I reckon I'll have to take a look at the alignment of mine before I completely write off these headlights. In my opinion, my car is dangerous to drive at night.

One thing I've noticed in the owner's manual and/or service manual (probably both, I haven't looked recently) is that the left low beams are supposed to be lower than the right ones to avoid affecting oncoming traffic. And, this is the way mine are aimed.

I'm at about 30/40% until my next service, so I think I'll mention the alignment to a dealer before I make some adjustments on my own.

I've also noticed that the high beams appear to be concentrated at a central point down the road, instead of being somewhat spaced out as I'm used to. So, I'll try to remember to mention this also to the next dealer I see.

Everyone who has adjusted their headlights, speaking for myself only, I'd certainly appreciate y'all posting the long term results of making the alignment changes, ie whether or not oncoming traffic is protesting the new alignments.

Fred
'05RL, VIN 7,000's, and 29,000+ miles (I think I've previously misposted my mileage, but it's over 29,000 now)

 

You know the funny thing is this: While I found out how to change the level, and have pointed it out here, when I try to change the level, nothing happens.
I put the screwdriver in, and no matter how much pressure I exert-the lights go not change.
So I am wondering, as some of you have done this, do you actually see the lights change in height? I know I have the screwdriver in the right place, because I can see that I am affecting the lights, I can see vibration, but thats all.
How many turns does it take to make a height change.
I would appreciate any help from the other users.
Thanks.

 

There maybe some slop in the cam mesh from the screwdiver to the gear so it takes maybe 5 turns to see the difference.
I use a flashlight to locate a 12 inch #2 phillips into the collar and then adjust away! You may have to push fairly hard, I too rotated for a while with no results. There should be additional resistance when you are turning the gear inside the collar. Hope this helps.

 

I have a 2005 RL and the headlight were so bad that I installed HID Highbeams and now the headlight system is amazing. When you have the high beams on the low beams also stay on so you can now see great in any situation.

Paul G.

 

paulgo, can we see some pics of Hid highbeams? What HID kit You have for highbeam. Tx.

 

Do you want to see a night photo or the installation? I bought the Philips conversion kit with 6000K bulbs. I wish I had bought the bulbs with a lower temp of around 4800K. The difference is amazing well worth it!!!

 

I would also like to know the details. Is it an easy install? Where did you place the additional ballasts for the high beams? How extensive is the rewiring, if any.? How easy or difficult is it to get to the high beam bulbs? Who did you buy your kit from? Did it come with everything you need? Do they also have the 4800K bulbs?

I agree with you that the lower temperature bulbs are much nicer than the bluish/less powerful (read less light output) 6 to 8K bulbs.

 

Also-did you disable the DLR?
If not, are you concerned that the continious 2V into the ballast will eventually burn them out?

 

Aren't the low beams on all the time anyway?

 

OK Here goes. I did the install myself and it wasn't difficult at all. First I had to take off the covers on the right, left and front of the car that hide the motor. Then I had to take the strap of the battery that holds the battery in place off. This will allow access to the high beam bulb on the drivers side of the car. The other side is accessable by just sticking your hand down through the opening. The trick on the passaenger side when installing the new bulb is to look in through the front of the headlight to see if you are getting the aliment correct. Once the bulbs are in place you have to hook up the ballast. On the good upgrade kits the wiring goes from the bulb to the ballast to the cars original plug for the bulb and then you have to wire the ballast directly to the battery so that the current drain won't damage the cars wiring system. To mount the ballast you can do this two ways. First you can drill a hole up under the fender and screw it down or the kits come with VERY storng double sided tape. The tape works very well and if you wedge it in place there is no place for it to go. Tie wrap the excess wires and route the hot lead over to the battery and your done. You do loose your day time running lights (DRL) and the excessive voltage wont fire the ballasts and from what I am told this is no problem. I did buy my system from Ebay and there is only one guy that has the geniune Phillips systems with the wiring harness that goes directly to the battery (Very Important) he also offers any tempature bulb that you want. He talked me into the 6000k bulbs which look amazing if your comming at the car but they arn't as effective as the lower temp bulbs. If I had it to do over again I would choose anywhere from 4000-4800K temp bulbs MAX. The system makes the headlight system great instead of being useless! The only negative is that the alignment isn't quite what I would have liked and I haven't tried to reaim them yet. One last note, as with any HID bulbs when you first turn them on it takes about ten seconds to fully energize, once they are hot you can flip back and forth without any problem. I hope this answers your questions and I will be happy to help if you need me. It's amazing to me that with the quality of this car and the price tag that Acura would put halagon bulbs in instead of HID, my 2004 TL had both HID high and low beams and they worked great.

