especially if you're adjusting them to point further up. It's a safety issue (potentially blinding oncoming drivers) and the headlight settings are very carefully adjusted. It's possible that they've come out of alignment, but if you're adjusting them, you should be more precise about the angle than just eyeballing it.

Is this your first car with HID lights? If so, you just might not be used to the sharp cutoff in the light pattern. All low-beams are meant to point at the road. Old-style halogen lamps don't have as sharp of a light pattern as HIDs do, so more of the light ends up straying from the main beam and projecting higher than it should. But the stray light from halogens isn't very intense, so if you adjust your HIDs to mimic that pattern, you'll blind everybody coming at you.