skinnyboy09

Does factory Honda adjust the headlights the right way? My uncle bought the same car as mine and his driver side seems a little lower. I've tried to adjust my driver with a screwdriver, but when I turn, nothing seems to change. Am I doing something wrong here? I was driving home on the highway one night and driving behind a Honda Civic, he moved over to let me pass and got behind me to turn on his high beam just to proved a point, which I couldn't care less since I have dimming mirrors. Does anyone else have the same problem? Does factory come properly adjusted?

NBP04TL4ME

Historically Acura has always had the driver's side adjusted a little lower to prevent blinding on coming traffic. I can't speak to the 2019 RDX, but assume it is the same.

NooYawkuh

That's generally the case with all vehicles - the left is aimed a little lower and the right is aimed a little higher to illuminate road signs. Take a look at p. 189 of the Owner's Manual. It discusses the Adaptive Front Lighting System (AFS). I don't know which trim packages have that (I know the Advance does) but that page shows the general lighting patterns.

Others have mentioned they tried to adjust their headlights and the screws do nothing. Don't mess with them. You can't aim headlights by eyeballing them. Have the dealer or shop do it.

Burger Steak & Eggs

I've had people flash me also, and so I mentioned it to the dealer. They checked the headlight aim and claimed it was within spec.

JB in AZ

The LED lights are very directed, and have a sharp top cut-off...if you enter the slightest dip and then as you exit the dip, and your car rises up, it is easy to blind an approaching vehicle. Not much yo can do about it.

Burger Steak & Eggs

Just guessing on this, but IMO the high color temperature (bluish tint) doesn't help when it comes to aggravating oncoming drivers. If they used warmer LEDs, say 4000K, I think it would help....but again, 100% guess.

skinnyboy09

I was gonna mention this to my dealer, but I guess I’ve already know what they’re going to say. I guess we will just have to get used to people flashing us, since we’re so fancy 😂

Wander

The "screws" will work, but it takes a lot of turns with a phillips screwdriver to make anything happen. The more direct approach is usually to pop the plastic cap off the back of the adjustment mechanism and turn the bolt directly with a small socket wrench. It may take half a dozen complete turns of the screwdriver, on the little "gear" attached to the bolt, to equal a quarter turn of the bolt. I am speaking in general, I haven't attempted to adjust these specific LED headlights.

But without an aiming chart, you're shooting in the dark, so to speak...

As for the adaptive LED headlights, they are only active in turns. An additional "jewel eye" is illuminated on the side the vehicle is turning toward, relative to the normal "low beam" setting. In their evaluation, IIHS did note excessive glare to oncoming drivers when an adaptive headlight is active.

But I don't get flashed in turns, it's usually when the road is undulating vertically and the sharp cutoff moves up and down.

( Same deal with our 3rd-gen MDX with the "jewel eye" LED headlights ).

Marty790

I adjusted mine, the screw work but you need to be far from a wall to see the movement of the light going up or down and also need to make few turns to see a difference.

NooYawkuh

I only referred to the AFS page in the manual because it also shows the lighting pattern of the standard headlights. The pattern is not symmetrical.

Wander

Correct. The pattern is required to be asymmetric to comply with regulation.

But if you look carefully, you will see that each "headlight" ( or LED cluster ) casts a beam that is asymmetric, in addition to some asymmetry between left and right "headlights". It's not just a matter of the right headlight assembly being aimed higher. And for countries where they insist on driving on the wrong side of the road, it's asymmetric in the opposite direction.

guytdt

Guys, the adjusting screw on the left (driver side) doesn't seem to move headline up or down, but right to left.
Mark your "step" (center) of your left headlight on the walk, then turn the screw and you will see the "step" move left or right depending on direction you turn the screw.

The adjusting screw on the right side does move headlight up/down.

JB in AZ

Please don't mess with the headlight adjustments yourself, you will be sorry. Leave it to the dealer.

Eric Cioffi

How can you test the aim?