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Old 01-05-2019, 10:11 AM   #13
AlanD
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 780
Default Re: MD mondeo headlights: good?

Hi all,

Apologies for the delay - Things got busy here over the last few days.

I made up a "tool" shown in the first photo, I'll call this "the stick" from now on. If you do this it is important to make sue that the edges of the vertical part are very close to vertical, because if they are not it will throw off the headlight height calibration.

I did the adjustment with the car unloaded but with a full fuel tank and with all tyre pressures at the tyre label recommended levels. (Over or under inflation can disrupt what you are about to do.

You are going to need a level horizontal surface that allows you to get a 2 metre clear space in front of the car when all wheels are on the surface. I have a good sized under roof garage that allows this.

Make sure your headlights are set for "right hand traffic". This might sound counter-intuitive since we drive on the left, but our cars are built to allow adjustment for both drive on left and drive on the right - and in our case the on-coming traffic is on the right. This setting is in the "settings"submenu. you get thers using the left hand steering wheel keypad. The right arrow on this keypad takes you to submenus and the up down arrows get you to a setting submenu. ÖK" takes you to that sub menu or sets a check box. S0 >settings>vehicle>lighting>adaptive headlamps>traffic setup>choose right hand traffic>OK (to check the box), as you will find it is buried in the sub menus quite a way down.

Get the stick as close to the headlamp as you can in front of the projector lens, hold it steady and scribe a mark on the stick using a marker and a carpenter's square against the sticks vertical edge and the rule pointing at the centre of the projector lens.

You now have a headlight height registration mark for your car. Check the other headlight - it should be within a mm of the same height providing there has been no front end damage to the car. If it isn't the same then mark another registration mark across the stick and label which is which.

Turn the headlights on and position the stick in front of the drivers headlight with the registration mark facing the car at a distance of 2m or more and with the horizontal beam cut off line adjacent to the bright spot across the stick - ordinarily it will show below the registration mark - but it might be above.

Do the same thing on the passengers side of the car - on this side the cutoff line ought to be slightly higher so that light reach along the road left edge is greater. If it isn't don't worry you are going to adjust this discrepancy out in the next step.

To make adjustments you will need a 6mm allen key with at least 15mm of reach. In my case the adjustment screw also had a plain screwdriver slot that could be used.

At the rear of each headlamp housing there is a channel, At the bottom is a hex socket screw (White in my case) which is the adjustment screw. See photo 2.

With the stick illuminated use the allen ket to adjust the beam height on each side of the car.

I ended up with the passenger side about 2mm belo the registration mark on the stick and the drivers side a mm lower than that. This gives me the illumination reach I've detailed elsewhere and on low beam I have not had any request from oncoming traffic about the headlamps - high beam yes low beam no.

Don't be tempted to adjust higher than the registration mark(s). If you do you will be making life difficult for oncoming traffic - especially on suburban residential roads.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Photo 2.jpg (118.1 KB, 104 views)
File Type: jpg Photo 1.jpg (58.0 KB, 102 views)
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AlanD


Our Drive: Mondeo
MD TDCi Titanium Wagon
Ruby Red

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