Headlight adjustment (again)
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Joined: Jan 2007
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Headlight adjustment (again)
Hey everyone,
Backstory: I recently swapped my AP2 OEM headlights for a modded OEM set courtesy of Euroboutique (aka S4play). Recently I finally had an opportunity to drive at night and I noticed that the headlights "didn't work" the same. (They were misaligned) Doing some research, I found various threads on headlight adjustment and was able to adjust one side only so that there is that sharp cutoff that we all love about the s2k headlight. (I did the adjustment so that the right is slightly higher than the left.)
The issue that I do have is that the left side will not adjust any lower. When trying to adjust it, it does adjust higher but won't go lower after so many turns on the adjustment gear. Right now when I do drive at night, I do notice that the headlight cutoff is slightly above the trunks of cars in front of me and I've also noticed that signs are illuminated from a pretty good distance (which is a good thing on a dark road). Although I haven't been "high beamed", yelled at or even flipped off, I would like to be able to lower the headlight at least another 1/4 inch or so. I've done some research here on the forums and online and couldn't find anything about the headlight not being able to be adjusted any lower. Does anyone have any insight?
Thanks in advanced.
Backstory: I recently swapped my AP2 OEM headlights for a modded OEM set courtesy of Euroboutique (aka S4play). Recently I finally had an opportunity to drive at night and I noticed that the headlights "didn't work" the same. (They were misaligned) Doing some research, I found various threads on headlight adjustment and was able to adjust one side only so that there is that sharp cutoff that we all love about the s2k headlight. (I did the adjustment so that the right is slightly higher than the left.)
The issue that I do have is that the left side will not adjust any lower. When trying to adjust it, it does adjust higher but won't go lower after so many turns on the adjustment gear. Right now when I do drive at night, I do notice that the headlight cutoff is slightly above the trunks of cars in front of me and I've also noticed that signs are illuminated from a pretty good distance (which is a good thing on a dark road). Although I haven't been "high beamed", yelled at or even flipped off, I would like to be able to lower the headlight at least another 1/4 inch or so. I've done some research here on the forums and online and couldn't find anything about the headlight not being able to be adjusted any lower. Does anyone have any insight?
Thanks in advanced.
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 9,744
Likes: 31
From: Nevada
the best advice i can give you with this is to go to a building at night, one that you can see the beam on well enough, so a flat wall is good, not that weird metal type of wall with ridges all over it like found on industrial buildings.
Break out the tape measure and measure 25ft out from the wall and park your car at that point(i am sure you read this already), but you should see that your light should/and does not need to be lowered any more than it is, it should be raised,...unless this modded set you have messed with the internals and its not the same anymore.
Set the left side/driver side to the D.O.T standard of 2" below the center of your headlights height(measuring the lowest part of the beam,..because each beam has a small step) . For example, if you measure from the ground to the center point, and it's 25", the drop of the beam should be 2" at that point of 25ft from the wall. So the top of the drivers beam should be 23". AND in order to do this right, you need to cover the passenger side light up with a jacket or something so you can see the beam on the wall. Mark the wall with a pencil or piece of tape so you can go back to the car and in your case RAISE the beam as I am sure it is way to low right now.
Lots of this is probably just something you already read but you should not be all the way out of adjustment to the low or the high end if its done right...even if lowered 4 inches as the light beam doesnt change enough unless you raised your rear of the car a foot into the air and left the front sitting on the ground lol
And from there, once you get the left side done, you can raise/lower the passenger side to be 2" higher than the drivers side so it hits the road signs like intended. This is what will give you the nice "step" in the cut off people talk about. When they are misaligned you wont be able to see it. Hope that helps some.
Break out the tape measure and measure 25ft out from the wall and park your car at that point(i am sure you read this already), but you should see that your light should/and does not need to be lowered any more than it is, it should be raised,...unless this modded set you have messed with the internals and its not the same anymore.
