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Adjusting projector housings

Malcolm

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2017 Pro DCSB Auto
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Hey everyone!

I see a lot of talk about lighting, whether HID, LED, halogen or whatever you like. Lighting is important, it gives us better site at night, as well as helps out Offroad. I will always spout HID’s as there’s really no better comparison but as we upgrade our lighting you have to consider how they work on the road with other vehicles.

If youve added a lift, youve also added height to the cutoff of your light dispersion. This can cause you to blind other drivers or piss people off, and while some of you may not feel guilty (not pointing fingers) it’s usually good to be a bit courteous.

So the point of this post is the importance of adjusting your housing following a headlight upgrade such as HID’s or anything along those lines. Especially if you went with a 55w kit such as myself.

When we’re doing this we first need to look at our current step pattern, simply turn on your vehicle and get your low beams on to get a reference, it’s good to mark where your step pattern is with a piece of black tape so you can track the adjustment and the original setting if you choose to revert to default and don’t exceed where you previously were.
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The parking garage at my GF’s place is brick so I already had a reference line which was convenient. As you can see my step pattern is already fairly level.
Next thing we will locate the adjustment dial which is located on the back of the headlight assembly below and In the middle of the high and low beams.
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This knob can be adjusted with an 8mm socket and the orientation of adjustment is as follows:

Clockwise: adjusts housing downwards
Counter-clockwise: adjusts housing upwards

We want to lower the beam so we need to lower the angle of the projector housing so we will turn the dial clockwise to do so. This will be adjusted to how you see fit.
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I started with the driver side turning the dial until the angle displayed the beam approximately 3-4” below original step pattern, this should beam the light lower that rear view mirrors on lower cars and give you more actual light on the road rather than in peoples eyes which is optimal for road driving.

The passenger side is exactly the same location and orientation as far as adjustment. An 8mm short socket works best for this side as you have the windshield wiper fluid reservoir directly behind the housing and it is a much tighter space to access.

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Note my pink screwdriver holding back the wires that cover up the adjustment dial, you may need to move these out of the way for ease of access (pink screwdriver not included).
Adjust the passenger side until you are as close or level with the driver side.

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As you can see from the image above, after adjustment we are fairly level with our step pattern. The passenger side is usually a little higher than the driver to assist with the lack of vision being in the driver seat.

I hope this tutorial helped anyone wondering how to adjust these, or those possibly suffering from guilt of other drivers (although who ultimately gives a fuck)!
I’ll answer any questions y’all have!
 
I am most definitely one of those assholes

Lifted truck.....CHECK
Obnoxiously bright 55w 4500k HID’s......check
Fucks given........zero.

Now to be honest, I did lower them....these headlights are just damn bright and I still get flashed.
 
I have also some info to ad to this fun little topic , if you look at you headlight directly into the projector you will notice a dimple that is the dead center of the projector itself, measure that point to the ground go 25 feet away on flat surface and minus 2 inch from the first number you read ie: if you measured 42" then at 25' you want to be at 40". Mine are set that .
And to @PROTACO17 great tutorial (y)
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Perfect thread for me to find today after intalling new bulbs. Nice work typing this up. ??
 
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