Aiming Headlamps, US Elips

[Qube]

How does one go about aiming the headlamps for US elips? Now I spent a good 20 minutes searching with various keywords here and on Google, but came up either very vague or nothing at all... I even tried a single word search "Aim, aiming" here to no avail...

[Qube]

Don't mind me if I'm talking to myself. For the benefit of other 'searchers' and with a clear Thread Title, I'm posting my 'research' here

Yes, it is adjustable. The adjusting screw is behind the panel beside the lights. Depends on which style you have, the flat kind, no opening, there is a little tap on the side, push in, the panel pop off. the one with openings, just pull them off. You will see two black screws, one is to adjust up and down, the other is to remove the lights. I don't think there is Left and Right adjustment.

"they're there. two phillips head screws/bolts for each bucket. they are partially hidden by the plastic grill."

Yes, they can be adjusted for Up and Down, and left and right. (there is also the adjuster inside the car for height - used for load carrying).

To adjust for height, stick a screwdriver in the the little gap in the front grill between the main and low beam lights on each side.

The left and right adjustment is done from under the bonnet. There are 2 adjusting screws.

Hmmm... now what the heck are those two long, plastic threaded pieces just beyond reach for, under the hood?

Of course, this will probably make more sense once the sun comes out in about 6 hours...

[liquidtiger720]

those are the left and right adjusting screws. Be careful, the plastic breaks easily. Mine are already broken =x.

[Mobius]

Yeah, screw the plastic bits. Mine broke long ago - which is fine because they were impossible to turn anyhow. If you remove the turn signals, you can access the front of that adjuster which has a phillips head on it.

One adjustment is on the top and to the outside of both lights - and it hidden behind the turn signals normally. This screw also has a plastic bit on the back which makes you think you can turn it by hand - this is a lie.

The other adjustment is on the bottom and to the inside of the lamp, and is accessible though a small hole in the grille from the front of the car.

I'm sorry I can't remember which screw adjusts horizontal and which vertical; but it'll be apparent when you start turning them.

[everest]

The hard part is finding a wall that's 25 feet away with a flat surface.


http://www.bmwe34.net/e34main/mainte...adjustment.htm

[Qube]

Thank you. I combed bmwe34.net and printed that out earlier. I have a school nearby to try with tonight. I hope others searching will find this thread useful as well

[Qube]

Aimed. The cutoff is now nice and neat For the record, the adjustment screws are accessable between the high/low lamps, behind the grill. You'll notice that there are two hole cutouts (in mine anyway). That's where you will need a philips screwdriver to do the job. Clockwise to lower. Counter-clockwise to raise. Again, these are to my 1989 e34 535i, but should be similar to yours.

-- END RESEARCH

On a side note, this investigation lead me to see that one of the high beam lamps were held by wire, where the screw socket was broken!