Low beam headlight adjustment

[srobak]

You need a long slim Phillips screwdriver. That white plastic tube is where you adjust the low beam cut off. You can't miss it. Insert your screw driver there and rotate. Make sure the car is level and there no weight on it

Mine is completely different then. If I look in the tube I see the teeth of the gear that the motor uses to raise & lower... certainly nothing with a phillips head on it. This same gear is accessible from the back of the housing with an 8 or 10mm bolt head on it - I forget which. If I turn it - it will strip against the gear of the leveling motor. Back to looking for a way to adjust the sensor...

 

[dxtra196]

Mine is completely different then. If I look in the tube I see the teeth of the gear that the motor uses to raise & lower... certainly nothing with a phillips head on it. This same gear is accessible from the back of the housing with an 8 or 10mm bolt head on it - I forget which. If I turn it - it will strip against the gear of the leveling motor. Back to looking for a way to adjust the sensor...

The teeth is what you need to turn , you could even use a flat head screw driver. I've done it plenty of times. Make sure your lights are on first .

 

[OneFunGenesis]

There is a decent amount of mis-information in this thread that I will try to make a little more clear here:

First, the adjustment. It is the same as the Gen 1 with a long skinny Phillips or Flat head screw driver and turn the teeth of the gear. That will adjust the light as needed. I have found it easier to adjust the lights with the car OFF but the accessories ON. That way, you are not fighting the auto leveling system. Which brings me to my second point.

The auto leveling system: Unless Hyundai has changed the auto-leveling system drastically from Gen 1 (I highly doubt that), the the auto leveling system is NOT dynamic as it is in BMW or MB. The auto-leveling system uses a level sensor on the rear axle to sense the level of the rear end at start-up. The lighting system does the adjustment to make sure the lights are level for driving but does not dynamically adjust them for uphill/downhill driving.

The stock aiming: of these cars are notoriously low. The Hyundai service techs go off of the computer read out of "normal" because they just don't know any better. All-in-all, the Hyundai HID's are complete crap when compared to other HID's or a custom set up. There is a fine line in adjustment between too high and too low. You just have to play with them yourself and find the sweet spot.

Hope this helps.

OFG

 

[amartz]

The stock aiming: of these cars are notoriously low. The Hyundai service techs go off of the computer read out of "normal" because they just don't know any better.

+1

 

[5 Timer]

+2

 

[srobak]

Cool - thanks for the info. I guess I will give it a go - though I will probably adjust from the bolt head on the back of the gear instead of with the teeth of the gear.

I had ASS U ME d this setup to be like 99% of all the others that use almost exactly the same layout (and parts for that matter) with the gear and motor - hence my hesitation with moving the gear manually for fear of jumping the worm gear on the motor and also thinking it would just return it to level after a restart. I guess that shall learn me.

Thanks again, all. I shall report back tomorrow with results.

 

[srobak]

ok - well that was interesting. All the screwdrivers I own - not one of them is long enough & thin enough to go down the tube. So I had to adjust from the 8mm bolt head on the back of the gear. Driver's side was easy.

Passenger's side I had to remove the subframe cross-member, the air box and the entire upper-front cowling. An easy enough job - but annoying just to turn an adjustment bolt 1/4 of a turn.

The adjustments did stick, however - and did not level back out after re-starting, shifting and even driving. Came back and lined the beams right back where they were after I set them. Good to go I guess.

 

[FAUDR]

Great information. I thank everyone for their help! I'd like to try and do this myself. Can you please give some more detailed instructions on getting to the adjustment bolt? How much time and effort( and expertise) was required to do the job- especially on the passenger side?

 

[lobsenza]

Dealers will check the adjustment under warranty and adjust them if they are low.

 

[lobsenza]

Mine were adjusted under warranty.

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[srobak]

Sure. Total time to get to it - maybe 10 minutes. 30 seconds to adjust and 5 minutes to put back together....

