NCT Headlight Aim

TV4Ever

Hi,

Can headlight aim fail the NCT for being too low? Mine has failed for being too high. I've adjusted downwards making but have made extra sure that it is not too high by adjusting it quite low. Can you go too far and still fail for being too low?

Any advice appreciated.

CiniO

TV4Ever wrote: »

Hi,

Can headlight aim fail the NCT for being too low? Mine has failed for being too high. I've adjusted downwards making but have made extra sure that it is not too high by adjusting it quite low. Can you go too far and still fail for being too low?

Any advice appreciated.

Yes you can fail for this.

It has to be within certain set limits, which are described in NCT manual (available for download from NCTS website).

LFCGavin

My lights are very slightly out, when lined up at wall they out by mm. Do they have to be bang on ?

CiniO

LFCGavin wrote: »

My lights are very slightly out, when lined up at wall they out by mm. Do they have to be bang on ?

What do you mean they are out by mm (millimetre???)

How far against the wall you are?

visual

Most places charge 25 euro
Takes all the guess work out of it

LFCGavin

Hi ciniO, about four foot from wall, there is about 3/4 millimetre diff between them.

CiniO

LFCGavin wrote: »

Hi ciniO, about four foot from wall, there is about 3/4 millimetre diff between them.

Less than a millimetre in that case is nothing.
4 foot is about 1.2 metre.


NCT allows light to be adjusted at anything between 0.5% and 2%.
In general that means that once you are 1.2 metres off the wall, they can differ by 1.8cm (which is 18mm).

Anyway - to make sure they are properly adjusted make sure they are within those limits (0.5% to 2%).
In general, you must find exactly flat surface with exactly vertical wall with 90deg angle between them. Measure at what height are the light directly by the car (by driving as close to the wall as possible). Say it's going to be 70cm from the ground.
Then drive 10 metres off the wall and compare how high on the wall you can see the lights. They should be between 5 to 20 cm (centimetres) lower than when directly by the wall. So in this example they should be at the height of between 50 and 65cm above the ground. Ideally for NCT purposes would be to have them in the middle (around 57.5cm above the ground) as then there is the smallest chance they will be off at NCT.

Obviously for all this to make sense, you must have exactly straight surface with straight wall.
If you can't find 10metre long stretch of find surface in front of the wall, you can obviously use less than that (you must recalculate), but the closer to the wall you will be, the less precise your adjustment will be.


So in short - answering your question - 3/4mm difference between left and right when 4 feet off the wall is nothing, but this doesn't mean lights are properly adjusted, as they both might be off the limit.

kenyard

to be honest im glad people are failing on this. nothing pisses me off more than people whos dims are almost the same as their full beams.

EDIT: i have no idea how to help here, just was hoping there wud be input from a few people failing on this

miller50841

Go to a local garage or tyre garage and usually charge you €10 and it's done right.

LFCGavin

Thanks Guys, Headlight alignment was ok for NCT, unfortunately my galaxy failed as the reverse lights are not working ;-( I changed the bulbs and still nothing.

miller50841

LFCGavin wrote: »

Thanks Guys, Headlight alignment was ok for NCT, unfortunately my galaxy failed as the reverse lights are not working ;-( I changed the bulbs and still nothing.

Faulty switch at the gearbox/ gear stick.