Hood and headlights gap

[CamboKid120]

Hello all! Picked up my dream car yesterday and I am hyped! Been drooling over this car since I was 10 when I thought it was a Ferrari haha. Anyways, just say hi but I also have a question. While the whole car is in MINT and I mean MINT condition... I do notice the gap between the headlights (pop-up) and the hood... I think the headlights might be lower than it should or maybe he hood is higher than it should be. Anyone had this “issue” before and know a fix to make it flush? I couldn’t stop thinking about it and is bothering me a little haha.

P.S. please excuse my grammar.

 

[Old Guy]

Are you talking about vertical displacement between the hood and the headlight cover or the horizontal gap between the panels (most visible when you look straight down at the headlight cover). Its not uncommon to have some vertical displacement between the hood and covers (it can be a uniform displacement or the headlight cover may look like it is slightly tilted). That may be easy to fix or a little more work to fix. There is a rubber cushion for the hood and it is adjustable (it screws in and out) to establish closed height for the hood - that is the easy fix if it works. If the headlight cover is uneven, you can adjust the headlight covers with the mounting screws. This is a P-I-T-A adjustment because access to the screws is a hassle and you are continually opening the hood, raise the headlights, loosen and adjust, close everything up and check and then open and repeat if things don't line up (which they won't on the first or second try or third ....). Check in the body section of the service manual covering hood latch replacement for the procedure for adjusting hood height and check in the electrical section of the service manual covering the headlights for the headlight stopper adjustments. The electrical section of the manual also shows the location of the four retaining screws for the headlight covers. These screws are not an 'official' adjustment; but, provide a tiny amount of slop to provide small corrections to the cover. Try to avoid messing with the stopper bolts or the retractor motor because you can really mess things up.

I had the front of my car re sprayed because of stone chips and everything was pulled off for the work. When the body shop reassembled stuff, both headlight doors were just a little crooked. Perhaps a 1-2mm tilt on the back side of the covers. Not a lot; but, enough to see it if you look for it. I went through the alignment process on the passenger side. Never got around to doing the driver side. Bugs me when I jump in the driver's seat because I immediately spot it. I think the fix is to learn to un-see it.

If you have a problem with uneven panel gaps that is a much bigger problem. One that warrants a trip to a competent body shop if you want to fix it.

 

[alum04org]

the gap between the headlights (pop-up) and the hood...


"Old Guy

Are you talking about vertical displacement between the hood and the headlight cover or the horizontal gap between the panels (most visible when you look straight down at the headlight cover). Its not uncommon to have some vertical displacement between the hood and covers (it can be a uniform displacement or the headlight cover may look like it is slightly tilted). That may be easy to fix or a little more work to fix. There is a rubber cushion for the hood and it is adjustable (it screws in and out) to establish closed height for the hood - that is the easy fix if it works. If the headlight cover is uneven, you can adjust the headlight covers with the mounting screws. This is a P-I-T-A adjustment because access to the screws is a hassle and you are continually opening the hood, raise the headlights, loosen and adjust, close everything up and check and then open and repeat if things don't line up (which they won't on the first or second try or third ....). If you check the body section of the service manual I think it sets out the procedure for adjusting hood height and adjusting the headlight covers.

I had the front of my car re sprayed because of stone chips and everything was pulled off for the work. When the body shop reassembled stuff, both headlight doors were just a little crooked. Perhaps a 1-2mm tilt on the back side of the covers. Not a lot; but, enough to see it if you look for it. I went through the alignment process on the passenger side. Never got around to doing the driver side. Bugs me when I jump in the driver's seat because I immediately spot it. I think the fix is to learn to un-see it.

If you have a problem with uneven panel gaps that is a much bigger problem. One that warrants a trip to a competent body shop if you want to fix it."


^^^^^ What Old Guy said ^^^^^

Fixed headlight guy here. :smile:

 

[Nsxdwon]

Could this also be a result of the headlight assembly being assembled slightly off? My right side headlight cover seem to have more gap between the hood than the left cover. I was ready to take the wheel off to access the headlight assembly and adjust it that way

Edit to add picture. Hard to see from that angle that the circled area definitely has a bigger gap

 

[Old Guy]

Could this also be a result of the headlight assembly being assembled slightly off?

