Setting up your headlight alignment

I noticed, driving around last night, that my dipped beam headlights were a bit high, possibly annoying oncoming cars

So this afternoon I decided to fix it and thought I'd share the process for doing this at home.

You will need:
1. A Land Rover, emptied of surplus junk.
2. A wall
3. A tape measure
4. Chalk, tape or something else to make non-permanent marks on said wall.

Park the car a couple of meters away from the wall, at right angles to it. Measure the distance from the headlamp to the wall, the horizontal separation of the headlamps, and the height of the middle of the headlamp from the ground. On the wall, mark a horizontal line equal to the headlamp height.

Now, with the height of your average Landy's headlamps being above 85cm, the dipped beam needs to be set at a 2% downward angle. For every 1m away from the wall, the flat part of the beam should drop by 2cm. So take the distance from the wall and divide it by 50. Mark a second line on the wall this distance below the first. For example, if you're 2m away from the wall, the second line should be 4cm below the first one.

Turn on the lights. Both headlights should show roughly this pattern.

Turn the adjuster screws until the flat top of the beam (ignoring the wedge of light to the left) is lined up with the lower line on the wall. The vertical alignment is now set.

Horizontally, the point at which the beam 'kicks up' to the left needs to be within 2% of the centerline. This allows it to light up road signs etc to the left without throwing light across the road into oncoming traffic. The main beams will automatically be aligned straight-ahead.

Make two vertical lines on the wall, separated by the same distance as that between the two headlamps. These should be symmetrical around the middle of the car. Using the same 2% formula as for the vertical alignment, mark two more vertical lines to the left of the first ones.

For each headlight, turn the adjuster screws to bring the 'corner' of the top of the beam pattern in between the two vertical lines.

You probably won't get the alignment spot on with this method, but it will be close enough in real terms.
It never hurts to check them and gets your headlights out of other drivers' faces.

Ive been setting up headlamps against wall/skips for years, I never bother marking anything just driving around in the dark gives me an idea of what needs doing, seems to work just fine and no problems at mot time.

Think you missed an item on yer list: battery tray and inner wing, complete assy, new.

lynall said:

Ive been setting up headlamps against wall/skips for years, I never bother marking anything just driving around in the dark gives me an idea of what needs doing, seems to work just fine and no problems at mot time.

Click to expand...

I do the same and my Mot man is happy to fine tune them on the test as long as the adjusters are free.

I use the real world method find a flat deserted country road , blank off one headlight adjust the other so kick up is at kerb , and below eyeline of average small car at furthest point . works at MOT time so far . and you get the best vis for spotting bikes and pedestrians against oncoming traffic, any other time you have got the highs and auxiliaries .