Stripped Headlight Adjuster Screw repair DIY

Im sure plenty of people have had this issue with aftermarket headlight assemblies. You go to try and adjust your headlights because theyre pointing at the tree tops only to find out it doesent matter how many times you turn the adjuster screw; they just wont come down!
I purchased my prius from a customer at my garage, who over the years i have done a lot of repairs on this particular car. He brought it in one time and asked if i could adjust the headlights because hes blinding people with the low beams and high beams are useless unless youre searching for owls. I concluded that the adjustment screws were stripped and ended up just shimming the top of the headlight assembly up a bit with an oversized nut and a longer bolt. It helped a bit but was still a nuisance.
Time passes and now the car is mine and im sorting out the quirks and glitches. Considering a new pair of aftermarket headlight would cost approximately $150 and I would still be contending with the low quality plastics and inferior adjustment screw mechanism, I decided to explore the real issue. I searched around this forum and google and you tube and found that what people are doing is separating the lens from the housing and replacing the plastic adjustment nut on the inside. That seemed like a lot of effort when i tried to separate the lens and I felt like it could break at any moment so i stopped and this is what i came up with and it worked!!

 

These are the style headlights. They have that bluish color to them.

 

So first i used a large hole-saw (2 5/16" is what i had available) to cut an access hole to the up/down adjuster, It has to be large enough so you can get your fingers and some wrenches in there. I held the assembly up and drilled from underneath to minimize the amount of debris entering the inside of the headlight.

 

Then I pried off the locking washer on the inside with a mini pry-bar tool and removed the adjustment screw with a pair of vice grips. This part was tricky so take your time and work the lock washer off slowly and turn the screw as you go.

 

Then i drilled out the adjuster screw hole with a 1/4" drill bit and de-burred it by hand with a larger drill bit.

 

Next i purchased a pair of 1/4" x 2-1/2" bolts, four 1/4" hex nuts, two fender washers with 1/4" hole, two regular washers with 1/4" hole and a pack of M6 metric washers. I ran the bolts through the stripped plastic adjusting nut and it threaded itself, i used some Teflon white lithium lubricant to help it along.
I removed the rubber O ring from the original adjustment screws and set up the bolts as follows: regular washer, metric washer then O ring. I lubed the assembly and inserted into the headlight. On the inside i put the fender washer and the two nuts. I kept everything loose and threaded the bolt into the plastic adjuster nut .

 

After installing the bolt i snugged up the first nut just tight enough that the first outer most washer can still move with your finger tips, that way i know there wont be any resistance when adjusting. Next i used the second nut to 'lock up' against the first one. I used a 5/16 and an 11mm wrench to tighten them together.

 

Finally I cleaned the area with rubbing alcohol and used some aluminum duct tape to seal up the hole to keep out any dust and moisture. Installed the headlights and adjusted them with no issues. So far so good. I hope this little trick can help someone out. Feel free to add your thoughts and ideas.

 

I like those too. I thought about just buying them but Im was trying to avoid putting too much money into this restoration, theres still other issues im contending with. MFD screen is broken, wind shield has a crack and itll need tires soon too.

 

Yeah i seen the video on youtube where the guy heats up the headlight in the oven. I tried using my heat gun but it was stressing me out because i kept thinking it was going to break.