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Headlights

Lola's Mom

Seasoned Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
3,472
Location
Southern CA
My XLR/V(s)
2004 Black Raven
Has anyone had any trouble with the adjustment of the headlights? Or used the directions in the manual to adjust them? Any success?

Ever since we had our headlights replaced we seem to have had problems with the beam .... it seems like the beam is short .... like 30 to 40, or so feet.
 
Ruth Ann, I could have written your post verbatim! My headlights were replaced a couple of months back and I had to engage the highbeams to illuminate the lower part of the road to match the way my low beams had before the replacement. Using just the low beams, I was out-driving my lights above 30 mph.

I used the procedure in the owner's manual to lay a line of blue painter's tape on the outside of my garage at the specified height, positioned a big piece of cardboard in front of one light and adjusted the other. After a repeat with the other light, I was done. The blue tape made it even easier to adjust the beam, and is easy to remove. The whole thing took about five minutes, and all was right in my world. Whoever designed the lights did a great job of placing a guide funnel over the adjustment screw to ensure the allen wrench makes sure contact --even in the dark! It was so easy, even a caveman could do it!

CC :wave:
 
Thank you, CC ...
Night driving was getting to be really frustrating. Maybe I'll pass this information on to my tech (:)) ....
 
At my collision repair shop, I have an optical headlight aimer. You could check around in your area and find a shop with one. Cost is probably $25-50, then you know they are correct.
 
Wouldn't you think they would have that at my Caddie service center??? Apparently not. Thanks for that information .... :wave:
 
Wouldn't you think they would have that at my Caddie service center??? Apparently not. Thanks for that information .... :wave:

Headlights don't have to be adjusted when just the bulb is replaced, so because more headights are replaced in the collision repair business, it's easier to justify the $1000 or more cost for the equipment. Hence, it seems to be more of a collision repair tool than a general service center tool.
 
Hey, I resemble that remark.:bash:
Ruth Ann, I could have written your post verbatim! My headlights were replaced a couple of months back and I had to engage the highbeams to illuminate the lower part of the road to match the way my low beams had before the replacement. Using just the low beams, I was out-driving my lights above 30 mph.

I used the procedure in the owner's manual to lay a line of blue painter's tape on the outside of my garage at the specified height, positioned a big piece of cardboard in front of one light and adjusted the other. After a repeat with the other light, I was done. The blue tape made it even easier to adjust the beam, and is easy to remove. The whole thing took about five minutes, and all was right in my world. Whoever designed the lights did a great job of placing a guide funnel over the adjustment screw to ensure the allen wrench makes sure contact --even in the dark! It was so easy, even a caveman could do it!

CC :wave:
 
I (finally) replaced my headlight units last night with the new ones I bought from Bruce. I played with shims to get a nice body alignment with the lights, but now the right beam is a bit low. Guess I'll go back and read how to adjust them.
The new units look fantastic, really cleaned up the front of the car.
Bruce
 
Alignment

We had this same thread going for a while about 2 years ago when everyone was finding their headlights were melting. Even at RIII, we were still finding some with the melted lenses.

Also, the body surface alignment and use of shims were a big discussion due to so many were being replaced. We saw a lot of variation in the installation with some horror stories of surface-to-lense misaligned.

I must have been a Southern "caveman" because I followed the Owner Manual instructions and took care of misalignment too. After having the assemblies replaced (due to melting), you would think they would check alignment, but that was not the case. My right one was 4 feet too high (per the prescribed distance) and the left was one foot too low. After I used a allen wrench to adjust, I got it right on (-6" low). The below specified height was to eliminate the on-coming highbeam flashes I was getting when it was dead-on.

XLR KEN :blinzel:
 

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