You can adjust the driver's side without removing anything. To do the passenger's side...

In order - do the following:

Push in the center of all the plastic pins (red). They will pop in - then you can fish them out of their holes. Don't lose any. They are all the same size - so mix & match is fine.

Once those are removed - carefully separate the front black plastic cowling from rest near the shock towers. Once separated - tip the back up and slide towards the rear of the engine bay - this will remove the tongue portion of the cowling from the grooves in the nose. Set the cowling aside on the ground.

Loosen the two bolts for the subframe connector (green). Remove this bar - but take note of it's orientation. It only fits one way.

Unscrew the hose clamp (yellow) and give it plenty of slack.

Unclip the air filter box (blue). Lift up and jiggle it around a bit to get it to separate and come off the lower portion of the box. The filter will go with the cover. BE SURE not to pull the cover away as there is a cable attached. Flip the lid over in it's place and set it on top of the intake hose so it is out of the way.

Now you can use a ratchet with a long extension and a swivel on the end with a short, 8mm socket. Reach your right hand down and around the side of the lower air box to guide & stabilize the socket onto the adjustment bolt - which you will have in your left hand and feed down along the fender well.

Re-assemble in reverse. Don't forget to tighten the hose clamp on the intake duct. Also - to re-use the pins push the centers up so they protrude above the rest of the surface of the pin - push into hole, then push down the center so it is flush.

That's it.

 

[amartz]

Dealers will check the adjustment under warranty and adjust them if they are low.

Trouble is, what the dealer considers low, and what *I* consider low, aren't necessarily the same thing. I had my dealer state that the lights were adjusted to factory specs. I pushed the issue with the tech guy, whom I had a bit of rapport with, and he adjusted them close to where I wanted them, and then showed me how to do it myself.

 

[amartz]

All the screwdrivers I own - not one of them is long enough & thin enough to go down the tube.

I did go out and buy a phillips screwdriver just for this. It's about as long as the diameter of my steering wheel, and it goes all the way in, almost up to the handle. But with a little firm downward pressure so as not to strip the screw head slots, it does the trick, without having to disassemble anything. At least on my 2012 Gen1.

 

[ksoze]

I'd like to try and do this myself. Can you please give some more detailed instructions on getting to the adjustment bolt?

Since this a warranty item, why not have it done next visit to the dealer? Unless you are a total do-it-yourself type, I would let the dealer unbolt stuff on the next oil change.

 

[srobak]

Since this a warranty item, why not have it done next visit to the dealer? Unless you are a total do-it-yourself type, I would let the dealer unbolt stuff on the next oil change.

It's only 2 bolts. The same 2 bolts you need to remove for an air filter change. And yes - I'd rather do it for $25 than let a dealer do it for $100. It is probably the simplest maintenance you can do on this car other than checking the oil level.

 

[srobak]

Trouble is, what the dealer considers low, and what *I* consider low, aren't necessarily the same thing.

This.

They told me the same thing, too... they are in spec. BS - "in spec" means I can see.

 

[ksoze]

And yes - I'd rather do it for $25 than let a dealer do it for $100.

I thought it was a warranty item?

 

[amartz]

I thought it was a warranty item?

If it's "In Spec" (cough, cough), what's the warranty issue?

 

[FAUDR]

Good point. If it is "in spec" how can I convince them to adjust it anyway?

 

[amartz]

The dealer where I bought mine in North Carolina, the tech that worked on it and I got to know each other, just from chatting when I brought it in for oil changes, etc. He did want I wanted, and showed me how, just to keep a customer happy. And, he's a motor head anyhow, so we struck a common cord, talking about our Jeeps, etc. The two dealers I've been to in Jacksonville seem to go out of their way to keep the customers separate from the techs. I haven't had to go to either often enough to try to work around that, yet. But in this case, since you can adjust the headlights with just the right length screwdriver, there's really no need to get the dealer involved.