HID headlight alignment 68 dart

gmopar59 · Post by **gmopar59** » Wed Mar 22, 17 10:39 am

just have to align the headlights for MOT, anyone any experience with this? I've marked positions on wall. The web says to align main beam on the marks and then adjust so the beam is 50mm below the horizontal line.

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Wed Mar 22, 17 11:52 am

That will probably get you close, but might be difficult to tell if the lights are pointing straight ahead or not. I normally take the car for MOT with the headlight bezels off so I can quickly adjust the headlights on thier beam tester. HID headlights on older cars are actually an MOT fail but I guess you already know that.

gmopar59 · Post by **gmopar59** » Wed Mar 22, 17 12:19 pm

It went through 2 years ago but i know the rules have changed since then, should i replace the bulbs? With what?

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Wed Mar 22, 17 12:55 pm

That ruling came in more than 2 years ago so you should be fine, and anyway I don't think many stations actually enforce it. It's retrofitting HID to an older vehicle that's the problem not the bulbs as such. The arguement is newer vehicles have reflectors designed for HID, older ones don't and dazzle is the result. I seem to recall Auto Trader were actually campaigning to make sale of the aftermarket kits illegal.

gmopar59 · Post by **gmopar59** » Wed Mar 22, 17 1:16 pm

shovelheadrob · Post by **shovelheadrob** » Wed Mar 22, 17 1:36 pm

The problem with Hid's is as Blue rightly pointed out, the reflector doesn't work with them so you don't get a proper beam pattern. There are now available hids that are designed to work with reflectors, I haven't seen them in use so can't comment, but the best solution is retrofit projectors, I fitted these on my truck & I can now drive at night safely.
As far as the MOT goes, factory hids have washers & auto level, aftermarket obviously don't, I believe that the mot manual says that these must work if fitted. There is also some blurb about "E" marks but that is not testable & doesn't apply to an American import anyway.

gmopar59 · Post by **gmopar59** » Wed Mar 22, 17 3:02 pm

what about DR2 or DR4 bulbs to work with the old halogen reflectors. I don't really drive at night so it's just to get it through the mot. Or where can i get projectors and are they easy to fit.

shovelheadrob · Post by **shovelheadrob** » Wed Mar 22, 17 3:19 pm

I think that the ones with an R suffix are designed to work with reflectors, I have my truck tested at the local Ford main dealers & they passed mine with projectors, well they actually failed it initially for headlamp aim too low, I'd explained that as I usually have over a ton on the back axle they were set so that they were level when towing my 5th wheel, so I had to wind them up then wind them down again. They're still better than the lights on most cars even then. I had my projectors built in the states as complete units, but there are plenty of places selling retrofit kits, mine are morimoto units, the hardest part is splitting the old units, that's with modern plastic lights, I don't know how you get 7" H4 units apart.

gmopar59 · Post by **gmopar59** » Wed Mar 22, 17 3:37 pm

i might give them a go, electrics are beyond me, still have a couple of weeks to go.

gmopar59 · Post by **gmopar59** » Mon Mar 27, 17 8:32 am

got this sorted with a couple of H4s, enough to get me through the mot. Anyway the dart is finished after just over a year, will post in another section.

PaulR · Post by **PaulR** » Mon Mar 27, 17 7:55 pm

HID lamps are fine on any car for the MOT if correctly aligned. As Rob said IF fitted with wash and self leveling these must work. No failure if factory fitted wash and leveling are removed.