does the actual headlight housing move, or is it only the inside thing that holds the bulb? sorry for the dumb question but my headlights were so out of whack that I brought it to the dealer to aim them for me. After alot of turning, which I now realize I could have done myself but was afraid of messing them up more, the lights are aimed better. But today I noticed that one of my headlights is pushed in alot in the bottom right corner so it is not flush with the grill and side corner. From the side the headlight is tilted down and in on the bottom right hand corner. It kinda looks like it got pushed in a bit like from an accident or somthing that only hit the headlight. You can see the top of the little piece of metal between the headlight and the bumper when looking down on it. Hope thats not too confusing a description but is this something that can happen when aiming headlights or did they mess up my headlight? The other one is aimed the same as the messed up one except it looks fine and not pushed in.

 

I looked in my Haynes manual and it showed how to do it but it still recomended to have a dealer properly aim them.

Is there a trick to it or something?

 

It sounds like the lamp brackets may have gotten bent somehow - which probably generated the out-of-whack condition in the first place.

To answer your question, the housing moves within the bracket. The bulb stays put within the housing.

It's actually really simple to do. The issue is one of legality. A lot of states crack down pretty hard on folks that have misaligned headlamps. Reason being that if your driver's side lamp is, say, 10 degrees high and to the left, then you can really blind oncoming traffic. In some states, you can be fined/held responsible for causing an accident.

 

check to see if your headlamp is aimed correctly its a little plastic white screw on the back, just keep turning and the whole headlamp moves. Now below the headlamp is a little strip of painted metal, that moves also, so just adjust that one as well to get a better looking fit.

 

Must be a lot of Ford owners paying fines! Seriously, about 80% of the time I see misaligned headlamps, its a domestic.

Bob

 

I was gonna say I dont think they crack down on that around here cuase everyones headlights are outta wack including mine in my tercel. (big ole' deer caused it, blame the deer) My g/f's sunfire pass. headlight is outta wack but the adjustment screws are all corroded up so theres no chance for adjustment so I left them alone. The other ones all fogged up so its safe to say you can just about c as much with the lights off. I should really fix them.

 

Cant believe how stupid I was. When I got the bulbs I was rushing to put them on and didnt notice that I put them in wrong. Instead of the throng things on top, and on the sides of the bulbs, they were rotated so when they were on, the headlights aimed way too high. I didnt know how much of a difference it made because I put both bulbs in wrong so they both were off and I didnt notice it until after I went to get it aimed (total waste of money now) and they were still pretty high, but usuable. Only thing was the headlights were way overadjusted that it looked like how I described it above so I just popped it open and messed with it myself. After a lot of twisting and not getting anywhere, I finally realized to check the bulb installation and immediately realized how stupid I was. I put one of the bulbs in correctly and what a difference it made. I'm talking about inches in height difference. After fixing the other bulb I adjusted the headlights back to stock position and they work fine now. Cant believe the guy aiming my headlights didnt think to look at the bulb installation either. Guess he and others too, probably didnt think anyone would mess up something so simple. Bah, so all in all lessoned learned. Haste makes waste and all that stuff bout patience.

 

Yeah I did the exact same thing, except I just put one of the bulbs in wrong. I got behind a Tahoe one night and noticed one light was a lot brighter than the other one. Just went home, took it out, put it back in and now its perfect. Really makes you feel dumb.

 

On my 99' it's quite easy to do....

There's a spot you can use a philips screwdriver to turn a white plastic gear. It'll rotate the screw in and out. There are 2 of them on each side, one for setting the light L to R and the other for H and L....

Open the hood to access them, and easy way to adjust your lights is at night time and parked on level ground.