headlight aiming

[Tad]

Does anybody have experience aiming the headlights on a Gen V? I believe after some driving and a little bouncing of the headlights, they have settled down and are aimed too low now. It is easy to out-drive them at the speed limit. People have even commented on them being low. Does the back cover to the projector have to come off, or is it the little screw/dial just below it to the right that aims it? Thanks in advance if someone knows.

Tad

[Steve-Indy]

Drop an e-mail to me and I'll send you what I found on the 2014 Service Manual CD.

[Tad]

message sent

[Andi]

Message also sent.

[dethred]

Is the beam pattern supposed to be double-stepped? Mine is the first car I have ever seen with projectors that has two step downs, and the aim is pretty damn low.

[Steve-Indy]

Guys, what I found on the above referenced CD left the "how to" question unanswered...at least to original poster. I just checked 2009 and 2015 CD's with same info being found. The Service Manuals have ALWAYS left out certain details as they assume operator has a given level of training, skill, and experience. C-J-D-R Techs can obtain more info on Tech Connect. I would suggest that you inquire at your local dealership for the specifics.

By the way, headlights are only adjustable vertically per manuals...something that I have not needed to attempt as yet. Sorry.

[Andi]

I inspected the headlamp housings last night and figured it out.

The vertical adjustment is easy to find. It's the only adjustment screw on the back of the headlamp. I raised both of mine about an eighth of a turn (up is CCW; down is CW).

FYI, I also couldn't find a left-to-right adjustment, which agrees with Steve-Indy's post above.

Cheers,
Andi

[Steve M]

I inspected the headlamp housings last night and figured it out.

The vertical adjustment is easy to find. It's the only adjustment screw on the back of the headlamp. I raised both of mine about an eighth of a turn (up is CCW; down is CW).

FYI, I also couldn't find a left-to-right adjustment, which agrees with Steve-Indy's post above.

Cheers,
Andi

This was the same with the Gen 3/4 headlights...you can only move them up and down, not left and right. I know exactly where the adjuster is on those, but have never poked around on a Gen 5.

[Andi]

image.jpg

Here's a pic of my R headlamp. The one Philips head you see here is the vertical aim adjustment screw. Ccw is up, cw is down.

[txA&M08]

Is the beam pattern supposed to be double-stepped? Mine is the first car I have ever seen with projectors that has two step downs, and the aim is pretty damn low.

No beam pattern should ever have 2 step-downs. It most likely means your left one is aimed too low. The steps for each side should be level with each other and converge as the beam gets further from the car, to where they perfectly overlap and appear as one.

Mine on my Gen 2 took some aiming after I retrofit projectors and the steps meet up at around 50 yards out.

[dethred]

No beam pattern should ever have 2 step-downs. It most likely means your left one is aimed too low. The steps for each side should be level with each other and converge as the beam gets further from the car, to where they perfectly overlap and appear as one.

Mine on my Gen 2 took some aiming after I retrofit projectors and the steps meet up at around 50 yards out.

I agree, but after asking around, it appears that the Gen 5 Vipers have two step downs. I'll grab a pic and post it shortly.

I'll add a more helpful one against a wall 25ft away when it's dark. But on this one you can see the left/Driver's headlight lower cutoff level is about 1" below the divider on the garage door, and the right one is level with it.

From a distance it looks like this:

`````````_________
``````___/
_____/


Instead of this:

````````____________
_______/__/

[Malu59RT]

The driver side beam is intentionally lower because it's supposed to prevent blinding oncoming traffic, especially in two lane roads. All of my HID equipped vehicles exhibit this. Is this what you are talking about, or am I misunderstanding the issue?

[txA&M08]

``````````````____________
_______/__/

Interesting. I've had a few cars with HID projectors and all of the beam patterns look like this one. I wonder why the gen 5's would step down twice...

