Headlight alignment specs.

[Will308]

Just installed elipsoidal headlights. The light pattern seems higher than the old one.
Is there a diagram that shows the proper location ( i.e. height, width left to right, relation to the axis of the car, etc) of the pattern against a garage door at say 15 feet or so?
Thanks,
Will

P.s. searched the forum but couldn't find anything.

[Bruno]

check www.bmwe34.net it is in there.

[cary]

This should help. The hardest part I have always found was finding a pefectly level place to do it, so I usually set by this method first and then tweek a little if necessary.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html

[rockyfeller]

OK That's a relief...I installed Euros with HIDs and I'm trying to aim them as well. There was a weird "knuckle" shadow on the upper cut-off line that has been super-frustrating me....I was about to take the ellipsoids apart and manipulate the baffles somehow to fix this thinking it was some kind of defective assembly....They are present exactly symmetically on both lights so that made me think twice. Now I realize....They're supposed to be like that....Weird. WHY?

[cary]

The shadow you see is the result of retrofitting an HID bulb to a non-hid housing. The HID bulb has a different filiment length as well as a different illumination pattern (the arc is brighter at the ends than the middle, compared to an incadecent filiment which is equal across the filimant; also the HID arc is curved rather than straight). This is the reason that no light manufuctures make HID bulb retrofit kits. HID housings are designed for the bulbs from the start and account for the difference in the pattern of the bulb (remember we are talking about hundreths of an inch tolerances). In the case of the Euro Light, you get a funny aberation, in many cars, the entire lighting pattern is destroyed.

Here is a great article with technical data explaining the issues. This is the main reason I am a proponent of the HIR bulbs over HID conversions.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

[Will308]

Thanks!
It was just what I was looking for!
Will

[rockyfeller]

Yeah, read all about it a long time ago.....I can still see 100x better than with my old US ellipsoids, except for the slightly imperfect focus, I doubt the HIRs can compare.....and on top of all that, everyone agrees; it looks freakin cool!!