 

Nope. The high beams are on at 2 volts (instead of 12) for the daytime running lights.

That conversion kit, though, sounds pretty sweet.... although really, the high beams aren't bad at all even though they're halogen. Nothing that a 120W halogen bulb wouldn't take care of, anyway....

 

...I meant at night when the lights are on...my low beams are on all the time...switching to high beams just turns on the high beams...maybe I'm misinterpreting an earlier post...

...just noticed your reply...

 

I had a regular service a week ago at about 32,000 miles and asked the dealer to check the headlights. I told them I thought they were too low and requested that they under no circumstances adjust them any lower.

Contrary to the experience of several others here, the dealer adjusted them *way* higher, and now I think they are much too high.

BTW, if this is the way they are supposed to be adjusted, they are more than adequately illuminating the road, at least on my brief excursions after dark with the RL this past week. I've been in another vehicle this week.

The low beams are now aimed straight down the road...no visible cutoff on the pavement at all, and with the cutoff now visible along the roadsides and now far, far, down the road, if at all into the distance. The low beams now shine straight down the road about as brilliantly as my highbeams on my other car, the '94 Accord. In fact, I can drive without high beams.

The manual states to park the car 25 feet from a wall, measure the height of the headlight at the car and then take that measurement to the wall...the upper pattern of the low beam (where the cut off is clearly visible) on the wall should be 2.1 inches below the measured headlight height. I notice that the manual shows both right and left patterns are to be measured the same way with the same measurements.

Everything I've read shows the beam patterns with the left beam lower than the right beam.

My preliminary measurements (I'm having difficulty finding the time/place to measure this since I live in the middle of nowhere and don't have a handy level wall) are that the left current low beam is 4 to 7 inches above that measured headlight height on the wall and the right beam is about 12 inches above it.

They didn't have a cabin filter in stock when I had the service done , and the new tips have now come in, so I've got to schedule another appointment for those and will have the lights rechecked.

What gives? Can anyone verify what the dealers are doing now regarding headlight aim for the '05RL?

 

BTW, after seeing how high the right headlight is now aimed, yesterday I attempted myself to adjust it down to at least the current level of the left one, but without success. I couldn't get the translucent cover over the adjustment wheel turned so that the adjustment could be accessed, and additionally, I don't have a long enough phillips...I even took the covering off over the top of the front grill in order to see and reach the adjustment hole, but no go.

Do the dealers use a special tool for accessing and then adjusting the headlights? The manual states to use a phillips, but what size phillips is best for this?

I'm still going to let the dealer follow up, but may eventually have to do it myself or have someone else do it.

 

How hard did you push. I tried and could not get the screwdriver to mesh. Was afraid of breaking something. I too tried a #2 12 inch craftsman screwdriver.

 

everyone should check with thier state inspection regualtions, because the dealer tech informed me that i'll have to adjust the light to the way it came from the manufacture before going through state inspection, or it'll be failed.
I tried mine two weeks ago and ended up aiming it too high, and cracking the leveling control. Make sure when your adjusting the housing, to park the car at a distance from a wall or a garage door, because you won't know how high its aimig untill you blind incoming traffic, what exactly happened with me. after getting my new headlight, I asked my wife to park her car facing mine and checked whether my lights were bothering her or not.
The dealer replaced both headlights and they cost $1570.90.

