adjusting headlights 2000 pathfinder

[D21disciple]

o.k. ... after doing a search here and thinking that i had the headlight adjustment thing figured out, i FINALLY get outside on a night that is neither too cold nor too wet and go at it.

 

i couldnt have designed a more cockamamie set-up if i tried !

 

i can see the "bottlecap" adjusters and i can even get them turning but no matter which way i turn them i get absolutely no difference in the aiming of the headlights .

 

there is a 6mm (?) bolt in the centre of each bottlecap but i wasn't able to access them with the limited tool selection i had brought with me ... are they supposed to be loosened for this operation ?

 

also, which one controls side-to-side and which one controls up-and-down ? as i say, i could get the bottlecaps turning, even without loosening those little bolts, but no movement of the aim no matter what i did.

 

help ! i am starting to hyper-ventilate here !

[Towncivilian]

EL-35

Edited December 18, 2013 by Towncivilian

[D21disciple]

hi town, and thanks for that link, but unfortunately it tells me even less than i learned from searching this forum .

 

anyone done this recently that can shed some light ?

[ranki1]

I actually just did this on an 04 that I recently bought and had to do some front end work on. There are two adjustments on each headlight, and they look like "bottle caps" with a small bolt holding them in place. The outside ones are low down at the back of the lights, and are the up and down adjustments. You don't mess with the bolt, just insert a #2 Phillips screwdriver into the hole so it can turn the bottle cap. I think clockwise is "up". and counterclockwise for "down". The one more easily visible near the top on the inside back of the light is the left/right adjuster. Mine had a metal cover over these two that I used a small screwdriver to pry them off. It takes quite a few turns to see any movement of the beam up or down etc, so stick with it. I drove right up to a cement wall so I could see the beam easily, then lowered my problem light down to the same height as the other one, then moved it in towards the center of the road a bit. After a test drive I think they are a bit low, OK for now, but will probably raise them both up a bit in the future. The adjustments took only a few minutes, figuring out how to do it took way longer.

[bushnut]

ya it takes quite a few turns to notice any difference. its probably 2 turns of the "cap" for 1/2 degree of angle movement.

[D21disciple]

thanks very much . i wound up searching this on youtube and a guy had a brief video how-to on this that matches your description. the key is to put a phillips in there and spin the "bottle cap" with it, as though you were spinning one gear with another gear.

i was nudging it, notch by tedious notch, with a slotted screwdriver. i haven't tried the phillips yet, but i can clearly see that it will spin it much better.

 

thanks again !