This may have been asked before....but...

[Jestercat]

Hello all...

We've had our 2010 Corolla CE for about 3 weeks now and love it, but have noticed a small problem with the headlight aim...

When driving at night, it appears the headlights are really aimed low. We have several short and steep hills near our home and when you are on the downside of a hill you lose almost all the lighting forward as the car is pointing downhill. In other words, we can't see the road ahead, particularly the up slope of the next hill. A real problem with the amount of wildlife on the roads, not to mention pedestrians, etc.

Things are fine on highbeam, in fact they are the best we've ever had. My friend said once "you could flash fry a cow with those!"

It seems to me that the lowbeam has a definate line at the top of the projected beam and anything above that line of sight remains dark.

Can this be adjusted or changed somehow?

[ChancreScolex]

If you just bought the car, the headlights should still be aimed correctly, but here's how you can check it.

Find a big (flat and level) parking lot where you can park very close to a wall of a building. This would probably work best when the business is closed at night. Or you could do this in your driveway if it's level and about 25 feet long.

Pull your car up to the wall and mark the bright spots from your headlights with tape. The left headlight will be aimed lower as a courtesy to oncoming traffic, but I just leveled both of mine out.

Pull you car back about 25 feet and then aim the headlights using the marks on the wall. There are adjustment screws on each of the headlights. Just use a philips head screwdriver to turn the screw and it will adjust the headlight up or down depending on which way you turn. You can also do your fog lights this way, but it's a little harder. You may need to shorten the distance you aim your lights from.

A method that's a little more accurate is to measure from the ground to the center of the headlight and then mark that exact measurement with tape on the wall and aim your headlights the same way.

[sinnaever]

^^^^^^^^

+1

[ChancreScolex]

Now that I think about it, the headlight aiming may be an M10 bolt. Not positive. The fogs definitely use a philips though.

[Jestercat]

Thanks for the reply....

Does anyone know if the dealer would make this adjustment under warranty? I assume they would, considering it isn't "right" and the car is only 3 weeks old.

[FlawedLegacy]

Yeah they should cover that, but it would be MUCH quicker and prob easier to do it yourself, rather than dealing with dealership

[ChancreScolex]

Definitely much faster and less stressful for you to do it yourself. Chances are your dealership will tell you the headlights are aimed just as they should be. They always aim the left headlight lower and I hate it. This will save you time in the future as well. Whenever you change headlights, you should always check your aiming because the smallest variation between an old and a new bulb can skew the aim a considerable amount.