E30 Zone

I was hopping mad

Is it me or is this major picky. Has the world gone mad?.

The clown in the garage says im sorry but the headlights wont adjust. He's says he has tried with a screw driver.

What is the requirement on the mot test for headlight beam?.

I dont know but they arent too cheap from the dealers I think he might on on about the lower adjustment which is controlled from in the car.
I take these off and put a normal adjuster in and leave them like that

The adjusters do have a tendency to seize up, as their screw threads rust. Had to use alot of penetrating oil on my E34's to get them to move at all (plus a little judicious bending of the mounting brackets). MOT testers are quite hot on headlamp alignment it seems

As long as your lights throw a beam within the marks on the wall you should be fine, whether they adjust or not.

I just had to do mine, all were seized solid. Take the whole light assembly out and hammer the threads and the balljoint ends in wd40. Swear, smoke, drink tea. Then take a pair of mole grips and squeeze the plastic part that the thread actually screws through, repeat this in several positions (not you the grips). Re-apply wd40 in copious amounts. I then removed the plastic ends that you hold to turn the adjuster as they just break up if you put pliers on them. With the mole grips still attached to the plastic barrel, turn the steel end of the adjuster which has a square shaft with pliers or similar. Hopefully hey presto! Re-fit the plastic finger friendly adjuster ends and re-fit.
Just to stop similar future headlight related shenanigans, i dried off the wd40 and hammered the bas***** in copper slip.

Bob_S wrote:I dont know but they arent too cheap from the dealers I think he might on on about the lower adjustment which is controlled from in the car.
I take these off and put a normal adjuster in and leave them like that

Why would you want to replace these? Although the remote adjustment facility is unlikely to be still working, the manual adjuster on these is plastic on plastic and doesn't seize.
There was a change in the MOT requirements for headlamps a year or so ago, and the spec is now quite tight. Tester's not supposed to adjust them either.

I sorted it out with garage owner in the end.
He was very reasonable about about the whole thing.

Small plastic part of the adjuster missing from when I swaped to 'smoked council lights'.

which piece of plastic was missing the fingure friendly bit? mines just failed on one headlamp being out of alignment! they didnt even try to adjust it! bit crap really. If I just adjust it down a little bit will it pass???

they didnt even try to adjust it! bit crap really

I know what your saying mate,but at the end of the day you are only paying for a test........sometimes a tester may try to adjust them,but they do not "have to".
If your adjustment is too high,it will fail the test,just like if your emissions are too high.

The adjusters(metal thread into plastic)can seize solid from what i have seen...........i soaked some in realeasing fluid for a month and two still wouldn't move,so boiled some water and poured it into the plastic mould formation around the thread houseing and let it stand for a bit and this realised the seized threads ............worked for me anyway

Mine failed on adjustment amongst other things-I did everything else & took it back asking them to do the adjustment as I guessed it would be a pig and re-test. From a distance I saw the first mechanic call his mate to have a go after he failed to manage it. Both of them then called an older fellow over who had got a young apprentice with him. After about twenty minutes, all four of them looked blank, shrugged their shoulders and re-tested it with a pass cert. When I got home after being charged £20 for the adjustment I had a look and guess what!! Nothing had been done at all and the beam is still too low, being a touring the next time I'll stick a couple of kerbstones in the back, that'll raise the beam for the test.

padi wrote:which piece of plastic was missing the fingure friendly bit? mines just failed on one headlamp being out of alignment! they didnt even try to adjust it! bit crap really. If I just adjust it down a little bit will it pass???

if you tell them to do the work then it wont fail. i tell the garage were i take mine to call me on any faults so i know wat there doing work wise. ie if it needs bulbs, wiper blades small stuff just do it if its somethink big call me to arrange somethink in getting it done with prices save coming back to garage to have a fail sheet over somethink stupid

Bewdley320T wrote:Mine failed on adjustment amongst other things-I did everything else & took it back asking them to do the adjustment as I guessed it would be a pig and re-test. From a distance I saw the first mechanic call his mate to have a go after he failed to manage it. Both of them then called an older fellow over who had got a young apprentice with him. After about twenty minutes, all four of them looked blank, shrugged their shoulders and re-tested it with a pass cert. When I got home after being charged £20 for the adjustment I had a look and guess what!! Nothing had been done at all and the beam is still too low, being a touring the next time I'll stick a couple of kerbstones in the back, that'll raise the beam for the test.

Has this car got a headlamp leveling knob down by the driver's right knee?

You can buy the adjusting bolts from GSF for a couple of quid each

I thought they would have done that to be honest, so may just adjust it down a bit and see wot happens, but will tel them if anythin needed to tell me. Ill probably stay this time and wait for it. Mine has the adjuster, but guess what, it doesnt work!lol. Not really too worried about the headlights as have a complete set of smoked angel eyes to go in with hids. Just need it to pass first!

no the garage isnt gonna touch your car if its in for an mot your in for a test only not for work to be carried out
why do ther bits for you when they can charge you for it .....................................

Yep thats true because what would you say to them if they tryed to adjust the headlights and damaged them. Most MOT stations will let you adjust the headlights at the time of the MOT. I have dead head light dipping system but can adjust them with the collars from the back of the headlight.

You can also just push the headlight to the right position while MOT man checks them and as soon as he moves to the other headlight let go and do the same on the other side

lol or you could just be a good friend of the tester like i am lol