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Dodgy headlight S1 R33

JimX

By JimX,
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JimX Grand Master

JimX

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My left highbeam points straight into the ground, even on its highest setting. On the lowest setting it just points even more into the ground (2 metres in front of the car instead of 5 I guess). All the other beams are spot-on, it's just this one that doesn't do what it's told.

I had a fiddle around with the bulb and I could aim it correctly if I held it at a funny angle, so it's possible that something's wrong with the mounting mechanism. It's very hard to work around there without pulling the whole light out, so I think I'll do that next weekend.

Just wondering if anyone else has had a bad headlight aim problem like this before and what the cause might be? Luckily the right high beam illuminates enough on dark roads to get by, but it is damned annoying having no left high beam!

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Ronin 09 Grand Master

Ronin 09

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JimX, my right h/light was screwed - the light pattern was all over the place. I actually changed the globe and it was much better. They also seem to be really sensitive to getting the globe in properly. For 5 bucks a new globe is worth a shot rather than new light? Hope that helps.

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Knat Collaborator

Knat

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There's no way to change the covers on them is there? That's mostly my problem with fading/discolouration and stress/heat cracks

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JimX Grand Master

JimX

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Ronin 09, good idea. I was looking at replacing the bulbs with whiter/bluer ones soon anyway (not actually tinted blue, blergh!) so I might do a bulb swap with one that I know is good to see if it's the bulb itself throwing the alignment out.

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JimX Grand Master

JimX

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Woohoo! Thanks to the advice of Ronin 09 I managed to fix it without removing the headlight assembly OR resorting to the hammer :)

I took both globes out, put the highbeam one in the lowbeam socket. For some reason the light was now shining higher up than in the highbeam socket. Very weird indeed because I would have expected it to be lower if anything. So I adjusted it to the correct height and left it in there.

I then put the low beam globe in the high beam socket and it also shone higher. But now I could adjust it to normal height. So it's all good now. Very weird all over!

I'm still going to look at getting new blue/white globes, but now I'll know that if I can't get the alignment right I'll try re-mounting them and/or swapping them around a bit.

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Ronin 09 Grand Master

Ronin 09

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Great to hear it, JimX. My high beam still points prettu high, but thats ok because it doesn't dazzle anyone. Lemme know how you go with the globes; i recommended Bosch Silver Evolution globes in another thread - thats what i have. They give off an almost perfectly white light, with a very very slight tinge of purple at certain angles. The only reason why i would like to hear what you use (and how they look) is because these globes were about $150 from sonic racing before they closed down... although i got them from Hong Kong for like a third of the price.

I want to change my high beams, so keep us posted :)

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PuppaDuck Collaborator

PuppaDuck

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I know what you mean...had my lights adjusted to standard height...not long after I try to take some of the bulbs out to get the part number so I could consider getting the white globes...

and somehow when I put one of the bulbs back in, it shines at a different angle...

I just assumed that the bulb isn't sitting in its seat flat enough...

will adjust it this weekend and let you know...

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