Aiming Your Headlights

Introducing something new to the Octagon this month ... Tech Tips.

I’ve owned my TF for about eighteen months, so I am definitely a newbie dufuss. Everything that I do to my car is new to me. Each month, I’ll share tips that I learn. You probably learned most of them long ago. But maybe I’ll find something that you have forgotten. Please send me tips and website links that I can share with the club. Got a tech question? I probably can’t answer it, but I will find the answer from long-time MG owners who know. Send your tips, questions, and comments to me at lonniecook@aol.com

Previous owners have been screwing with the headlights on our MGs for 50-60 years so they are probably pointing at the moon or the curb. Make night-time driving safer and more enjoyable by aiming your headlights. It only takes a few minutes.

HEADLIGHT AIMING CHART:

1. Make a headlight-aiming chart as shown below.

2. Place the vehicle on a level floor twenty-five feet from and perpendicular to the wall on which the chart will be attached.

3. Position and attach the chart to the wall.

a) Align the center line of the vehicle with the center of the chart (left to right.) I use a laser pointer from

the center of the rear of the vehicle through the center of the windshield to position the center of the chart.

b) Position line A-A the same distance above the ground as the center of the headlights minus three inches.

4. Turn the headlights on high beam.

5. Cover right headlight. Adjust left headlight until the hot spot of the light beam is at intersection of lines A-A and B-B.

See illustration below.

6. Cover left head light and adjust right headlight until the hot spot is at the intersection of lines A-A and C-C.