AO

Can anyone tell me what the spec is for headlight aiming? I had a floppy headlight that I finally fixed and now I need to re-aim the headlights, but am unsure how high/low I should adjust them.

Didn't see anything in the manual, and I seem to recall someone (Bill?) saying how many inches at so many feet, but can;t find it int he archives.

Bill Ball

3" below horizontal center at 25 feet.

This is for H4s, but basically H5 should be aimed with the top of the beam about the same height. It's just ahrder with H5s because the beam is more diffuse.

Tony

about 4 inches and appx 1ft apart....center to center

Bill Ball

I like Tony's illustration better.

AO

Thanks Tony!

Bill yours is okay too. But like you, I prefer Tony's!

Leon Speed

Usually there's a sticker in the engine bay near the lights specifying the angle. From memory 2.3 or 3 degrees.

Bill Ball

2.3 to 3 degrees would seem to be quiet low. 3 inches at 25 feet is about .5 degree. Not seen a sticker on any of my cars.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html

Leon Speed

Hi Bill,

Don't have access to my car right now, but this is a blown up part of a picture I took when I bought my car. A little hard to make out, but it says 1.3 degrees. Looks like the my memory is starting to slip a little

Bill Ball

Ah, I've never noticed one of those. Not on my 89. Perhaps non-US. Anyway, the basic idea is to get the beam slightly below horizontal so it doesn't blind others.

dr bob

For US-lamped cars, the center of the main beam is centered on the axis of the car and level with the center of the headlights. With that, the dipped beam will be correct. On a flat driveway, back away from the door 20 feet and get out the tape measure. Throw a towel over the aux main beams in the bumper, and put a tape mark on the door at the same height as the center of the lamp itself as measured from that flat surface. Put another tape mark at the same height, and at the same horizontal spacing on the door as there is on the lamps. You get to go after the side-to-side alignment relative to car center; with the aimer, a pair of mirrors are used, but that shouldn't be too tough to get right. Anyway, with US lamps, get the middle of the main-beam blob lined up on the marks and you'll be good. Having a driver in during adjustment helps some, as does a typical fule and luggage bay load.

mark kibort

nothing worse than the headlights pointed down.

928Myles

ROW '90 S4 has a sticker showing 1% - ie 1cm drop per metre. Of course, being ROW, it also has the adjustable aiming system :-)

Glenn M

Andrew, how did you fix your floppy headlight, I have one on the right side. Bounces when I drive down the road.

Thanks,

AO

I tried everything. I think the problem is that this car was in an accident before I bought it and it messed up the front end a bit - so no amount of fiddling with the adjustments was ever going to fix it.

The head light bucket really just rests on a paddle that's attached to the shaft that goes across the front of the car.

My problem was that the paddle was not rotating far enough forward such that the bucket was a 1/4" away from the stop at the top. This is what gives it the play and the floppiness.

So I drilled and tapped the paddle (in two spots to even things out) and put in an M5 bolt with some blue locktite and pushed the bucket up to the stop. This basically gave me the extra height I needed to hit the upper stop. Now there's no more slop and does not seem to vibrate when driving.

Sorry, no pics.