I put in some bosch plus 90 bulbs and its made no difference really, bulb patterns are aimed at just in front of the car but if im closeup to something then it lights up normally but distance wise the bulbs seem to give off poor lighting.

 

How do you know if you've installed h7 bulbs the wrong way round? pretty sure i put them in right though as they would only go in by the metal tab thing on the bulb going into a groove inside the assembly, maybe they are just aimed too low? also on mine i didn't have to turn the bulbs any way they just came out with the connector?

 

Also why do people say to turn screws near the headlights? when there is buttons inside the car to raise them? on my light controller in the middle is a way to adjust lights and my car is a mk3 standard, like below i have this button in the middle that in the manual says to use for adjusting lights? if so why does my car also have screws near the headlight assembly?

 

Yeah i just looked and my car has adjustment screws it seems near the headlight connector but also this headlight levelling button inside the car, why two and which to use?

Place into the headlight first with the tab facing up then place the connector on to it and click it in place.

I don’t know anything about your bulbs. The screws on headlamps are for setting them up when the car is built or when the suspension springs have sagged as car gets older or if body bent from accident damage etc.  the adjustment In the car is to adjust for different loads eg a ton of stuff in the boot causing the headlamp angle to change.

I'm pretty sure the headlights are in right, how do i adjust them if the button inside the car only changes the angle for different loads etc? guessing i will need to higher them by turning the screws next to the headlights under bonnet? i think i might take a headlight out and double check the way i put the bulb in and if its right i'll have to get them adjusted at a garage i guess just so i know its right as i can barely see anything at night unless up close.

I just went out and took both lights out and checked the bulbs and they're sat right with the tab at the top, is there anyway to do the adjusting myself? halfords wants £15 per bulb and my local garage wants £20 and that just seems too much if its as simple as sticking a screwdriver in and twisting it or should i just pay it?

There are 2 sets of white plastic hex bolts on the headlight unit, 7mm if I remember correctly. The one at the top adjusts it left to right and the one at the bottom of the unit does up and down. 

Park opposite a flat surface on a flat road and mark the current beam pattern cut off with tape, then slowly adjust each side until you are happy. You can Google what height they should be and how far you park from the wall. 

Personally I'd get a garage to do it for me, I have in the past and all I was charged was a couple of beer tokens. Get it right once and it's done for life. 

4 hours ago, Jonro2009 said:

There are 2 sets of white plastic hex bolts on the headlight unit, 7mm if I remember correctly. The one at the top adjusts it left to right and the one at the bottom of the unit does up and down. 

Park opposite a flat surface on a flat road and mark the current beam pattern cut off with tape, then slowly adjust each side until you are happy. You can Google what height they should be and how far you park from the wall. 

Personally I'd get a garage to do it for me, I have in the past and all I was charged was a couple of beer tokens. Get it right once and it's done for life. 

Okay, so using the buttons inside the car wont do anything etc and you have to actually do them manually? might get a garage to do them for me then as knowing my luck i'll make them worse but i did change the setting using the buttons inside the car and it seems the headlights have gone higher but i changed it back to 0 just in case as people are saying to do it the bolt way not buttons inside car.

When i press the middle button and twist it from 0 to 4 the lights seem to go up and down which is why im confused about having to use the bolts at front of car.

45 minutes ago, Corey65 said:

Okay, so using the buttons inside the car wont do anything etc and you have to actually do them manually? might get a garage to do them for me then as knowing my luck i'll make them worse but i did change the setting using the buttons inside the car and it seems the headlights have gone higher but i changed it back to 0 just in case as people are saying to do it the bolt way not buttons inside car.

When i press the middle button and twist it from 0 to 4 the lights seem to go up and down which is why im confused about having to use the bolts at front of car.

Ok so I think there has been a bit of cross wired going on. I will break it down for you to try and avoid confusion, I don't mean to patronise anyone so apologies in advance, text can be hard to write and read sometimes. 

 

In your original comment you said that the dial is set to zero but the beam seems to low. So zero is the highest setting for your lights and should be used when the car has just one or two people in it and an empty boot. As the weight inside the car increases you need to turn the dial from zero up to four (or any other increment that feels right), at level four the motors inside the headlamp unit lower the angle of the beam to compensate for the front end going up due to the weight inside. 

 

If the dial is at zero and the beam is still to low then your only option is to manually adjust the entire internal housing mechanically, this is where you use the plastic hex screws. 

 

With the dial in the car set to zero, turn the hex screw as suggested above to set the beam to the correct height. Once that is done you can then use the internal dial again to fine tune the beam in relation to the cars weight. 

 

Hope that makes a bit more sense, but in short you can use both methods, bit the screws should only needed once.

 

Think of the screws as the course adjustment to get the right starting position and the button as fine adjustment for the load in the car.

The reason that garages charge a lot for adjusting via the screws is twofold:

1) because when they do the adjustment they will use beam alignment equipment to make sure that the beam is neither too high or too low. If the beam is too low then you won't see much in front of the car; if the beam is too high you will blind oncoming drivers. Remember that the beam has to point downwards, not straight ahead, so the top part of the beam (the cutoff) should be below the level of the headlights, not in line with it;

2) because they can.

