HOWTO: Aim Your Euro Headlights

[John5788]

I just finished aiming my headlights after reading a link I found online, here are my step-by-step instructions and pictures from the job. It took me only about 30 minutes to complete. This should be done at night for obvious reasons.

1. Find yourself a large wall and a flat surface to work on. Bring some masking tape, 13mm socket wrench, and some measuring tape.

2. Park the car straight and up close to the wall you are going to aim at. It helps to drive straight into the wall so backing away from it later will be easy. You will make 3 marks on the wall as shown here:




The outside marks come straight from the where the bulb is on both headlamps. Make sure it is perfectly aligned with the bulbs. The middle mark is a reference from my hood star, basically from the center of the car.

3. Now go in reverse such that your headlamps are 25 feet away from the wall you just marked:



4. Now you will make some more marks on the wall. Connect the 3 marks in a straight line. Next, mark a straight line about 6 inches long coming down from the center mark (reference from center of car). Mark points 3 inches below the outside marks (reference from bulbs). Now connect the two marks you just made, intersecting the line drawn from the center mark. After turning on your headlights, you should get something like this:



5. To aim the headlights, you want the height of the beam aimed such that the brightest part of the beam is aimed at the bottom row. This is achieved by adjusting the middle screw. I use a 13mm socket on this so it doesn't hurt my fingers trying to adjust it. Tightening this screw aims the light higher, loosening lowers it. Keep in mind that there is a point where the light does not adjust anymore.

Next, you want to center the beam so that the brightest part of the beam is aimed at the mark you made 3 inches below the outside marks. This is achieved by adjusting the far outside screws. Tightening it brings the beam outwards, and loosening brings it closer to the center mark. Eventually you want a pattern that looks like this:



6. Next you will adjust the fog lights. This is done by adjusting the inside screws. You can only adjust the vertical height of the light. I think tightening it brings the light up, and loosening brings it down. You want the beam to look like this when you're done:



And that is it for aiming the headlights. High beams don't need to be aligned as they are already aligned once low beams are aligned.

Here is what it looks like inside the car:

Low beam:



High beam:



Fogs:



Extra pictures I took:




Link: Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply

[willworkforgreen]

thank you for taking the time to think of others by posting something that is worthwhile. can one of the moderators sticky this, please!

[Glen]

Nice write up, John.

Stuck.

[Sean]

thank you so much John for taking the time and effort to write this, you have no idea how much this is going to help me! I bought the Bosch euro lights used from Germany and the aim on the right side is way off. I'll try fixing it tomorrow :)

[marrymemercedes]

This could be sticky'd as a how to do a write up. Great pics and good, clear, concise directions.

[danwatt]

thanks john lets have babies

[BabyHands]

Previously my method of aiming my headlights has been to keep adjusting untill people stop flashing their lights at me. haha jk.

[Sean]

lol ^ or driving with high beam

[Dale315]

good thread. my euros are aimed all jacked up compared to the correct way.

[Cephallus]

Originally Posted by danwatt

thanks john lets have babies

John already has babies all over SoCal.

Nice write-up!

[Mendez3786]

thanks... this tutorial helped out a lot