Headlight Adjustment

[PhiAlpha44]

This is goofy. I've got the service manual for my car, it says I stick a phillips head screwdriver in the hole on the side of the headlight housing to adjust the beams vertically. However, after trying 4 or 5 different sizes of phillips head screwdrivers unsucessfully, I just CAN'T GET THE DAMN wheel down in that hole to turn. Is there a special size screw driver you have to use to get it to fit in the teeth of that wheel just right or something?

 

[jh_nsx]

Adjusting the star wheel is not easy- A very large phillips may work. My adjusters on my "92 were all jammed up and I wound up disassembling the unit, lubricating and then I could adjust them. The adjuster is a large star wheel that either a phillips or a large regular screwdriver can engage.

Hope this helps.
jh

 

[PhiAlpha44]

Man, I hope I don't have to disassemble it. I just put HID's on. Does anyone think maybe squirting some type of oil down there will help?

 

[PhiAlpha44]

Hello?

 

[EK]

I just put HID's on.

If your headlights are pointing lower after you installed your HIDs, then try the following:
1. Loosen the 4 bolts on the side of the headlight unit (see step 6 in page 23-189 of the service manual).
2. Pull up the front of the headlight, and push down on the rear.
3. Tighten the 4 bolts.

There is some free play in the bracket, and with the heavy glass in the front of the headlights, the headlights natually pointed down while I reinserted the unit back into the mounting bracket.

I don't think installing HIDs should change the vertical aim of the lights. With HIDs, the ground in front of the car will light up a lot more, so you may think it's aiming too low. If you aim it much higher, you may blind on-coming traffic.

 

[djdrock]

I don't think installing HIDs should change the vertical aim of the lights. With HIDs, the ground in front of the car will light up a lot more, so you may think it's aiming too low. If you aim it much higher, you may blind on-coming traffic.

Possibly, but, these projectors were not designed for an HID bulb. When I installed mine, my beam pattern was fairly close, but as you mentioned, the ground in front of the car is lit up more. Being very particular about my beam pattern, I spent a couple of evenings getting mine as perfect as they can be. The better the beam pattern is disbursed, the less one will notice the almost guaranteed headlight shake. Then, I used some Dynamat to reduce the vibration that was there.

My headlights would not adjust normally. I had to do some squeezing and turning of the adjusting mechanism to get things to adjust.

 

[PhiAlpha44]

so you guys want me to loosen the bracket and try to tilt it back like that. But no suggestions on how to get that stupid adjustment screw to work?
And what is all this headlight shake people talk about? I have NONE.

 

[djdrock]

And what is all this headlight shake people talk about? I have NONE.

That seems odd. Because the headlights are a flip-up design (very subject to vibrations), they will vibrate when hitting bumps and flaws in the road. If your beams are aimed out too far, you might not notice it as much. If they are aimed too low, you will definitely see it. Get 'em aimed just right, and you will not notice it as much. Consider yourself lucky if you do not have any vibration.

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63453 discusses this problem.

 

[PhiAlpha44]

Yeah I really don't have any vibration when they're up. I mean nothing to speak of. If I have any I don't even notice it. God I REALLY need to get these F'ing lights adjusted. I wonder if I should just take it to a dealership and have them do it.

 

[nis350]

Went through the same process after HID installation. They both aimed low and the passenger side was even lower. Not sure if it is the hid bulbs.

Tried adjustment with screw. Not much luck. Tilted the whole assemble and was able to aim the passenger side higher, but still not high enough.

If you remove the plastic headlight cover (4 bolts - 5 min.), you can actually see the adjustment screw. You can then turn it with a screw driver. However, the adjustment is probably very minimal and I couldn't figured out which way to turn to aim it higher.

Please let us know your results.

 

[PhiAlpha44]

Tried adjustment with screw. Not much luck. Tilted the whole assemble and was able to aim the passenger side higher, but still not high enough.

If you remove the plastic headlight cover (4 bolts - 5 min.), you can actually see the adjustment screw. You can then turn it with a screw driver.

My man, I DID that. Removed both covers, saw the adjustment wheels plain as day, used a phillips head... Just can't get them to turn.

 

[djdrock]

My man, I DID that. Removed both covers, saw the adjustment wheels plain as day, used a phillips head... Just can't get them to turn.

For me, I could turn the screws until the car would rust :biggrin: , and no luck on either side. It has been a year, but as I seem to recall, I had to use some pliers to hold down the main screw or something along that line and then turn the adjusting bolt. Only then was I able to do it. The headlight covers have to be off of course.

 

[kkim]

My man, I DID that. Removed both covers, saw the adjustment wheels plain as day, used a phillips head... Just can't get them to turn.

Have you tried spraying the adjusters with some sort of penetrant like PB Blaster to loosen them up?

 

[djdrock]

I would imagine they are already turning, but not grabbing correctly.

 

[Hugh]

This is goofy. I've got the service manual for my car, it says I stick a phillips head screwdriver in the hole on the side of the headlight housing to adjust the beams vertically. However, after trying 4 or 5 different sizes of phillips head screwdrivers unsucessfully, I just CAN'T GET THE DAMN wheel down in that hole to turn. Is there a special size screw driver you have to use to get it to fit in the teeth of that wheel just right or something?

Read my post from 2004 regarding this little problem here.
End of problem.

 

[Hugh]

Possibly, but, these projectors were not designed for an HID bulb.

That's the excuse you hear from vendors that supply crappy asian HID bulbs in their discounted kits.

Light is light, whether it is coming from a candle, a match applied to a fart at the just the right moment, the sun, or a light bulb.

Properly constrcuted HID bulbs such as the ones sold by hid-online.com take into account the the distance of the source of light from the base of the bulb. In other words the bulb's hot spot is as close to possible as the halogen bulb it is replacing. The cheaper asian bulbs don't bother with such "meaningless" trivia and as long as the base fits the bulb socket they're happy. You get what you pay for with HIDs and I only pay for the goodies sold by our friends over at hid-online.

 

[PhiAlpha44]

Have you tried spraying the adjusters with some sort of penetrant like PB Blaster to loosen them up?

I'm going to try this tomorrow. It's that the wheels are NOT TURNING at all. I'm turning the phillips head screwdriver, and those geared wheels aren't turning at all.

 

[PhiAlpha44]

That's the excuse you hear from vendors that supply crappy asian HID bulbs in their discounted kits.

Light is light, whether it is coming from a candle, a match applied to a fart at the just the right moment, the sun, or a light bulb.

Ahh... there's my boy. Good to have you back Hugh.

 

[djdrock]

That's the excuse you hear from vendors that supply crappy asian HID bulbs in their discounted kits.

Absolutely! Crap in = crap out!

 

[jh_nsx]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner- a little crazy around the house and office.
My"92 had the same problem- the star wheel would not move no matter what- even when I removed the light assembly. I wound up removing the entire mechanism, disassembling it, soaking it with rust remover, blaster, etc. then reassembling. It moves now , not very smoothly but it does move. Once I got it reassembled I adjusted the HID's and the pattern is very close to original.
No easy way out for our +15 year old cars!!!
jh

 

[nis350]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner- a little crazy around the house and office.
My"92 had the same problem- the star wheel would not move no matter what- even when I removed the light assembly. I wound up removing the entire mechanism, disassembling it, soaking it with rust remover, blaster, etc. then reassembling. It moves now , not very smoothly but it does move. Once I got it reassembled I adjusted the HID's and the pattern is very close to original.
No easy way out for our +15 year old cars!!!
jh

how much verticle adjustment did you have? was it just a little bit?