At 08:53 PM 11/19/98 -0800, Skye Poier wrote:
>....
>So, how many feet in front of the car should the dipped headlights be?
.... I did find something about the MOT in the UK and that the dipped beam
should be 15 degrees. My trig is a bit rusty, but the headlights are a
whopping 2 feet off the ground, so for a 15 degree angle they should land
7.5 feet in front of the car. That certainly doesn't seem right.
Sounds more like 1.5 degrees would be about right. That would come to
about 75 feet out front. But thet's not the way to align headlights.
Park the car on a level surface, about 25 feet away from a vertical wall,
with the high beam headlights shining on the wall. The brightest spot in
the middle of the illuminated area should be the same height as the center
of the lamp and directly in front of the car, level and straight forward.
It helps if you cover one lamp while adjusting the other. Don't worry
about the angle of the low beams, that will take care of itself. This
method works well for the US pattern sealed beam and halogen lamps.
If you have the European style E-pattern lamps, there is a sharp cut off
line where there is bright light below and very little light above. That
line on the wall should be at the same height as the center of the headlamp.
Now gang, no more excuses.
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
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