The short answer is probably.

First off - you refer to right side headlight; but, that sure looks like the left side headlight. Is the gap that you are talking about the horizontal spacing between the hood and the back edge of the headlight door? If so, look at page 23-182 of the 1991 service manual (in the electrical section, not in the body section which I referred to in that 4 year old post).

Factory Service Manuals

As our NSX continues to age, it will become more and more important for member to be able to service their cars. Most Acura dealers no longer employ technicians who are familiar with the NSX, as the original techs are long gone or retired. As...

www.nsxprime.com

You will see that the headlight door / cover (Honda calls it garnish) is attached by four screws - hidden by little caps along the outside edges. Loosen off the screws just a little bit and this will allow you a small amount of freedom to move the whole cover forward or backwards, up or down and tilt it left/right - these are all small adjustments determined by the slop in the mounting holes. This is the PITA adjustment I referred to because you fiddle, drop the doors closed to check, then lift and adjust, repeat, repeat, repeat.....

If the gap is a difference in the vertical height of the headlight cover relative to the edge of the hood, first make sure that the hood height is correct. It should be flush with the fender and there is an easily accessible rubber bumper that sets the close height. This is an 'easier adjustment and is described in the body section of the service manual. If the hood height is correct or you have adjusted it to be correct and you still have a vertical displacement, then you can loosen off the four screws holding the covers in place and you should be able to adjust the covers down or up a bit as described in the previous paragraph.

There is also an adjustment called stopper bolt C (page 23-138) that is adjusted to set the closed height of the cover. Adjusting this stopper will change the tilt on the whole door mechanism which will raise / lower the back edge of the cover relative to the fender. With the front hood open and the headlights in the raised position it is fairly easy to spot this adjustment bolt. Accessing the bolt to release the retaining lock nut and make adjustments would be a whole different hell unless you have very tiny hands. I would not fiddle with this adjustment unless everything else fails.

Do not remove the front wheel and fender liner. There is no access to the headlight mechanism from the wheel well. Everything is done from up top.

The preceding assumes that there has been no damage to the headlight mechanism or that the body sections to which the headlight are mounted have not been the victim of a sheet metal bending incident.

 

[Nsxdwon]

First off - you refer to right side headlight; but, that sure looks like the left side headlight. Is the gap that you are talking about the horizontal spacing between the hood and the back edge of the headlight door? If so, look at page 23-182 of the 1991 service manual (in the electrical section, not in the body section which I referred to in that 4 year old post).

Factory Service Manuals

As our NSX continues to age, it will become more and more important for member to be able to service their cars. Most Acura dealers no longer employ technicians who are familiar with the NSX, as the original techs are long gone or retired. As...

www.nsxprime.com

You will see that the headlight door / cover (Honda calls it garnish) is attached by four screws hidden by little covers. Remove the covers and loosen off the screws and this will allow you a small amount of freedom to move the whole cover forward or backwards, up or down and tilt it left/right - these are all small adjustments determined by the slop in the mounting holes. This is the PITA adjustment I referred to because you fiddle, drop the doors closed to check, then lift and adjust, repeat, repeat, repeat.....

If the gap is a difference in the vertical height of the door relative to the edge of the hood, first make sure that the hood height is correct. It should be flush with the fender and there is an easily accessible rubber bumper that sets the close height. This is an 'easier adjustment and is described in the body section of the service manual. If the hood height is correct or you have adjusted it to be correct and you still have a vertical displacement, then you can loosen off the four screws holding the covers in place and you should be able to adjust the covers down or up a bit as described in the previous paragraph.

Do not remove the front wheel and fender liner. There is no access to the headlight mechanism from the wheel well. Everything is done from up top.

The preceding assumes that there has been no damage to the headlight mechanism or that the body sections to which the headlight are mounted have not been the victim of a sheet metal bending incident.

