Headlight aiming

My Prius was delivered with headlights aimed so high that on low beam, the tops of trees were lit up and street lights would turn off. Manitoba Public Insurance requires electronic headlight aiming, and after aiming I'm quite pleased with the beam pattern.

I forget if the machine was European or America, here is one that looks similar to the one they used:

http://www.hopkinsmfg.com/oha.html

 

There's no philips screw adjustment for the 05 Prius, nor are there any instructions in the 05 manual. Any other information.

Thanks, Ken

 

Would somebody be kind enough to SHOW and EXPLAIN HOW and WHERE to readjust aiming headlights for 2005 Prius?

 

littleprius, if you had searched you'd have found this.
http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=15426&hl=

 

Sorry. I took a very high resolution picture of the adjusting bolt, but apparently I'm low on "global space" and fear if I lose any more resolution, you won't see it. I'll try now.

 

First of all, I drew a jagged red circle around the star wheel/bolt in question. No, I don't have the DT's, I'm just not very artsy-fartsy and couldn't draw a line to save my life.

OK, while in the condo parking I played around with it. An 8mm socket will fit on the adjuster, or just use the philips on the star wheel as the manual suggests. Actually, for the driver side, that's about the only way you could possibly adjust it.

I had a tech do mine, but I watched. It doesn't take much to adjust the aim. I forget if turning the star clockwise will raise or lower the beam.

When you park in your garage, turn the lights on and put a 12 inch strip of masking tape along the beam cutoff. Prius headlights have a very sharp cutoff, so this is easy to do.

Carefully adjust the beam cutoff, no more than 1/4 inch higher or lower. Do this at night, so you can go out for a quick spin to see if you have the desired results.

Another option is to find an unused country road, or a very long driveway. Throw a blanket or jacket over one headlight, then carefully adjust the other headlight until you like the beam pattern.

It's always safe to adjust slightly lower, to avoid dazzling other drivers. Also, like most cars, the headlights should be adjusted when the "normal" load is in, say a driver and a passenger.

Note: if you have HID, which has auto-level adjust, I'd leave it to the pros.

 

We have driven our 06 Prius for about year, mostly *not* at night. But when we do, there are frequent 'winks' from oncoming traffic, presumably because they think we are on high beam. When I asked the dealer about this at a routine checkup I was told that these don't adjust in any traditional manner, and it requires (I no longer remember what) major changes in the vehicle. After another evening drive I looked in the forum and low and behold, my dealer seems full of , um, well this is a family forum right?

Looks like I need to tinker with it myself...

Jim

 

<_< I recall that the 2004 Owner's Manual did have an illustrated paragraph instruction for adjusting the headlights "aim" - which I did on my 2004. I have a copy of that page if someone in this thread would like it.

Traded the 2004 for a Touring Edition 2007 with HID headlights and thus far have not found it necessary to adjust the general "aim" of the HID headlights. I must specify, however, that the "aim" must be OK since I do not get "flashed" by oncoming traffic.

 

That is very unhelpful sir.

 

I have a 2006....I did not have to remove the "radiator support cover"...had plenty of room leaving it in place...also, I did not have a philips head to adjust the aim, mine were 8mm nuts.

I'd post pictures, but INSERT A PICTURE asks for a URL, and UPLOAD FILE says "There was a problem uploading your file", but doesn't say what it is (the image is NOT large, if that's even the issue).