[Andi]

Ideally it should look like this:

````````____________
_______/__/

If it looks like the following, your R lamp is higher than your left:

``````````_________
``````___/
_____/


Now.. one thing I'll say about the viper gen V headlamps (as well as my hellcat headlamps, as I think it's the same projector internally): it's not a perfect stairstep. That is, each lamp's beam pattern looks to me kinda like this:

`````__
____/````-----


In other words.. they start out low on the left.. have a high spot at the stair step, but then instead of staying high all the way to the right, they come back down as you sweep to the right. The left headlamp's drop is actually "before" the right headlamp's stairstep, so if they're both aimed properly and at the same height, you end up getting a little bit of a gap / dark spot bettween the high spots of the two headlamps. To combat this, in both cars I've intentionally aimed the R headlamp slightly higher than the L one, in essence actually causing a little bit of that double stairstep effect..

Hope this helps.

[dethred]

Ideally it should look like this:

````````____________
_______/__/

If it looks like the following, your R lamp is higher than your left:

``````````_________
``````___/
_____/


Now.. one thing I'll say about the viper gen V headlamps (as well as my hellcat headlamps, as I think it's the same projector internally): it's not a perfect stairstep. That is, each lamp's beam pattern looks to me kinda like this:

`````__
____/````-----


In other words.. they start out low on the left.. have a high spot at the stair step, but then instead of staying high all the way to the right, they come back down as you sweep to the right. The left headlamp's drop is actually "before" the right headlamp's stairstep, so if they're both aimed properly and at the same height, you end up getting a little bit of a gap / dark spot bettween the high spots of the two headlamps. To combat this, in both cars I've intentionally aimed the R headlamp slightly higher than the L one, in essence actually causing a little bit of that double stairstep effect..

Hope this helps.

Helps? Now you have me worried about leveling both sides. Haha :-) Are you sure they were both level? Usually projectors will do this a bit, but only after the two cutoffs meet (and at a distance begin to intersect). Maybe it's an issue with how close my car was to the garage door, but it almost looks like the beam pattern of each projector is different (look at the right side of each beam).

[Andi]

Helps? Now you have me worried about leveling both sides. Haha :-) Are you sure they were both level? Usually projectors will do this a bit, but only after the two cutoffs meet (and at a distance begin to intersect). Maybe it's an issue with how close my car was to the garage door, but it almost looks like the beam pattern of each projector is different (look at the right side of each beam).

Nothing wrong with your car.. you can't measure this at 3 feet away. Easiest way to aim headlights is to find a level parking lot facing a building. think office park parking garage etc so that you can go at 8pm and it's deserted. enough light to do what you need to do but not enough light to drown out what you're measuring. Get about the front of your car about 25 feet away from the wall and then aim them.

Govt code and "spec" says to have them perfectly horizontal or at a slightly downwards angle (i.e. at 25 feet, the cutoff is supposed to be slightly lower than the height of the headlamp). My advice is once you find a good flat lot/wall to do your aim, do a few iterations of test and tune (i.e. adjust and test drive, repeat) till you like the aim.

Cheers,
Andi

[dethred]

Nothing wrong with your car.. you can't measure this at 3 feet away. Easiest way to aim headlights is to find a level parking lot facing a building. think office park parking garage etc so that you can go at 8pm and it's deserted. enough light to do what you need to do but not enough light to drown out what you're measuring. Get about the front of your car about 25 feet away from the wall and then aim them.

Govt code and "spec" says to have them perfectly horizontal or at a slightly downwards angle (i.e. at 25 feet, the cutoff is supposed to be slightly lower than the height of the headlamp). My advice is once you find a good flat lot/wall to do your aim, do a few iterations of test and tune (i.e. adjust and test drive, repeat) till you like the aim.

Cheers,
Andi

Thanks for the info. I've actually done a complete retrofit on another car before (cutting stock reflector housing and all) and had them aimed pretty much perfect, it's just a question of whether these projectors will actually work well leveled out. Actually found a night driving video of my car in which you can catch glimpses of the double step cutoff.

https://youtu.be/eAJza-vXitw

[Andi]

Thanks for the info. I've actually done a complete retrofit on another car before (cutting stock reflector housing and all) and had them aimed pretty much perfect, it's just a question of whether these projectors will actually work well leveled out. Actually found a night driving video of my car in which you can catch glimpses of the double step cutoff.

https://youtu.be/eAJza-vXitw

Oh yeah, I totally see it. Raise your left lamp a little.