Headlight aimed too low - told it's fine

cantdecide

My mum got a new car - a 2007 Passat with factory projector headlights. My dad reported that the headlights were too low and asked me to take care of it. I took it to a local garage and he used the machine and quickly reported they were fine and didn't need an adjustment and he didn't charge me.

I was wondering what my dad was talking about so after dark last night I took the car out and sure enough, you can see nothing with the lights they way the are (adjusted up fully). When you break heavily, it's like the lights go out. I stopped the car on level ground and the beams are striking the ground about 25 ft in front of the car. My understanding of the adjustment is that at 25 ft, the beam should be just slightly lower than the headlight height on the car?

I can't understand how a professional with professional equipment could report that the adjustment was fine unless I'm misunderstanding some part of this. Surely the beam striking the ground 25ft in front of the car can't be right? In the past, I've seen cars with beams ludicrously low will pass an NCT (ie as long as it's not too high) but surely beams being just below-level is what you need??

biko

When you say adjusted up fully, what setting did you use?
What does it say on the headlight beam level adjuster? 0, 1, 2, 3?

cantdecide

Set to " - " which is the equivalent of 0 in the Passat but I also double checked that they were adjusted up as high as they would go.

CiniO

NCT specifications allow for light the be between 0.5% and 2% setting.

What it means, that f.e at 1% setting, light beam goes by by 1cm for each metre. That means if light unit is at 60cm above ground level, then they should beam for 60 metres ahead.

At 2% that would be 30 metres ahead.
And at 0.5% setting that would be 120 metres ahead.

So range allowed by NCT is actually huge.


If you're saying that your lights beam 25ft which is about 7.5 metres, that's way to low.

cantdecide

Okay. Thank you.

So if I were adjusting them manually, the lights are at 65cm high and if I were aiming for a 5% fall, am I right in saying that if reverse 10m back from a wall on dead flat ground (I have access to a warehouse at night), I should expect to the the beam at 61.75cm?

Regarding the left and right adjustment, are the beams meant to stay dead straight or are they supposed to point slightly left, maybe?

CiniO

cantdecide wrote: »

Okay. Thank you.

So if I were adjusting them manually, the lights are at 65cm high and if I were aiming for a 5% fall, am I right in saying that if reverse 10m back from a wall on dead flat ground (I have access to a warehouse at night), I should expect to the the beam at 61.75cm?

No.
5% would mean 5cm down per each 100cm (1metre).
That would mean if you reverse 10 metres from the wall, your beam would go down 50cm, so it would be at 15cm above the ground.

However it's pointless, as you don't want your light adjusted at 5%.

NCT requires them to be between 0.5% and 2%. Car manufacture normally specifies exact value, very often being 1% or 1.3% or something similar. Often it's printed on your light. If not you can probably google it for your specific car.

Anyway, assuming you'd want your lights to be at 1%, then it's 1cm down pear each metre.
So if you reverse 10 metres from the well, your beam should go down from inital 65cm to 55cm. So you should see it at 55cm above the ground on the wall.

Remember though for those measurements to be precise, it really has to be ideally flat surface.

Regarding the left and right adjustment, are the beams meant to stay dead straight or are they supposed to point slightly left, maybe?

They are supposed to be between 0% and 2% towards left.
You have to assume centre point is where the cut-off for angled sureface on the left it.

All explained on page 49 of NCT manual.

cantdecide

Jaysus the maths is bad with me sometimes. I have no idea how the garage were happy with the beams. I'm going to take the car to that warehouse and do it the old fashioned way and report back my findings. This needs to be sorted as my mother has lost much of her sight in one eye and needs this right.

Cheers.

the_syco

cantdecide wrote: »

This needs to be sorted as my mother has lost much of her sight in one eye and needs this right.

What? Would she be able to see pedestrians on the road at night?

Perhaps check if you can have her cataract of her left eye replaced?

cantdecide

the_syco wrote: »

What? Would she be able to see pedestrians on the road at night?

Perhaps check if you can have her cataract of her left eye replaced?

Her situation is under control. She's been signed off for driving and treatment may help improve things. She rarely drives at night and her sight is perfect in the other eye, we just want to make sure everything that can be controlled is.

You'd be stunned with the amount of drivers that have similar sight difficulties.

cantdecide

So I went to the warehouse and took my measurements

- I marked the beams on the wall with masking tape with the car right up to the wall.
- I then reversed straight back ten metres and as I suspected, with the car reversed back, the beams were on the ground and not on the wall at all.
- I marked a spot 10cm lower than the original masking tapes and raised the beams WAY up up until they hit the tapes.

Beams were very slightly left after reversing so I left well enough alone. Job done. I drove home on some back roads and main roads and it looks just right now.

Firstly, thank you one and all and secondly, what does be wrong with these garages- don't they understand that low dipped beams are lethal too??

cantdecide

Just a follow up that the car passed the NCT with no problem and the folks are delighted with the beams.

Now I must set the beams in my own 2006 Passat estate!!!

Pkiernan

Good man for following up!

CoBo55

Well done, I've done a few and everyone thinks I'm a genius!! VW seem to be the biggest offenders with lights on the ground, some are so low you're in danger of driving over the headlamp beam...

DaveyDave

It's a common complaint on the i30. ****e high beam on them too.