how does one aim headlights?

[elfin]

I have a 2009 Prius with HID headlights. They are aimed so low that I can barely see in front of the car at night. When I turn highbeams on, they are not much better. The lights seem to be aimed outward instead of on the road like other headlights. How can I adjust the aim of the headlights? I had it to the dealer and they said the lights are balanced and they can't aim them because it is too light out and they can't see that anything is wrong.

[firepa63]

Take it back to the dealer. It's under warranty. It could be a problem with the auto-leveling system

[elfin]

I had it back to the dealer and they said the auto-leveler system was perfect. I think it is more they are aimed wrong to begin with.

[firepa63]

Take it to another dealer. There is no need for you to do your own warranty work.

[yardman 49]

Originally Posted by elfin

I have a 2009 Prius with HID headlights. They are aimed so low that I can barely see in front of the car at night. When I turn highbeams on, they are not much better. The lights seem to be aimed outward instead of on the road like other headlights. How can I adjust the aim of the headlights? I had it to the dealer and they said the lights are balanced and they can't aim them because it is too light out and they can't see that anything is wrong.

Hello Elfin:

I also had the "aimed low headlight problem on my 2009 with HID headlights. The posts in the following thread really helped me to fix them:

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-ma...d-too-low.html

There are a few photos attached to the posts in this thread. What they show is a nut with a toothed cog underneath. Turning that nuts counterclockwise (CCW), as viewed from the passenger compartment (that is, if you were able to face the nut directly), will raise the headlights.



Someone mentioned using a phillips screwdriver, as sort of a "worm" gear to turn that cog. On my 2009, that didn't work well, as the assembly on my car are plastic, not metal as show in the photos. As I didn't not want to stress the assembly, I ended up using an open end, 8mm wrench, which worked great. The one on the passenger side is just slightly difficult to see. But using a flashlight really helped.

• Prior to turning those nuts, I put a mark with a colored marker on the nut, so that I would know how much I turned them. I started making small adjustments (turning the nuts "1 flat" at a time), but my lights were so far off that I think that I ended up raising them a 2 full turns.

• Be certain that there is nothing heavy (and no one sitting) in the back of the car. The car has automatic leveling headlights, triggered off of a level sensor in the rear of the car. So the sensor has to sense that the car is loaded level so that the autolevelers don't aim the headligths down

• You can wait until night, and then shine the headlights on a garage or other structure. Put them on low beam, and take some masking tape or other tape. Put the tape on the structure, with the bottom of the tape level with the top of the HID beam image shining on the structure. Then when you adjust the beams, you can see how much you have moved them.

• For final adjustments I took the 8mm wrench and a flashlight with me, and drove around some local roads at night. If the lights still looked too low, I would find a parking lot, pop open the hood, and turn both headlight adjusters the same amount. Then I'd drive the same roads again. I kept doing this until they looked right to me.

To date, no one has "flashed me" at night, even though I raised the beams quite a bit from their "factory" aiming.

[yardman 49]

Elfin:

In the thread that I posted above, look especially at the photos from Steamboagsig (post #15), and Jayman (post #17). They show what the adjuster on the passenger side looks like.

As I said previously, since the nut (actually looks like the head of a bolt) on my 2009 was plastic, and the "screwdriver wormgear" approach seemed to be really stressing the adjuster, I simply used an 8mm open end wrench on the "nuts". This worked well, and I had adequate room to make the adjustments.

Best wishes, and let us know how you make out.

[lenjack]

Close end wratched ...spelling?... works well here. Had to loosen the nuts 1 full turn on my '07 hd to raise beam sufficiently. 2 full turns resulted in other drivers being annoyed.

[yardman 49]

Originally Posted by lenjack

Close end wratched ...spelling?... works well here. Had to loosen the nuts 1 full turn on my '07 hd to raise beam sufficiently. 2 full turns resulted in other drivers being annoyed.

Hello lenjack:

I know what you mean....they are called "ratcheting box wrenches" if they have a "box" end (closed end) head at both ends. If they have a ratcheting box at one end, and an "open" end wrench at the other, they are called "ratcheting combination wrenches".

Someday I'd like to buy myself a set of metric and SAE. There are certain situations (like the Prius headlights) where they would be very helpful.

[jayman]

Originally Posted by yardman 49

Someone mentioned using a phillips screwdriver, as sort of a "worm" gear to turn that cog. On my 2009, that didn't work well, as the assembly on my car are plastic, not metal as show in the photos.

Hmmm. My '04 the parts were metal, ditto my 07 FJ. Nice how they're making the parts cheaper ...

[yardman 49]

Originally Posted by jayman

Hmmm. My '04 the parts were metal, ditto my 07 FJ. Nice how they're making the parts cheaper ...

Yes, I was surprised also, Jay (I think that it was your photo that had the metal assembly). My unit looks like the photo in Steamboatsig's post.

On my '09, the cog teeth are still metal. But the bolt and "washer" under it are white plastic. When I tried the "worm gear" trick with the phillips, it seemed as though the cog was lifting too much, and I was afraid that the plastic bolt would snap right off. So I used the wrench instead.

"Product improvement", I guess.