Headlight alignment ?

I was driving behind a friend and he mentioned to me that it seemed like i had my bright lights on. I have noticed when i'm behind people while driving the light cutoff is kind of high and i would assume from the their point of view it must seem like i have my high beams on.

DS2 projectors and 3" lift

Does anyone know if there is a specific height your headlight cut off is supposed to be at ?

From the research i have found to align the headlight vertically you have to be on a flat surface and 25 feet away from the wall, or what ever your using to determine your cut off line, and your cut off line should be 2" lower than your actual bulb/projector output that shows up on wall (most concentrated part of light hitting the wall). So if you measure from the headlight (most centered part of projector, or bulb) to the ground your cut off line should be 2" lower than that measurement. Halogen bulbs should be at the same measurements. As far as ground to cutoff height i have no idea if their is a number i should be adjusting too so i can compensate for the lift. Is it as simple as adjusting the headlight 3" down from where its supposed to be for compensating the lift ? I wonder if it will even adjust that much down.

Update:
Found a resourceful video provided by Ford .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t16PaSm9Nb4

Also found some very good information on a Subaru forum.
http://legacygt.com/forums/showthre...ights-if-you-dont-know-now-you-do-54740.html?

Any input would be appreciated.

 

Park an average car infront of you, as if you were pulled up behind them at a light. Then aim the lights to just below their side mirrors, and you should be good.

When you start adding lifts, it becomes more of a guessing game than a measuring one.

 

. x2 on the guessing game with lifts but I would try to crank it down 2-3" inches. Remember you will have to do the fog lights too.

 

Lifted or not, aiming your headlights is not a guessing game. There is a set procedure on how to properly aim your headlights. Unless you're running over 3" of lift, there's no reason to not use the standard procedure, if you're over that then you might have to start messing with your lights so you can still see but you aren't blinding everyone.

 

Good idea, but i am kind of worried about it being an accurate alignment too stock.

Yah, i was thinking about just aiming down about 2-2.5" from cut off line to compensate.

I actually used the same procedure, but that factory procedure is with the tacoma at stock height. I would assume just subtracting the lift from the cutoff line would work, but i guess there is only one way to find out. If i could get a measurement with a non lifted tacoma 25 feet away with a measurement from ground too cut of line that would be perfect.

 

I always thought there was a specific height the cut off is supposed to be at for every vehicle. I mean, i have gotten tickets in previous cars lowered where the cop said my headlights are too low, you would figure what difference it would make if the cut off is adjusted to the right height, but they don't see it that way.

 

Sub'd

 

It's pretty cool when your lights are aimed high and lights up the whole interior of the car in front of you. I never bothered to aim my lights down after the lift.

 

Gotta see the squirrels in the trees.

Most shops have a level or other tool that they can adjust your lights with, No excuse to have them aimed bad.

 

Updated 1st post
guess i will just follow the procedure in aligning the headlights and angle them down to compensate the lift.

 

I did this with my lights a couple weeks ago. I used the shorter distance from the wall than the 25'. It's in the instructions, I thinks it's 9' or something. I used a piece of drywall laid up against back wall of my garage. The needed adjusted down about 6".

 

6" seems like a lot. What size lift do you have ? I was thinking about adjusting them down 2-2 1/2" to compensate a 3" lift then just fine tuning it. Wish i would have thought of this in advance before lifting the truck so i could have gotten some stock height measurements of the headlights.

 

Can anyone without a lift get me a measurement from the ground to the center of the bulb in the headlight for a 2nd gen 05-11? I would really appreciate it.

 

Just use the numbers they give you here. You draw a grid out on a wall and align your lights accordingly. You don't really need to worry about your left to right. Just up and down. Oh, I'm only lifted 2.5" in the front. But they were way over the grid line and I was always getting people flashing their lights at me.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/attachments/2nd-gen-tacomas/204698d1364900463-headlight-alignment-foglight_adjustment-1-.pdf