Headlight Alignment

[magic_chimp]

The car failed the MOT yesterday on the nearside headlight alignment being too far to the right (it's an 04 1.6 Pluriel). I've tried to find a diagram or information on where the left/right alignment knob is located and how it is changed but can find absolutely nothing about it online!

 

Can anybody tell me where it is, what needs to be done (any diagrams would be helpful!) and if any special tools are required as I don't really want the hassle of going to a garage to fix something that should be quite easy to do myself.

 

Cheers

[paul.h]

Should be the same as a C3 and following is from the French RTA manual so should still apply.

 

Make sure the headlight is secure and not loose. Put the dash mounted level switch to position 0. Adjust with the car level (and not laden down with passengers or a full boot) and pointed a few metres from a wall to see where the dipped light beams aim. The light adjusters are on the back of the headlight, a white one should adjust the horizontal position (I think it may be turned by an allen key) and in the central dip above the bulb cover is the vertical adjuster which might need a spanner or socket to turn it. Make any adjustments a part turn at a time whilst looking at the light pattern on the wall, so that the beams are aimed slightly down and where the beam level part starts to turn up to the left is just slightly to the left of an imaginary line going through each car light to the wall. Both light patterns should be set the same so if one was already ok then setting the other to be similar should be ok.

 

Sometimes an MOT tester will adjust the lights at very little cost (if any) whilst the car is on the MOT testing machine since it only takes a few minutes. Somewhere on the internet (dft.gov site) can be found the MOT testers manual which has a diagram giving the expected light pattern (section 1.8) - find by searching MOT testers manual.

[magic_chimp]

Should be the same as a C3 and following is from the French RTA manual so should still apply.

 

Make sure the headlight is secure and not loose. Put the dash mounted level switch to position 0. Adjust with the car level (and not laden down with passengers or a full boot) and pointed a few metres from a wall to see where the dipped light beams aim. The light adjusters are on the back of the headlight, a white one should adjust the horizontal position (I think it may be turned by an allen key) and in the central dip above the bulb cover is the vertical adjuster which might need a spanner or socket to turn it. Make any adjustments a part turn at a time whilst looking at the light pattern on the wall, so that the beams are aimed slightly down and where the beam level part starts to turn up to the left is just slightly to the left of an imaginary line going through each car light to the wall. Both light patterns should be set the same so if one was already ok then setting the other to be similar should be ok.

 

Sometimes an MOT tester will adjust the lights at very little cost (if any) whilst the car is on the MOT testing machine since it only takes a few minutes. Somewhere on the internet (dft.gov site) can be found the MOT testers manual which has a diagram giving the expected light pattern (section 1.8) - find by searching MOT testers manual.

 

Thanks for the comprehensive reply - I shall give it a go now!

 

I did ask the MOT guys if they could do it at the time but they didn't seem keen.