Headlight adjustment for lowered cars

[rob275 1817]

Seems like a fair waste of money unless you're on easily adjustable height suspension such as bags.

[Mike 458]

It's possible I've made this up, but I thought a dealer could reset/recalibrate the levelling sensor after lowering?

[Jamie_GRMN 177]

3 minutes ago, Mike said:

It's possible I've made this up, but I thought a dealer could reset/recalibrate the levelling sensor after lowering?

Nope you haven't made it up, it can be done electronically through the OBD port and a few button presses 

[S18 RSG 429]

Couple of things the nay-sayers perhaps aren't considering.

The Cusco (or similar) solution is around £40, this is around double that, which ok, is a big difference, but it's still only £40 more. This solution, however, takes 5 minutes to fit (literally 4 wires), and can be adjusted in 1 second. The leveller bar takes probably 30 minutes to fit if you have the right tools and equipment, and have no issues removing bolts etc. It then probably takes at least 10 minutes to adjust, should you need to.

For me and I imagine a few others, this solution would be perfect, as I like to fiddle with suspension setups a fair bit, mostly due to the variety of roads I drive around (I take my car to steelworks and power plants a lot for example). Having the ability to adjust the headlights with the press of a button is easily worth £40 for me, for those reasons among others.

Of course, if the dealer can do it for free or cheap via ODB, then that's maybe a reason not to spend £80 on this, but again, that's still massively inconvenient for lots of people.

Pics/instructions supplied by @James@Amber

[Hoax 21]

Thanks for the pics @S18 RSG

That valenti solution is what i am looking for, definitely in for a group buy

[Mike 458]

1 hour ago, jamie_gt86 said:

Nope you haven't made it up, it can be done electronically through the OBD port and a few button presses 

I knew it! Guessing it's a dealer thing and not something anyone can do?

[Mark-in-Stoke 488]

Neat trick, liking this a lot.

Just one question, on the valenti box (5) wires are showing but it looks like the green wire doesn't get used, is this correct?

[S18 RSG 429]

Just now, Mark-in-Stoke said:

Neat trick, liking this a lot.

Just one question, on the valenti box (5) wires are showing but it looks like the green wire doesn't get used, is this correct?

Possibly a ground wire? Not 100% sure obviously, but only thing I can think.

[Kodename47 446]

3 hours ago, Mike said:

I knew it! Guessing it's a dealer thing and not something anyone can do?

I'd assume Techstream and cable is required.

[benmmellor 44]

ok so would this be a necessary tweak if I drop on 25mm Eibach springs?

[S18 RSG 429]

6 minutes ago, benmmellor said:

ok so would this be a necessary tweak if I drop on 25mm Eibach springs?

I'm lowered around the same amount, but on coilovers, and my headlight range is pretty poor. I can't imagine how bad it is (or was) for those lowered 40mm+

[Devo 7]

52 minutes ago, S18 RSG said:

I'm lowered around the same amount, but on coilovers, and my headlight range is pretty poor. I can't imagine how bad it is (or was) for those lowered 40mm+

I'm on coilovers dropped around 40-50mm and my headlight range was shocking, around 2m infront of my car. All I did was play around with the 8mm bolt on the back of my headlight. It seemed to have done the trick and the range is better then before lowering. Can someone explain why would you buy the Valenti device or cusco rod when there is adjustment bolt on headlights??

[S18 RSG 429]

5 minutes ago, HubertK said:

I'm on coilovers dropped around 40-50mm and my headlight range was shocking, around 2m infront of my car. All I did was play around with the 8mm bolt on the back of my headlight. It seemed to have done the trick and the range is better then before lowering. Can someone explain why would you buy the Valenti device or cusco rod when there is adjustment bolt on headlights??

Do you have a Primo? The Primo came without auto lights, in which case I can understand why you might be able to adjust the lights with a bolt. 

Most of us have the auto HID lights, which are auto levelling using a fixed bar on one of the rear lower control arms. The only way to adjust the height is through software or by replacing the bar with a shorter one (the Cusco unit).

[Devo 7]

37 minutes ago, S18 RSG said:

Do you have a Primo? The Primo came without auto lights, in which case I can understand why you might be able to adjust the lights with a bolt. 

Most of us have the auto HID lights, which are auto levelling using a fixed bar on one of the rear lower control arms. The only way to adjust the height is through software or by replacing the bar with a shorter one (the Cusco unit).

 I have a 2013 Subaru BRZ with HID lights and the fixed bar at the back of the wheels. All headlights still seem to have the adjustment bolt at the back to adjust the vertical aim. I also had a 2013 GT86 in the past and the bolt was exactly the same and did the same thing. It is a plastic bolt attached to the adjustment motor, this bolt is attached to the projector. 

[S18 RSG 429]

4 minutes ago, HubertK said:

 I have a 2013 Subaru BRZ with HID lights and the fixed bar at the back of the wheels. All headlights still seem to have the adjustment bolt at the back to adjust the vertical aim. I also had a 2013 GT86 in the past and the bolt was exactly the same and did the same thing. It is a plastic bolt attached to the adjustment motor, this bolt is attached to the projector. 

Hmm, interesting. A bit of information around on the US forum, and a video on Youtube shows this adjusting the lights too.

No idea why nobody else seems to have found this, my only thoughts are that maybe the amount of adjustment isn't enough if you go too low, or the way in which the adjustment is done using this method is wrong, but I don't know.

I'll have to crack out the sockets at lunch time and give this a go.

[Rich 378]

You can spin the adjustment bolt off the screw threads in the motor if you adjust too far is the issue.

[benmmellor 44]

so in essence, the safest method is to just fit the Cusco adjustment bar to a)save screwing up the light adjustments or b ) using th OBD adjustment..??

[Devo 7]

6 minutes ago, Rich said:

You can spin the adjustment bolt off the screw threads in the motor if you adjust too far is the issue.

I'm not sure I'm following as it seems like the motor can be removed and attached again to the headlight. If I spin the bolt off the screw threads surely I can just spin the other way and attach it again? 

[Rich 378]

9 minutes ago, HubertK said:

I'm not sure I'm following as it seems like the motor can be removed and attached again to the headlight. If I spin the bolt off the screw threads surely I can just spin the other way and attach it again? 

If you spin the bolt too far it may slip and no longer be aligned with the screw threads. You can get it back in, but it requires removing the headlight motor (which generally requires removing the headlight). It's fixable, but a pain.

[Lauren 2259]

6 hours ago, benmmellor said:

so in essence, the safest method is to just fit the Cusco adjustment bar to a)save screwing up the light adjustments or b ) using th OBD adjustment..??

Yeah, it's a sure way of just sorting it and is what I did. It works fine and I can see where I'm going at night. 

[Captain Duff 79]

On 12/17/2015 at 2:52 PM, Mark-in-Stoke said:

To fit you first make the new one the same length as the old one

Then if your car is lowered 30mm you reduce the new one by one third so 10mm shorter

It's that easy

 

 

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, I've just got a Cusco headlight adjuster ready to fit with some coilovers in a couple of weeks, the instructions are in Japanese only so is this still the current adjustment guidance advice for them, or has it been tweaked following installation and use by anyone?

[Mark-in-Stoke 488]

Hi Mate, My wife had some on her 86 at the end of last year and yes it's still the same set up, although you can play with them a little if you want.