Aiming headlights

[pdrover]

On another topic, any guidelines out there about aiming Corolla headlights?
Paul.

[JET_7]

i know this must be in the technical area.. anyways, heres how you do it..

park your car facing the wall, preferably do this at night..
turn on your lights, first at low beam
pop the hood
with a philips screw... look for a protruding screw near the headlights..
turn it counter or clock wise until you find the right angle.

hope this helps.

[hopeful]

WRC styles, wide side of a barn!

but nah its all driver preference I beleive...

my corollas were aimin low, so i was like what the heck, nobody else's like that...

I quickly felt the wrath of the sealed halogen headlight... Not a very dispersive beam pattern.

brought it back to near ahead of the car...why? It looks cool when goin sideways... and it's useless pointing far cos its weak.

Preference.

[pdrover]

I know how to adjust the beams up and down, but how do I know when they are aimed properly? Here a car will fail an inspection if the headlights are misaligned - which I know mine are. A target or measurements are what I'm looking for, that is: "park X feet from a wall, the low beams should be no higher than Y inches and highs should be no more than Z inches". Then I can use the adjustments described to make it so. Do such spec's exist?
Paul.

[Dicipleofthelie]

i am currently having headlight issues with my 86
ive tried all the stuff to get um to look right, but i learned that the best way to properly align headlights is to have a body shop do it. They have tools and stuff for that kinda thing
btw....my lights arnt sealed

[|PuNiSh3R|]

If your headlights aim is a part of inspection, then go to your local garage and ask them what the specs are... It will be in the state inspection book that they will have.. the state will have set specifications and testing conditions.

I would also go to another garage after that and ask them the same question just to be sure.. and if you do the job and a garage fails you for something that seems rediculous.. ask to see what they failed on in the inspection book. If they don't want to show you the state inspection manual.. they are full of shit. Report them to the state police then.

Why do I say this? I got my car inspected MANY times.. all to fail..

I went to this garage that I had do my wheel alignment and I said what the hell.. do my inspection.. everything is setup now.. ain't no way I should fail.. I repaired everything a previous garage failed me on.

After the inspection I find out that they failed me for, 1 missing end bolt on the exhaust header but there was no exhaust leak.
No fluid in windshield res.
and the throttle cable wasn't aligned with the linkage.

I went home.. fixed the issues.. bent the throttle cable bracket over some more.. took it back.. failed me again because of the throttle cable.. motherfuckers..

I took my car to another garage.. what do ya know? THEY PASSED ME!! I was talking to the mechanic for somet ime about Pennsylvania state inspection and he was telling me all this shit and he even showed me the book.. I told him about the garage that failed me on the throttle cable and he told me that no where in the state inspection book does it call for inspection of the throttle cables alignment!
He also told me that say, if you get your car inspected and the fail you because something really stupid... or atleast something that seems stupid or odd to you.. like, hey your seat doesn't adjust.. you fail.. well if you ask the garage to show you that inspection check in the book they have to. If they don't show you.. it's because they are full of shit.. or they just don't want to show you for some dumbass reason. Anyway at that point it's time to call up the state police and report the garage.

[Dicipleofthelie]

i need to get my 90 escort dot inspected. it was a wrecking yard car i got for 150......drives and runs good....i think washington is a little less stringent when it comes to that kind of stuff though

[JET_7]

so i see...

ae92 or 86?

if you have those Square lamps, those lamps a secured together by a series of clamps, screws that you can loosen or tighten, try to dissamble the housing until you find a screw on it..

visit my pbase site..

http://www.pbase.com/jet7/fixing_ae92s

hope this helps.

[hopeful]

Originally posted by JET_7
so i see...

ae92 or 86?

if you have those Square lamps, those lamps a secured together by a series of clamps, screws that you can loosen or tighten, try to dissamble the housing until you find a screw on it..

visit my pbase site..

http://www.pbase.com/jet7/fixing_ae92s

hope this helps.

your doign it again. Read the post carefully. He knows how to do it, he just wants to know at which setting it should be.

[JET_7]

Originally posted by hopeful
your doign it again. Read the post carefully. He knows how to do it, he just wants to know at which setting it should be.

geesh.. sorry hopeful.. but i guess let the poster tell me my mistakes.

[pdrover]

Ditto what Hopeful said. I know the mechanics of adjusting the headlights, I just don't know when they are adjusted correctly.

Ideally, there should be some sort of template that you can fix to a wall, park your car perpendicular to the template at, say, 30 feet, and then adjust the beams until they fall into the template guides. This just makes sense to me.

Paul.

[Dicipleofthelie]

knew a guy........he said something to the effect of

X feet away from a wall , beams Y high

i think X is 25 and Y is 3
but yes....there is a formula

[Chris Corolla S]

Moved to Tech Forum...