 

I didn't push hard at all because there is clearly a plastic cover over the adjusting hole. I didn't fool with it very much, but decided that before I attempt to lower the light, someone who knows how will have to physically show me how. I'll ask the dealer to do this when I get this car back in.

 

Exactly. This is why I posted on this site awhile back that in my opinion it's best to let a dealer handle the aiming...since mine were adjusted, I've only made a couple of short 24 mile trips after dark, and so far, no one has flashed...however, based on how they were aimed prior to the adjustment, I think they are clearly aimed too high...I would have settled for a bit higher than they were originally.

Heh, the reason I've not driven the RL this week is because my other vehicle needed an inspection sticker and after transferring all my "stuff" into that vehicle, I decided to just commute in that car last week.

...all they checked at the inspection was to make sure the lights came on...

...roun' thes'n 'heare parts, we'uns jus glad we's gaht ahh laht...(with apologies to Faulkner, Morris, Welty.)

 

Some dealer in certain strict States cannot perform that, because its a liability matter. In Va for example they can lost thier inspection license plus other penalties, so i had to do it on my own.

 

By the way, pushing hard won't crack the housing, over turning WILL, and you won't realise that until you try to lower the light housing but with no success

 

Took the car back in last week to followup on the last service...the cabin filter and exhaust tips were in.

At that last service, this dealer adjusted the headlights so high that the cutoff was several feet up on road signs as the car went by...the low beams were shining straight down the road, with no sign of a cutoff except way off into the distance...if the cutoff could be seen at all.

This time, they appear to be aimed a bit higher than they were originally. ..and properly aimed as far as the right being a little higher than the left one. I made one brief trip to town over the weekend, and I think they should be tweaked a little higher yet...however, I will live with them awhile before making a final judgment on the aiming.

The main factor I will be weighing when making some upcoming night trips of a few hours each, will be the fatigue factor and whether or not getting these lights up a little bit will help with that. As originally delivered, making several hour trips at night was an ordeal.

So far, this dealer has not charged for aiming the headlights. I'm not happy about being put through the experience of having those lights adjusted up so high, but did learn from the experience that the low beams aren't dysfunctional because of lack of brightness...the trick is getting them aimed.

 

I also took my RL in to the dealer to have him check the headlights. He called me back and said that not only had they measured the aim according to the service manual, but brought up a new RL for comparison purposes. He said that the aim was spot on, but he was able to adjust them up a bit and told me to try it out. Any further adjustments would require a call to Acura. I did try them out and the improvement meets my needs now. YMMV.

 

I finally had an opportunity to check mine against a known wall (in Alabama) after that last visit to a dealer. These observations are a bit rough, but close enough to compare with the way these lights were originally reaimed by this dealer...and were reaimed way too high in my opinion (the managing advisor, who did not check me in on that last visit, stated that they "thought" I wanted them up like that...but nothing I said either in my email or to another advisor when checking in supports that). I regret that I don't know how these lights were aimed at delivery...except that they seemed awfully low...and I suspect, possibly to specs.

The top of the left beam is even with the headlight height measurement taken at the car and the top of the right beam is 6 inches higher.

I've made two 3.5 hour trips after dark with the current adjustment, and my initial impression is that I would prefer the left beam to be a bit higher still. The cutoff of the left beam is so prominent that it's difficult to say whether the right one is OK or not. On a smooth 4-lane the limitations of these headlights (whether endemic to HID's in general or to Acura's interpretation of the HID's) are not all that apparent, but on a two lane country road with undulations, that cutoff caused by the left headlight beam is at times uncomfortably close to the car and additionally, the cutoff appears to get further and further towards the middle of the road, eclipsing any effectiveness of the right beam.

The current aim is better than as delivered, but IMHO, although adequate, still falls far short for serious, extended and safe night time driving.

YMMV.

