XC70: General Headlight adjustment hex drives

[apersson850]

Originally Posted by Tatsfield

The picture shows the two sets of up and down adjuster apertures.

I'd say it shows you need to clean up your engine compartment.

[Tatsfield]

I already did when I saw how bad it was when taking the pictures! The car is parked up under a conifer tree and this time of the year the leaf fall is horrific.

[monkeh]

Well the one closest to the indicator is a very fine left/right.
Best adjusted by covering other headlight and parking the car 5 meters from the wall. I used Mrs. Monkeh's nissan parked in the same place. Chalk marked where the headlight cutoff is.

Inner is up/down, quite coarsely. Outer is left/right very finely.
My drivers beam was too far left, too far down. Why the mot station doesn't pick this up is beyond me, I've changed venue since my last mot.
Must see new parts and just pass it because "parts cannon".

The left/right is a fine adjustment but from afar, the adjustment is quite pronounced.

[Puffster]

Originally Posted by Tatsfield

Every year after MoT I find that the headlights on my '12 XC70 have been adjusted far lower than necessary. I need to raise them to the max allowable. I know I could find out this from trial and error, but can someone tell me three things:

1. Which of the two hex drive adjusters controls height? Inboard or outboard location?

2. Which way do you twist the adjuster for up? Clockwise or anticlockwise? Same both sides?

3. For good measure, now that I'll know which the side to side adjuster is, which way do you turn it for left and right and is it the same both sides?

The picture shows the two sets of up and down adjuster apertures .

Thank you for any help you can offer. Once I know, I'll write it down and never trouble you all about it again. Promise!

Going to ask a silly question but there's a height adjuster inside the car, for when you have a heavy load in the boot or maybe towing something with too much nose weight. Why don't you adjust it down at MOT time so that the station doesn't adjust yours?

I have to own up to having been cursing my lights as useless and then I discovered they were set to the lowest setting

Quite why a car with nivomats has this feature I really don't know!!

[Tatsfield]

From the owners manual:

Cars with Xenon headlamps* have automatic
headlamp levelling and therefore do not have
the thumbwheel.

My XC70 has Xenons so I need to raise the beams at the lamp housings, which I have done and am now satisfied to drive without having to switch in and out of main beam all the time. On very dark country roads I do use the main beams but on urban dimly lit roads the raised dipped beams are quite acceptable.

[passenger]

Originally Posted by Tatsfield

From the owners manual:

Cars with Xenon headlamps* have automatic
headlamp levelling and therefore do not have
the thumbwheel.

My XC70 has Xenons so I need to raise the beams at the lamp housings, which I have done and am now satisfied to drive without having to switch in and out of main beam all the time. On very dark country roads I do use the main beams but on urban dimly lit roads the raised dipped beams are quite acceptable.

can you please explain how did you raise beams? I have xenon and the need adjusting asap

[Tatsfield]

If you look at the picture in the very first posting in this thread you'll see two red boxes drawn on the picture. In each box there are two apertures accessing a 6 mm hex bolt. The raising and lowering controls are the two inboard ones. Use a miniature 6mm socket and adjust with the beams shining on a wall so that you can see them move as you turn the bolts. 2 turns is about what you need to raise them from a standard setting to a high but legal one. If they are lower than that to start you might want to experiment with another turn but test the beams out on the road to see where they fall and that they are not too blindingly high. Don't bother with the side to side adjustment.

If you are going abroad and will be driving on the right hand side of the road, there is a dipping adjustment on the lamp housing but you have to remove the two "skewer" fixings by pulling them out and then you can pull the whole lamp out of the car and see the dip change lever and once you've changed its setting, you can put the housing back and the "skewers" when replaced put it in exactly the same position as it was before removing it. You have to do both sides.

[passenger]

[passenger]

6mm socket. Works perfect to adjust

picture upload sites

[yostumpy]

Took Volvan for it's MOT today, and thought I'd adjust whilst there. Chap put the light box in front , and I said,'

Q. how much more can they raise up then ?'

A. well, they're about where they want to be for an MOT really,but they could come up a bit maybe,

Q. Ah, I just so happened to bring along the requisite tool,would you mind if I just... .......

6 half turns later.......each

A. Oh!, That's probably about the max really

Now wait to see what an improvement it makes. Thanks for all the info folks.