Poor headlight performance

[Niks_Mowing]

With the lights on at ~10-15’ from a wall, I put tape on the wall to mark the stock settings and bumped them up ~3-4” inches and kept both lights at the same height with me in the driver seat. Then i checked where my lights were on the back of cars at 4-5 car lengths back - had to tweak them to so they were not above the average car’s rear deck.

if you want a reference point per DOT standards, measure to center of headlight and mark the wall at that height. check height with car ~25‘ from wall. at 25’ the lights should be 2-3” below mark per DOT standards. Then you can bump them up to your preference….

I don't have that much room to play with for the settings, so I just marked a board for each one, and went up an equal amount. If it's still too low, or too high I'll have that reference point to go off.

 

[Xylander]

One of the first things I did when I got my new Z was substantially raise the headlight alignment. Mine were so low, they didn't fully illuminate mailboxes by the side of the road.

I don't know the exact number of turns... but I was to say it was between 4 and 5. My Nismo sat at the dealership for about 400 days before I bought it. There's no telling what went on with it or if it just came that way from Japan. But, on the drive home after buying it, the lights on mine were not even raised high enough to see well. They might have been illuminating 50' ahead at most.

 

[Niks_Mowing]

One of the first things I did when I got my new Z was substantially raise the headlight alignment. Mine were so low, they didn't fully illuminate mailboxes by the side of the road.

I don't know the exact number of turns... but I was to say it was between 4 and 5. My Nismo sat at the dealership for about 400 days before I bought it. There's no telling what went on with it or if it just came that way from Japan. But, on the drive home after buying it, the lights on mine were not even raised high enough to see well. They might have been illuminating 50' ahead at most.

I would assume it's just the default. Not sure of others use case, but 90% plus of my drives are in the day, and the night drives have been through towns with street lights, or on freeways with traffic.
I've had mine for a year, and it only really struck me how bad it was the other day when I had oncoming traffic on a country road and had to turn the high beams off.
I raised mine 35mm at 1m measured, so roughly 2° raised. I'll update this next night drive once I have a gauge on how it sits.

 

[KrackaC8]

Are you talking about High Beams that move up and down? Or Automatic Leveling headlights? I don't think I've ever seen a car with a switch to adjust the height of the headlights.

Are you talking about High Beams that move up and down? Or Automatic Leveling headlights? I don't think I've ever seen a car with a switch to adjust the height of the headlights.

My Evo X had a dial to aim the headlights up or down; it was awesome! Loved that car for so many reasons...

 

[Skytow]

OP and others thanks for this. Adjusted this afternoon and waiting to test tonight. It looks like my driver side was adjusted particularly low from the factory presumably to minimize glare for oncoming vehicles, but I too live in a rural area and my biggest threat at night is deer!

 

[Niks_Mowing]

OP and others thanks for this. Adjusted this afternoon and waiting to test tonight. It looks like my driver side was adjusted particularly low from the factory presumably to minimize glare for oncoming vehicles, but I too live in a rural area and my biggest threat at night is deer!

Passenger side should always be a few degrees higher than driver.
Passenger side needs to give you visibility of the side of the road for pedestrians, wildlife etc. where the drivers side only needs to light up the lane, and having it lower makes it so you don't blind oncoming traffic.

 

[Niks_Mowing]

My Evo X had a dial to aim the headlights up or down; it was awesome! Loved that car for so many reasons...

My WRX headlights turn left and right with the steering wheel. It's by far the best safety feature for driving windy country roads at night, and I can't believe it's not on more vehicles.

 

[2Cool]

My Evo X had a dial to aim the headlights up or down; it was awesome! Loved that car for so many reasons...

I bought one of the first Evo VIIIs that came into the US back in 2003. THe HID lights could be raised and lowered with rolling switch on the console. 23 years ago and technology you don't find in new cars today. Regret selling that car...

 

[KrackaC8]

I bought one of the first Evo VIIIs that came into the US back in 2003. THe HID lights could be raised and lowered with rolling switch on the console. 23 years ago and technology you don't find in new cars today. Regret selling that car...

Heck, look at all the badass technology the early 90's Japanese sports cars had!

 

[Niks_Mowing]

I don't have that much room to play with for the settings, so I just marked a board for each one, and went up an equal amount. If it's still too low, or too high I'll have that reference point to go off.

Nailed it first go apparently! Ha
For anyone's reference, this was my beam height at 1m away at the peak of the beam. Raised both sides 35mm from where it was set from factory.

I'd say I got it pretty much bang on where I would want it, maayybbee a teensy bit too high, but I'm happy where it is.