So, I will ask to have that left one aimed a bit higher at my next dealer visit. The last time there, I had requested through the service advisor that the tech show me how to aim the lights, and further, I sent an email prior to that service requesting this, but that didn't happen. I sat in the waiting room for 4 hours at that appointment for the headlight aiming, the tips and cabin filter and was certainly available for that. With the variability in getting information to the techs, sometimes I'd much rather talk with a tech in person when having this type work done to the car.

I still don't know how to do this myself, but perhaps that's for the best.

Fred

 

I reaimed my headlights, my experience was this: I raised both to the max height and found that the left was still slightly lower than the right as you have found.
I think the issue is there is a cutoff built into the lense that is slightly lower than the right lense.

 

Fred,
Wouldn't using the high beam on the 2 lane road be a solution? I find the combination of the hi/lo beams to provide tremendous lighting - better than any previous car I've owned.

 

That is correct, there is a cut-off built into the lens pattern, and it has to be that way, lest the low beams be essentially nothing more than high beams and blind oncoming drivers.

It's a different philosophy than the standard USDOT lights you're used to -- rather than just using a much dimmer bulb (like the majority of US cars do) the idea is to use the headlight lens to throw a sharply-defined pattern of light with a significant cut-off, to maximize illumination down the road without blinding oncoming drivers. It's set to throw light higher on the right side to illuminate road signs and pedestrians.

BTW, if any of you are thinking of buying the Japanese headlights and mounting them, they're likely going to be reversed -- because they drive on the other side of the road, and you'll find them to be pretty unsuitable for US driving, since they'll just blind other drivers and not light up road signs.

I think many of you don't realize how much more effective the RL's headlights are than other cars' lights, because you're focused on the cut-off, and not the actual illuminated area. The cut off is that much sharper because the lights are that much brighter -- it's daylight beneath the cut off, but it's abrupt so you notice the difference much more than you would with the old bow-tie US DOT pattern... and then you think it's somehow not as efffective.

I think if you compared it side-by-side with most halogen US headlights, you'd find them far better.

 

I am actually very happy with the lights, although I didnt like the way they were aimed low.
For me, raising the aim was all I needed-I got more distance, and if I want even more light, I can always convert the high beams to HID as one member of the blog did.

 

so you drive around with your high beams on all the time? good job!

i think the thread creator just doesn't like the output of HID projectors. it has nothing to do with "the RL's design." a lot of people dislike the superior lighting of HID projectors just because of the sharp cutoff.

and to people adjusting their headlights themselves. the passenger side is supposed to be higher than the driver side.

i've driven next to RLs many times and i think the headlights light up the road damn good.

 

his high beams are only on when he uses flash to pass or when the headlights are on and he selects high beams.
During the day- nothing is on, the 2V is not enough to even give off a faint glow.

 

You can't use HIDs in DRL setups to begin with... maybe he's confused brighter halogens with true HIDs?

 

There's no question HID's take a little getting used to. The first ones I had (in a BMW) were so shocking I actually asked them if they could retrofit halogens to it. The BMW halogens were so good that I considered the new HID's and their "curtain of darkness" to be a safety hazard. But I got used to them and now love 'em.

But I think mfr's have reacted to criticism from non-HID-owning drivers about the brightness of oncoming HID cars by setting the beams lower. This thread is soooo much like one on the Infiniti M35/45 forum ... where Infiniti also seems to have purposely aimed the headlights lower than necessary. Like some here, we've worked through it by cracking the code on adjusting them.

I was driving two other HID cars when I got my M, and its lights STILL needed to be raised, so it wasn't lack of familiarity with HID's.

 

I still want to know what type of screwdriver to use. My #2 12 inch craftsman won't fit in the hole.

 

I used a #2, it barely fit, but it did work.
you have to make pleny of turns but it will eventually move.
Best option, aim at some object that has horizontal lines so that you can see the outline of the edge of the top of the beam. You WILL see it go up after about 7 turns.

 

yes you can-but the DRL wont give you any reduced lighting-the 2V isnt enough to charge the ballasts.
but the high beam would be 12V and that would work just fine