- 1). Load the vehicle with a typical driving weight. The amount of weight carried in the automobile will affect the direction of the headlight beams. If you normally carry something in the trunk, make sure it is there now. Fill the gas tank about halfway. And most importantly, have a friend sit in the driver's seat for you.
- 2). Park the vehicle in an appropriate spot. You'll need about 30-feet of driving space in front of a large wall or garage door. Start with the car about a foot from the wall with the headlights turned on.
- 3). Mark the wall with the headlight's horizontal and vertical axis. Start by taking a 6-foot piece of tape and marking the wall from the center-point of the driver's side light across to the center of the passenger side headlight. Then take two smaller pieces of tape and put a vertical strip across the long horizontal strip in the center of each light. This will create two cross shapes directly in front of each light. These are your bull's-eyes.
- 4). Tell your partner to back the vehicle up 20 feet and keep the lights on. See how the beams hit the wall. Both headlights should fall just below the long horizontal line, which means they are properly illuminating the road in front of you. The driver's side should fall just to the right of the small vertical strip of the bull's eye, meaning that the light will not shine into oncoming traffic. The passenger's side light should hit the bull's-eye dead center.
- 5). Adjust each headlight. Start by popping the hood and going to the rear of the headlight assembly. Find the two adjustment screws. There will be one on the top and one on the side. The top controls the horizontal and the side the vertical axis. Use the appropriate screwdriver and adjust each screw until the light hits the desired spot. Repeat for each headlight and close the hood.