Headlight Adjustment
 

Hi everyone,

I just finished installing my Dapper Lighting HID Projectors on my FC. I'm trying to raise the angle of the light being projected. I looked at the FSM and it's pretty damn vague to be honest. Does tightening the screw at the bottom lower the angle? Does tightening the screw on the side narrow the projection of the light. I tried playing with the screws while the lights were projecting and I didn't seem to notice a difference at how the light was being dispersed. I would love someone's input, thanks.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...48eca1c9ab.png

Tightening the bottom screw will move the beam light beam's cutoff line downward, similarly tightening the inboard screw will move the beam's focus towards the car's center line. I recently went through this drill after retrofitting Morimoto Mini H1's into a set of Pilot sealed beam halogen conversion housings.

BTW, before even attempting to adjust those screws, it helps to let them marinate in PB Blaster or similar lube for a while to break the rust bond loose - they might strip otherwise. Also helps to start your adjustment by loosening the screws a few full turns first and then tightening them back the same exact # of turns before making your adjustments. Again, this just helps to ensure the adjustment can be made successfully and avoids typical problems with rusty 30 year old fine pitch machine screws stripping or jamming up.

I'm already looking into replacing those screws since the head started to strip after the random adjustments I made. Would you say it would also be ideal to adjust the headlight hinge to make sure the headlight rises to the highest possible position?
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...76d67d377c.png

Nope, you shouldn't need to mess with headlight hinge or stopper on the pop up mechanisms. When I did mine, very little adjustment of the headlights was necessary, but part of that is due to me being super anal about aligning my projectors in the new sealed beam conversion housings so the focal point of the new assembly would match closely with the standard sealed beam in all 3 dimensions.

Sounds good. Right now I want the passenger side to be aligned with the drivers side. I also want to lights to point up as much as possible.

This video came in handy in helping me properly aim my HID projectors. It's not specific to any particular car or HID projector product, but the aiming criteria is spot on - results in a beam pattern that gets the most light down the road, while not blinding other drivers.

Thanks for the tips. Through trial and error I got it somewhat manageable. At first I was blinding helicopters now I'm not blinding anyone at all. I will say the OCD in me wishes it was a straight beam pattern from 25ft away but it's as straight as it will get.

I was curious as to why you had problems aiming them, so I re-read your 1st post to find out what projectors you're using - are they these guys?

https://www.dapperlighting.com/colle...-projector-kit

If that's the case, my best guess is the optical quality & focus of these projectors isn't quite up to the same level as what you would get from a Morimoto or even ACME projector that is specifically designed to use HID bulbs and HID bulbs only. The reason is this Dapper projector kit can be ordered with either standard halogen or HID bulbs. Physically, a projector needs to be designed with a single optical focal point (i.e., point on the bulb where most of its light radiates from). HID & halogen bulbs have physically different focal points, so it's basically impossible to build a projector housing that will be optically correct for both types of bulbs. So the design is an optical compromise, but since they packaged it all in a standard sealed beam housing, it saved you the time I had to spend modifying a set of generic Pilot housings to accept the Morimoto mini H1 projectors.

The reason they were aimed so high was more user error. I had the car 5ft away from a wall and pointing the headlights too far up. User error to say the least. I went back to read the aiming directions and now I have no complaints.