headlight aiming driving me crazy

[Yuk_Nali_6.0]

I can't seem to get my headlights aimed properly for the life of me. They look perfectly level on the garage wall, but when driving the right is higher. When looking at the lights, the left is a lot brighter. It almost looks like I have a 55w and a 35w. The more I adjust the left down, the more lopsided they look on the road. Any ideas?

BTW this is ddm HIDs in projectors...

 

[WHITEOUT]

Your right side headlight-passenger-will always be higher because of the cutoff/shield. Projector headlights have cutoffs/shields that produce more light/higher on the right side, or a step they call it, and less/lower light on the left-drivers side. This is done so you don't blind oncoming traffic on the left(driver) and so you can see pedistrians on the right(passenger) side. I had the same problem for awhile with how bright each light actually was though. You need to make sure your HID bulb capsules are positioned correctly inside the housing. IE. if one is pointing upward, you will get more light above the cutoff/shield causing more light to shine outward. Same for left or right positioning, or downward positioning. I use to tweak my bulbs alot to get the perfect light output and color off the cutoff. I like the unique blue look, and would space my bulb backward away from the housing to produce more blue/purple along the cutoff and give it that highend car look and also if shield is alittle closer to lens produces color at a distance. Now, I have fully modded my cutoff/shield by painting, z-tail/prism tail mod, and moving shield/cutoff closer to lens. All this does something different. This does not effect overall light output by the way. Since our vehicles aren't made for HID's, you need to make sure the bulb is spaced right for the halogen housing. I did alot of research on this prior to purchasing HID lighting, in my halogen housing since HID isn't made for Halogen housings.
One peice of advice, all HID bulbs are different usually, so I would remove HID bulb, set on peice of paper, mark the base with a line, mark the middle/filament with a line, and the end of the bulb with a line.
Then get halogen bulb and do the same thing. What you are trying to achieve is that the HID bulb/capsule is in the same position as the Halogen bulb. If not, light output will not be produced right out of the halogen light housing. Meaning, you need the HID filament to by in the same position as the halogen filament and also good to have end of bulb same distance away from shield/cutoff
Like previously stated, also moving bulb left/right in the housing causes different output along the cutoff/shield-may be brighter on oneside then the other along cutoff.
Moving bulb up/down in the housing causes different output along the cutuff/shield by either sharper cutoff line at a close or distance,more color,more light infront of car or away from car. \
All these iterations can produce different affects or light ouput through projector lenses.
I myself, space my bulb back away from the cutoff/shield and downwards just a tad. This outcome produces correct positioning of the bulb for the best light output and adds color along cutoff/shield and also color is visible from a farther distance and cutoff is sharper. It's alot to take in, but HID's in halogen housing aren't just PnP!!! You still need to position the bulb correctly. What people don't tell you!!!

---------- Post added at 11:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:49 PM ----------

Also, Don't know anything about DDM kits, but have bought bulbs from others, and bubls aren't always the same. Sometimes you either get 2 bulbs of different colors, which will make one look brighter then the other. Or, just a bad bulbs that has lost it's quality. Not saying DDM sells anything bad, but I would either go with OEM products. Or debased bulbs. Much better quality.

---------- Post added at 11:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:52 PM ----------

You want your left headlights high step part of the cutoff to intersect with the right sides high step part of the cutoff. and vise versa for the lower part of the step. Again, this will produce a look of more light coming out the right/passenger side of the car.

 

[Yuk_Nali_6.0]

Wow, thanks for all the info. So how exactly do you move the bulbs back/down? So its possible I have one of the bulbs upside-down? I thought they only went in one way. I'm gonna check that first and then adjust the drivers side down.

It makes sense to me now that the driver's side it aimed up too much because I've been trying to get a straight cut off line!

Thanks again.

 

[DenaliAK]

The right (passenger side) is supposed to be higher. It gives you more side and sign light without blinding on-coming traffic. If you are **** about symmetry, it might bug you, but that's how it's supposed to work.

For a quick alignment, find a flat piece of ground in front of a wall. Measure back from the wall 25' feet so your truck is 25' wall-to-bumper. Measure up from base of wall 25". Adjust lights so the top of the cutoff hits the 25" mark.

This will give you a quick adjustment that shouldn't blind everyone. Technically, there's a bit more to it then that, but that's a good place to start.

What it should look like, or something like this. Note how much higher the cutoff on the passenger side is, making it look like that light is aimed higher (reality is they are aimed about the same, but the shield lets more light out on that side).

