E30 Zone

my car goes in for MOT on tuesday, all looks good except the headlight beam, it is well high, how do i adjust it please? cheers matt

Do you have a headlamp beam adjuster knob, fitted in the panel above the driver's knees?
(Don't expect it to work, even if you have.)

hello, just got back from work, no i haven't got one.

Brianmoooore wrote:Do you have a headlamp beam adjuster knob, fitted in the panel above the driver's knees?
(Don't expect it to work, even if you have.)

i have one, that doesnt work, would love to get it working mind, is it feeesable/doable without too much grief ? or just not worth bothering ?


matty- hows the cabby mate ?

hello mate, yea all good, done loads to her since last saw you, just getting her ready for the MOT, the beam is well to high thou, and cant seem to adjust it at all,

how's you and the is?

good to heat mate, got the body sorted ?

my mot this week , then if all smooth a rocker/inlet refurb and injectors cleaned/refurbed, its running sweet , just fitted a rear shelf blind to go with the rear head rests and map mirror, and my other set of wheels been refurbed (check out the thread in general e30 chat) very pleased with them and going to look the business i hope when on the car

polsta wrote:

Brianmoooore wrote:Do you have a headlamp beam adjuster knob, fitted in the panel above the driver's knees?
(Don't expect it to work, even if you have.)

i have one, that doesnt work, would love to get it working mind, is it feeesable/doable without too much grief ? or just not worth bothering ?


matty- hows the cabby mate ?

Not repairable with any reliability, but whole new systems are available from BMW.
Best 'repair' is to replace the hydraulic adjusters with the electric ones from an E34 or (with more work) an E36.

any idea of a rough cost of the whole job all done brian what im looking at for an idea?

why brian was asking is when they fail (and the almost all do) they can fail in the high position, thus its a case of turning the knurled knob on the adjustment "motor".

As your does not have one then next thing is to change the adjustement using the white adjusters, look at the rear of your light (remove the plastic cover if its there) and you will see two white plastic adjusters, one for up and down the other left to right. they normally break resulting in a floppy light. the adjusters i talk of are located at 2 Oclock and 7Oclock on driving light in the pic below (you can see same system for main beam adjsutment).



it is a case of adjusting with these...but spray loads of WD40 on the thread before you start and turn VERY gently as the plastic inserts thet thread into break easy and the light will be loose and certainly fail MOT

matt325ievans wrote:hello mate, yea all good, done loads to her since last saw you, just getting her ready for the MOT, the beam is well to high thou, and cant seem to adjust it at all,

how's you and the is?

Note that for the purposes of a MOT test, the beam just has to be pointing in the right direction. How you achieve this is entirely up to you, and can involve anything from doing the job properly, to bodges involving things like cable ties, washers under the fixing screws, wooden wedges, silicon rubber, or concrete blocks in the boot.
First thing to check is that all three of the ball ended steel rods that the light fixes on are pushed into the plastic cups that they fit in, and that the cups aren't broken, allowing the headlamp to flap about at will.
If all is intact, you'll have to hope that the two adjuster screws on each headlamp haven't seized beyond what a little WD40 can fix. If they are, BMW sell new adjusters.

polsta wrote:any idea of a rough cost of the whole job all done brian what im looking at for an idea?

They were about £70 a few years ago, but, as we know, many bits have quadrupled in price since then. The electric route all looks OEM to the uninitiated, and is 10% reliable (says the person whose very last BMW job yesterday was to replace a duff headlamp motor!)

of thanks for the feedback, i have sprasyed the adjusters with wd40 a couple of hours ago, and am now going to have a look at what has been said, watch this space...