Headlight alignment?

[-DAvo]

hey all,

just noticed tonight that my headlights in my AT-X are not completely lever with eachother... the passenger side headlight seems to illuminate higher than the driver side... is there a way to align the projectors?

[DJKOR]

Mind me for quoting myself. Many times I will post something only to realise I have mentioned it before but with greater detail. I then tend to wonder how I managed to make a decent reply before and not later. Plus I am pretty lazy to an extent. Anyways, enough babble. The quick answer is that unless you have the right tool, you can not make any up/down adjustments:

Presara headlight adjustment

I've posted something like this way back and honestly I haven't touched mine ever again, scared it will screw it up. I think it was Daryl (pardon me if it was someone else) who said in my post that it comes out of the factory like that for road standards so I've gotten use to mine now.

Yep, that was me that you were recalling. It was in the thread 'Headlight'.

In my opinion, I would only adjust my headlights if it definitely is out of whack. Being a little out is okay by me so long as it isn't glaring other road users. The headlights are aimed by a machine in factory and sometimes it is hard to replicate this with your own adjustments. As well, one of the adjustment screws (which is the critical up and down adjustment) is a tough one to access unless you have the appropriate tools:

I'm not sure if the Presara HID assembly has the same adjustment screws though.

Headlight

I'm guessing you only noticed the obvious one at the top (circled in first photo). If you look lower next to the high beam bulb cover you will see another adjustment screw (circled in second photo). I don't know which one is horizontal and which one is vertical. I'm guessing the top one is horizontal judging by the fact that you didn't really notice any difference. I'm not going to test it either sorry. I find headlight aiming a real nuisance, and the factory aim is always just so perfect and I'd hate to ruin it. Also, the headlight assembly is both joint on the low beam and high beam so if your low beams are aimed correctly, your high beams should be as well.

On a side note: The final turn of the aiming screw should be made in the clockwise direction. This is to keep the aiming mechanism tight and reduce the chance of vibration causing it to come out of alignment.

ah thanks alot djkor :D as i was examining it i looked closer and there's another one other than you showed me, looks abit risky to play around with :\ might just leave it till i can buy another pair to follow my plans up with it~

much appreciated.

Was there really a third adjustment screw? I was cleaning up my engine bay earlier and was curious, so I took another look. I was unable to find any more adjustment screws than what I had shown already. By any chance, were you referring to this:

If so, that would be the buzzer that goes "beep beep" when you lock/unlock your doors. Quite odd having it in the headlight eh.

Edit: OMG; I feel so stupid now. The third adjustment screw was sitting right in front of me. I wasn't quite thinking outside the box. Looks like this is the up/down aiming screw. This one definitely ain't easy to do by hand unless you have some appropriate tool.

I find headlight aiming a real nuisance, and the factory aim is always just so perfect and I'd hate to ruin it.

Totally agreed... It is really very nicely adjusted - so much so that I think even if the service place touched it they would likely stuff it up!

Mine was perfect when I got it, beautiful sharp cutoff line, and a beam that would light up the road for miles up ahead - until a branch fell while I was driving at 60km/h, hit the front edge of the bonnet, smashed the windscreen and dented the roof... and now results in a beam that has a blurry center point with a dodgy cutoff line =\

Dunnoh what to do now... fix it myself and possibly make it worse, or get service to do it and likely do the same!

It's a bit of a tough one. You can experiment yourself and if all else fails, then take it to the service centre. The thing is, when doing the manual headlight adjustment, it doesn't take much to throw everything out of line. With projectors, because of the sharp cutoff, you can easily see where it is aimed against a screen, but also as well, because the projector lights up only a selected area, it needs to be fairly spot on.

In the factory, they have a machine that automatically aims them, hence the perfect aim nearly all the time, but I'm not too sure what the service centres would use. But yeah, having the low beams aimed correctly is essential because the high beams aim depends on it (which from factory, the high beams light up distance perfectly).

[mbruce]

I think you will find that the passenger side is meant to be higher than the driver side. Its so you don’t blind on coming traffic.

[chicken]

yeah rhd cars with projectors (even reflectors) are designed to light up in that cutoff pattern. You'll find that your driver side projector will also have this cutoff because it is the cutoff shield within the projectors thats responsible for it, not from headlight level. Its designed like that to light up road signs on the left(kerb) while not blinding oncoming traffic on the right. the cutoff pattern is reversed in lhd countries.

[DJKOR]

yeah rhd cars with projectors (even reflectors) are designed to light up in that cutoff pattern. You'll find that your driver side projector will also have this cutoff because it is the cutoff shield within the projectors thats responsible for it, not from headlight level. Its designed like that to light up road signs on the left(kerb) while not blinding oncoming traffic on the right. the cutoff pattern is reversed in lhd countries.

LOL. I got a bit carried away with the answer and didn't notice that.

Truly though, it would be best if it look like this (a true HID projector). Pictures like these make me want to do a true HID retrofit:

And this is what some are known to look like (found this on Google Images; that name seems familiar )

But realistically, with the type of projectors on the Aurion, expect it to look something like this (just less bright and more yellow since I have HID's):

[-DAvo]

Thanks for all the detailed replies guys! its amazing the amount of effort goes into some of your posts!

spoke to the guys at toyota and they said they havea special tool to adjust the lights, but perhaps they are already correct then? just fitted some Phillips power2night h11 globes and am pretty impressed with the increased light output... if only i could get them more "white" without going to HID's :P

Thanks again!!

[Erebus]

Dear all. Sorry for digging up an old thread but I need help!

I have noted some diabolical problems with the alignment of my low beam HID bulb on the drivers side of my 2007 Aurion Presara. This is the auto leveling/follows steering low beam that comes with the Presara. It simply won't align in the right direction. I have trawled through all of the threads for guidance and just can't seem to fix it. I did think that I had nailed it a couple of days ago with the height adjustment but it has gone off again.

Any ideas? Are any of you familiar with issues associate with the mechanism associated with this bulb within this light assembly. If so please advise options?

I am currently looking for a used assembly to fault find and/or replace.

Many, many thanks in advance.

Edited December 9, 2012 by Erebus