Set the left side/driver side to the D.O.T standard of 2" below the center of your headlights height(measuring the lowest part of the beam,..because each beam has a small step) . For example, if you measure from the ground to the center point, and it's 25", the drop of the beam should be 2" at that point of 25ft from the wall. So the top of the drivers beam should be 23". AND in order to do this right, you need to cover the passenger side light up with a jacket or something so you can see the beam on the wall. Mark the wall with a pencil or piece of tape so you can go back to the car and in your case RAISE the beam as I am sure it is way to low right now.
Lots of this is probably just something you already read but you should not be all the way out of adjustment to the low or the high end if its done right...even if lowered 4 inches as the light beam doesnt change enough unless you raised your rear of the car a foot into the air and left the front sitting on the ground lol
And from there, once you get the left side done, you can raise/lower the passenger side to be 2" higher than the drivers side so it hits the road signs like intended. This is what will give you the nice "step" in the cut off people talk about. When they are misaligned you wont be able to see it. Hope that helps some.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 63
Likes: 0
the best advice i can give you with this is to go to a building at night, one that you can see the beam on well enough, so a flat wall is good, not that weird metal type of wall with ridges all over it like found on industrial buildings.
Break out the tape measure and measure 25ft out from the wall and park your car at that point(i am sure you read this already), but you should see that your light should/and does not need to be lowered any more than it is, it should be raised,...unless this modded set you have messed with the internals and its not the same anymore.
Set the left side/driver side to the D.O.T standard of 2" below the center of your headlights height(measuring the lowest part of the beam,..because each beam has a small step) . For example, if you measure from the ground to the center point, and it's 25", the drop of the beam should be 2" at that point of 25ft from the wall. So the top of the drivers beam should be 23". AND in order to do this right, you need to cover the passenger side light up with a jacket or something so you can see the beam on the wall. Mark the wall with a pencil or piece of tape so you can go back to the car and in your case RAISE the beam as I am sure it is way to low right now.
Lots of this is probably just something you already read but you should not be all the way out of adjustment to the low or the high end if its done right...even if lowered 4 inches as the light beam doesnt change enough unless you raised your rear of the car a foot into the air and left the front sitting on the ground lol
And from there, once you get the left side done, you can raise/lower the passenger side to be 2" higher than the drivers side so it hits the road signs like intended. This is what will give you the nice "step" in the cut off people talk about. When they are misaligned you wont be able to see it. Hope that helps some.
Break out the tape measure and measure 25ft out from the wall and park your car at that point(i am sure you read this already), but you should see that your light should/and does not need to be lowered any more than it is, it should be raised,...unless this modded set you have messed with the internals and its not the same anymore.
Set the left side/driver side to the D.O.T standard of 2" below the center of your headlights height(measuring the lowest part of the beam,..because each beam has a small step) . For example, if you measure from the ground to the center point, and it's 25", the drop of the beam should be 2" at that point of 25ft from the wall. So the top of the drivers beam should be 23". AND in order to do this right, you need to cover the passenger side light up with a jacket or something so you can see the beam on the wall. Mark the wall with a pencil or piece of tape so you can go back to the car and in your case RAISE the beam as I am sure it is way to low right now.
Lots of this is probably just something you already read but you should not be all the way out of adjustment to the low or the high end if its done right...even if lowered 4 inches as the light beam doesnt change enough unless you raised your rear of the car a foot into the air and left the front sitting on the ground lol
And from there, once you get the left side done, you can raise/lower the passenger side to be 2" higher than the drivers side so it hits the road signs like intended. This is what will give you the nice "step" in the cut off people talk about. When they are misaligned you wont be able to see it. Hope that helps some.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 63
Likes: 0
After getting high beamed by another driver and getting pulled over (and got away with a warning for the headlights being too high), I decided to go back to S4play about looking into the issue. As it turned out, there's a clip that was missing the adjustment screw binds to for raising and lowering the projector. Somehow it popped out. This required re-opening the housing and reattaching that clip so that proper adjustment can be made. Kudos to S4play for helping out with this!
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