Adjusting Headlight Aim

On the smart ForTwo this was incredibly easy to do. Not so on this car!

I think someone else mentioned their lights seemed aimed too high, and I agree. My first drive at night I was shining into the back seats of the cars ahead of me, and into the trees instead of on the road. It took a bit of looking, but I finally found the adjustment.

First, I parked the car in front of the garage and marked the brightest spot of each light with tape, on low beam.


The adjustment nut is directly behind the light, on the back side of the module. It's gray, and is an 8mm nut. In this photo, looking straight down behind the left light, it's the small gray nut in the center of the photo.


The top, inboard edge of the light assembly is stamped with a symbol depicting the direction to turn the nut to adjust the light UP or DOWN.
IT'S WRONG!! Turn CW for beams down. Turn CCW for beams up.


Find a 6" long, 8mm wrench. Shorter than that and you can't reach the nut. Longer, and it's likely to be hard to turn it very far. As it is, even with the short wrench, it's only possible to turn the nut about 1/16 of a turn each pass, because of the restricted area. Tie a string to the wrench. If you don't, you'll be crawling under the car multiple times or finding it stuck in a very hard to reach spot.


It's a very tight spot on each side. Here's the left side.


Aiming for the right side.


In my case I'd say I did at least a full turn of the nut, maybe two turns to get the aim correct. Good luck. Find someone with small hands.