You can adjust it yourself, but as Jon says it needs to be on level ground and a specific distance from a wall to measure against. It is not difficult, but you do have to make sure you measure things correctly.

“Because they can”.  Sometimes they need adjusting for mot as front springs sag over time. Some mot testers will do this free when doing the mot test as it literally takes 1 minute extra.  Others will charge you at least a tenner extra.  This is one of the things you will more likely suffer from when they advertise cheap mot tests. The business survives on the extras once you have been drawn in by the cheap offer.

I asked my dealership how much they would charge to check the alignment on my 2018 Vignale headlamps with auto main beam. I was told £150!  Luckily when I checked them on a dark country line I could see that they were okay!

Hi 

I'm not sure from your original post if the pattern now is worse than the bulbs you replaced or the same. Can you clarify that?

If it's the same, then adjust the screws yourself as described above (I've used a reasonable sized flat blade screwdriver - it's pretty straightforward and you can see the effect straight away).

BUT if the pattern has changed due to you fitting new bulbs, then remove the bulb from the electrical connector, place them firmly against the housing and THEN push the connector on - don't push the bulb all the way into the connector, otherwise you'll get just what you describe.  Ask me how I know!!!!!!

9 hours ago, alanfp said:

Hi 

I'm not sure from your original post if the pattern now is worse than the bulbs you replaced or the same. Can you clarify that?

If it's the same, then adjust the screws yourself as described above (I've used a reasonable sized flat blade screwdriver - it's pretty straightforward and you can see the effect straight away).

BUT if the pattern has changed due to you fitting new bulbs, then remove the bulb from the electrical connector, place them firmly against the housing and THEN push the connector on - don't push the bulb all the way into the connector, otherwise you'll get just what you describe.  Ask me how I know!!!!!!

The bulbs that were in the car already were just your normal yellow standard bulbs, reason i wanted new bulbs was because they seemed to not light up the road well at all so i thought replacing the bulbs with whiter ones with apparently 90% more range (Bosch Plus 90's) would fix it but not really...the lights still seem to only light up a little in front of the car but when i look at other cars headlights they light up quite far in front.

I'm useless at explaining stuff so what i might do is take the car to a carpark or somewhere not lit up and take a picture, when i put the new bulbs in i pushed the bulb into the housing with the tab at the top into the groove then pushed on the connector but i think maybe my lights are just aimed too low. As for the beams they seem to shine just onto the road in front of me like the pattern and nothing is really bright until i get close to it so i'm gonna take the car out tomorrow night and see what they're like again and then drive into a car park and take a photo of my lights and see what you guys think.

 

To quickly answer your first question, beam seems the same as before.

I decided to play around with the dial inside the car with 1-4 on and moved it from 0 to 4 then back to 0 and it seems to of made some what of a difference, pictures aren't the best but do these look fine to you?

what i do notice while driving is the left beam seems to be shining on the road but the right isn't, thought it was meant to be left beam higher and right beam lower?

 

I'm pretty sure that both headlights should be the same height. 

All adjustments should be done at the zero position, as that's where the MOT tester will adjust the knob before he/she checks that you're not blinding other drivers.

Go on, be brave and get your screwdriver out and have a play with those adjusters (making a note of how many turns you make, so that you can always get back to your current position). 

Could be that the lamps weren't quite seated correctly and by moving them 'from the inside' has just helped them to line up properly. The height looks fine, and the cut off is well defined with the kick up in the correct place. 

Beam pattern can look different from inside the car, as long as no one is flashing at you then I would be ok with that.

2 minutes ago, alanfp said:

I'm pretty sure that both headlights should be the same height. 

All adjustments should be done at the zero position, as that's where the MOT tester will adjust the knob before he/she checks that you're not blinding other drivers.

Go on, be brave and get your screwdriver out and have a play with those adjusters (making a note of how many turns you make, so that you can always get back to your current position). 

Picture 1 shows the lamps are indeed at the same height. 

 

Pic 2 looks like different lamps tbh 

I ended up taking it to a friends garage near me just to put this to rest and he made sure the bulbs were properly aimed and he said they are fine and if i want more light then i'll need a lot more than just plus 90s but he did say these plus 150% lights etc don't last as long so i think i'll stick with these ones. Second photo was facing a different way with car park lights making mine look different but i can assure you both photos are with the same bulbs, seems adjusting them inside the car to higher settings then back down to the correct setting somehow fixed the issue.

 

Thanks guys!

12 minutes ago, Corey65 said:

I ended up taking it to a friends garage near me just to put this to rest and he made sure the bulbs were properly aimed and he said they are fine and if i want more light then i'll need a lot more than just plus 90s but he did say these plus 150% lights etc don't last as long so i think i'll stick with these ones. Second photo was facing a different way with car park lights making mine look different but i can assure you both photos are with the same bulbs, seems adjusting them inside the car to higher settings then back down to the correct setting somehow fixed the issue.

 

Thanks guys!

Like I said, it most likely helped the lamps to seat properly. 

If you have a friend with access to a garage them I'd suggest going there first next time lol