Thank you for the detailed response. Yes I meant left headlight but typed “right” because I was looking at the picture. I will try adjusting the covers to see if that will fix the issue. When I removed the covers to install LED lights I thought the only adjustments were vertical (up and down relative to the hood), not horizontal (front and back towards or away from the windshield).

 

[Old Guy]

The slop in the cover mounting screws is small so you can't make huge adjustments. Did you remove the covers to replace the bulbs and the gap appeared after the bulb replacement? If so, then the gap can probably be fixed with cover adjustment. If you removed the four mounting bolts to remove the complete headlight unit to do the bulb replacement you might have created the problem by not getting the headlight unit back exactly where it was originally.

 

[Nsxdwon]

The slop in the cover mounting screws is small so you can't make huge adjustments. Did you remove the covers to replace the bulbs and the gap appeared after the bulb replacement? If so, then the gap can probably be fixed with cover adjustment. If you removed the four mounting bolts to remove the complete headlight unit to do the bulb replacement you might have created the problem by not getting the headlight unit back exactly where it was originally.

The gap was there before I did anything with the headlights. The previous owner told me he resprayed the entire front end (hood, bumper, headlight covers, etc) so I assumed that the shop didn’t put everything back correctly. Of course maybe I didn’t help it when I took the covers and assembly off to change the bulbs. Im planning to remove and reassemble again so I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again! appreciate your response

 

[Nsxdwon]

Hey again - so I tried adjusting the covers and there’s doesn’t seem to be enough play to fix it. I think the shop that did the respray didn’t line up the headlight assembly (although I’m not sure why they would need to remove the entire assembly?).

I found this thread and this thread that both talk about the adjustment of the housing from the wheel well. Is it worth trying this?

Attaching more photos. On the right headlight, the red circle is wider than the green circle. In the left headlight, the red circle has more spacing compared to the right headlight in the same spot even with the cover moved to the furthest away (on the right cover) and closest (on the left cover)

 

[bullithollywood]

The gap was there before I did anything with the headlights. The previous owner told me he resprayed the entire front end (hood, bumper, headlight covers, etc) so I assumed that the shop didn’t put everything back correctly. Of course maybe I didn’t help it when I took the covers and assembly off to change the bulbs. Im planning to remove and reassemble again so I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again! appreciate your response

Usually the original bolt positions will show up as faint scratched circles on the original paint at the tightening point. Provided they didnt respray over them you could look for those telltales to help get back to factory specs.

 

[Old Guy]

For repaint work all you have to do is remove the covers. It would be very odd to remove the complete headlight unit unless there was collision damage. With the cover off there are four bolts that mount the headlight lens into the retractor mechanism assembly. Perhaps if there was a retractor problem they took the lens out to get at the retractor motor ; but, even with that you don't have to disturb the frame that comprises the retractor assembly. With the headlight covers off, loosening just the 4 bolts that hold the headlight lens assembly in the retractor mechanism (don't touch the bolts that hold the frame to the body) might give you a little more adjustment. I should note that I am not sure that this will help at all with the fender gap problem in your right headlight.

You would need to remove all that stuff if the headlight recesses were painted. However, you would only do that if you wanted to do a complete color change or there was damage to the headlight recesses. Is there evidence that the headlight recesses were repainted?

In your photo of the right headlight, that unevenness in the gap between the right edge of the cover and the fender cannot be fixed by loosening and repositioning the cover (that really only does small for - aft and up-down adjustments) . That almost seems like you are going to have to do the deep dive and fiddle with the bolts that mount the headlight frame to the body shell. That is beyond me because I never had to go to that extreme to fix my gap problems. How is the alignment of the headlight beam patterns? If you move the frames around in the recesses to fix the gaps you may have to re do the horizontal and vertical lens adjustment.

 

[Superhatch]

On page three of this thread: https://www.nsxprime.com/threads/nsx-led-headlights.204618/page-3

You can see the frame portion of how the headlight sits in the body of the car. When I did my headlight conversion it was a huge PITA to get the covers realigned to the body. Probably 3-4 attempts on each headlight to get them gaped correctly. You just have to take your time, mark positions, move a little, mark again, move again until it's ok for you.

I think your best bet is to take out the whole assemblies and realign them.