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S4 (USA) headlight adjustment specs?

6K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  tubut 
#1 ·
The headlights of my friend's S4 Spider need to be adjusted.

The Cardisc CD contains specs for asymmetrical European headlights (files S124031.jpg and S124032.jpg referring to pages 40-31 and 40-32 of publication PA446600000000) but no information for USA cars.

Can someone please let me know where I can find USA specs or what they are?
 
#2 · (Edited)
The 'wall method' works fairly well, or you could haul it to a shop and have them use the special headlight alignment thingie for it. (hangs on the little nipples on the lenses and uses mirrors and a sort of crosshair arrangement)


To do the wall, driver must be in seat, and fuel tank at the half mark is ideal.

On a level surface nose right up to a nice light colored wall (side wall of a shopping center or the like work well) one and turn the high beams on.

Make a masking tape cross at the vertical and horizontal centerpoint of each headlight. (the horizontal line can be a few inches long, or one solid strip from the left to the right)

High beams still on, back straight up 30 feet and see where the brightest part of each light beam hits. (they won't have that light pattern the Euro lights put out, but there will be a distinctly brighter patch from each headlight)

Adjust both first by setting it so the brightest part is centered on, or just to the lower side of the horizontal part of the cross.

Adjust the horizontal so that on the right side the brightest part is centered on the vertical line of the cross.

Adjust the horizontal on the left side so the brightest part is to the inside/right of the vertical line of the cross.

If set as above, once the low beams are activated, both bright spots should be just a bit below the horizontal line(s), the left shoud be to the inside of vertical, and the right may be just to the outside of it's vertical.

Take it for a drive with a screwdriver handy as even though they are adjusted correctly, you may want to fudge a bit on either light. (though that's usually only about 1/4 to 1/2 turn in any direction)

Note, the above will not make a huge bright spot 3 feet in front of the car so that the brightest part of the projected light is 10 feet out on the road. (you want to have the abilty to look way down the road, not at what's 15 feet in front of you. well, at least if you want to have some time to react to upcoming situations anyway)

It's meant to give the most possible distance to the high beams without being overly glaring to oncoming traffic. (which it won't be. you may even find that the highbeams can be left on with oncoming traffic, yet they don't get all light flashy and horn blowy-y like they are being blinded. However you'll be able to see street signs reflecting up to around a mile - mile and a half out)

In the attached, the top part is about where the lights should be aimed with the highbeams on and the bottom part is approximately where they'll switch to when the lowbeams are turned on.
 

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#3 ·
Great! Thank you very much for taking the time to put these instructions together!
 
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