Hello, i’ve had my superb for a while now but annoyed at how low the headlights are.

 

I’ve got the xenons, and read that I can adjust using the adjusters on the headlight cluster.

 

Question is how much by? Do I need to park my car like 10m in front of a wall to start with, turn lights to manual then adjust? But by how much.

 

I don’t have VCDS but read on here it’s still fine to adjust.

 

I’m thinking of marking the top of my headlight cluster as like a TDC then on the screw draw the line onto that, then turn it clockwise on both sides half a turn. That way if it’s too much I can turn the screw anti clockwise to where it was using the markers.

 

What I don’t understand is it I turn it clockwise half a turn how will I know if that’s too much or too little?

 

Bit of info I asked my local Skoda dealer 2 years ago to check as it’s low but they said it’s fine which it isn’t, well in my opinion.

 

I was hoping they’d adjust it to the maximum legal amount when it was having the MOT and whilst it was still in warranty.

 

Thanks

Take it to a garage with a headlight alignment tool?

 

It shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes and should be within spec rather than a guesstimate...

2 minutes ago, langers2k said:

Take it to a garage with a headlight alignment tool?

 

It shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes and should be within spec rather than a guesstimate...

Rang ones locally but only doing MOTs and essential work at the moment, well it’s been like that for a while now :( 

I adjusted mine by finding a quiet lane and adjusting them to the road in front of me.

Much much better, and never had anyone flash me, so will be ok until MOT time.

19 minutes ago, Shugmo said:

I adjusted mine by finding a quiet lane and adjusting them to the road in front of me.

Much much better, and never had anyone flash me, so will be ok until MOT time.

 How did you know how to much to adjust them by. Is there any measurements to do like when adjusted measure from the front of the car and end of light and it should be X metres apart?

If you find a flat spot (must be totally flat for at least 12 meters) against a wall.

Drive up against the wall as close as you can.

Use some tape and put a mark where the upper edge of the beam, one mark for each side.

Now back away from the wall and stop when the front of the car is 5 meters away from the wall.

Now adjust the headlight so that the upper edge of the beam hits the wall 6cm below your first marks.

This will give you a quite good adjustment of the dipped beam.

Another way is to use a tape meter or laser meter. Find the center of you headlight and take a measure from ground to the center.

An estimate is that it should be at around 500mm.

Find a flat spot like above.

Use the equation below to calculate on what height the beam should hit the wall. Put some tape on the correct height and adjust the dipped beam so that it touches the tape.

5000 = distance between front and wall.

500 = center of headlight (mm) differs from car to car, must be measured.

1.2 =desired drop per meter in percent. In Sweden a minimum drop of 1% is required, most manufacturer has their own drop somewhere between 1.2% and 1.5%, maybe even higher.

Equation

500−((5000×1,2)÷100)=440mm

With these values the dipped beams upper edge should hit the wall at 440mm from a distance of 5 meters.

The longer distance used the more accurate the adjustment will be, 10 meters is recommended.

At 10 meters with a drop of 1.2% the formula is:

500−((10000×1,2)÷100)=380mm

 

At 10 meters with a drop of 1%

500−((10000×1)÷100)=400mm

 

There's only a few centimeters in difference at these distances but a small difference at 5 meters will make a huge difference in 70meters.

It's better to start a little bit slow and carefully raise the beam. If not done properly oncoming traffic will be temporarily blinded.