Wild West

I've been banging my head against a wall working with a dealership to get this problem fixed, so I decided to consult the Great Internet Knowledge Base. Here's the long version (and a bit of venting to people who might just understand

A month ago I took my Z in for its first oil change, and I decided to have them install the nose mask because the front bumper was being destroyed by road debris. The tab that fits between the headlight and front body panel didn't fit in the gap, so the genius mechanic forced it in, stripping the paint off the bumper, front left body panel, and sratching the headlight lens. Dealer fixed everything and replaced the headlight lens, but now my driver's side headlight is really messed up (touring model with Xeon headlights).

Instead of getting a nice 'flooded' light pattern in front of the car, there are basically 3 big blotches of light, and a lot of dark. It makes driving at night really difficult because I can't see the driver's side lane markers more than about 10 feet in front of my car on a darkish road, and the forward visibility on the left side of my lane is about 3/4 of what it is on the right side.

After 3 failed attempts to fix the problem, I had to sit down with the service advisor at the dealer yesterday and help him find the page in the factory service manual that details adjusting the headlights (shining them on a screen... etc). They did that, and it helped some, but I still have this really distracting light pattern on the left side of the car that greatly reduces visibility.

If anyone knows anything about this, I'd really appreciate any input you might have!

Thanks!!!

Wags

I've been planning on reading the service manual because mine are a bit low but i don't think "un-focused"... I know I saw a thread here once about the "aimed low" complaint... try a search?

Wild West

Yeah, been searching... Lots to go through, but I have the dealer stumped, and the people I've talked to at 1-800-Nissan1 are clueless.

The light adjustment thing is pretty simple according to the factory service manual... I'll try to remember to post it back up here tomorrow (left the diagram at work), but basically you just park 10 meters (silly people using metric units) away from a wall, and all you need is a tape measure to see where the brightest part of the headlight beam is, and there's a little adjustement screw behind the light fixture that you twist to move the beams up and down. I guess my problem is just a bit deeper than that, though.

I just shouldn't like driving this car so much because then things like this wouldn't bother me like they do!

alphared

have you made sure the bolts holding the housing is secure? maybe you should look at making that centered and then play around with the extra fine adjustments

spn350z

Service manual list only one adjustment screw, on the "inside" side of the bulb (towards engine) below bulb.

The other attachment screws do not seem to provide for adjustment. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the bulb itself was inserted incorrectly....upside down!

Looks like a bear to remove and reinstall. May want assistance from a friend with small hands.

Wild West

Thanks for the input folks. Being the dork that I am, last night I found a dark parking lot (in a safe part of town!) and basically diagrammed the headlight pattern and gave it to the dealership service department that screwed it up in the first place, and told them to keep trying to figure out what else could be wrong because I think we've beaten that single adjustment screw to death.

I'm thinking it might have something to do with the position of the bulb with respect to the lens, and that it might just be producing multiple 'images' of the headlight, like an out of focus movie projector? Then again, I might not know what I'm talking about. We'll see what they come up with.

Sweet BB, by the way!

Wags

I think you're right, The up or down part sounds easy enuf, I just haven't had time to get a round tuit. I would guess your lens is too close or far from the bulb, or I like the upside down idea. Hope it's not a defective lens, but I'd suggest (strongly) that they try another.