 

[WHITEOUT]

You probably don't have a bulb upside down, but you do want to make sure the return wire-the wire running from top of bulb to base- is facing downward, or as much as possible, otherwise you will have a shadow. DenaliK has it pretty much right. Now for up/down, right/left of bulb positioning. What I mean by that, in placing your bulb inside the housing and the clip/bulb holder. On my headlights I can unscrew my bulb holder and position the light bulb back farther and by rightening one side more or less, and tightening the top or bottom screw more or less, I can adjust my bulb to be in whatever position I want in accordance to the output. I don't know what type of bulb you use, but I use to use H3 bulbs in old projectors, much easier to adjust. Now use 9006 bulbs, but luckely base/bulb holder unscrews so I can adjust bulb positioning.
Again though, usually moving bulb backward always helped, especially on these holagen headlight housings. HID headlight housing don't need this movement since they are designed for HID bulbs. Also, slightly tilting bulb upward will give more light over cutoff/shield to produce more light out the lens and give more foreground light and sharper cutoff 50-100 ft. tilted down, more color less foreground light sharper cutoff up close 15-25 ft.

Again, even little alterations of bulb positioning can give drastic light ouput when it comes to HID's in holagen housings.
If you have anymore questions, more then happy to help. I did alot of research prior to installing HID in my headlights to ensure it can be done right and would actually benefit me getting HID in my headlights without doing a fully retro like DaneliAK did. which is the best way.
I hate people who put HID's in Holagen "REFLECTOR" housings!! Give HID a bad name, atleast you did it the right way for HID in holagen lights.

---------- Post added at 12:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 AM ----------

Hey DenaliAK. You should totally do a shield mod since you already have real HID projectors in your KON. Just noticed how your light output was kinda dim on the outside left/right of your cutoff. By moving your shield lower, you would get more output along the whole cutoff sharper and brighter. Also, if I were you, would do a full shield mod, flat black mod, color mod, washer mod, and z-tail mod/prism tail mod. I did that to my Depo headlights, looks awesome. But if you did that to your HID projectors. Awesome output. video of my color/z-tail/washer mod on my Depo holagen projectors w/6k Matsushita HID

.
pic of my modded cutoff shield

My cutoff shield isn't to sharp from 15-25ft, I have it setup to be sharp at 50-100ft, for a more unique look from a distance when you see me coming. Just a personall preferance

 

[Yuk_Nali_6.0]

Ok I think I get what you're saying about moving the bulb. It will make more sense to me when I can look at it tomorrow. I'm using the 9005 bulbs BTW.

 

[DenaliAK]

Whiteout:

That's some serious color you've got in your lights...looks pretty cool. Lots of flicker from the front. The problem with my setup now is that the retro I did is more or less permanent...I don't think I'll ever be able to get the thing back apart. About all I can do is change the bulb position a bit. It's all good, though. I like the light and cutoff. Wanted the best light, not the best color, so I'm happy with it. Only thing I'd do next is go up from 35w to 55w.

 

[WHITEOUT]

Ya, you do have the best, TSX projectors!!!! Can't beat that!!! But, just to let you know, what I did by modding my shield/cutoff and producing the color band/flicker, I didn't loose any light at all!! I just modded my shield which actually produces better light. If you "were" to mod your shield, you would actually get better light!! Just to let you know. But they do look good already, and if you like, don't worry. Nice job DenaliAK

That sucks though that you permanently molded the projectors into your lights, I saw your write up. But, you still get a cool blue/purple color band along your cutoff, I have seen stock TSX projectors. But since I have wack ass "halogen" projectors for now, I just did what I could to produce the best light output while giving a HUGE color band/flicker effect to my lights. As good as they are, they still aren't as bright as yours DenaliAK. But atleast I can have them be unique and modded as much as possible to produce better light be modding cutoff/shield and adding or closing off my lens holder to produce more/better light out of my projectors.

 

[SFBerto415]

Question: How do I mod the OEM Denali Projector's shield/cutoff inside the housing? What exactly or how exactly would I mod it?

 

[Eagle]

No offense whiteout, but mods designed to exacerbate color flicker problems are far more annoying to me than HIDs in DOT reflectors.

Your lights remind me of the celica headlights that I have hated for years, except worse because you have intensity changes AND color changes. Looks just like WIG WAGs.

At least they aren't 8k HIDs in the DRL... I so wanna strangle whoever that guy is!!!