Many many years ago, my state had auto inspections. One of the things they inspected was headlight aiming. I don't know what the law said, but after you got your lights set to the standard, it was downright dangerous to drive at night. Low beams were fine if you were looking for deer tracks at night, and high beams might show up a tall coon 50 feet down the road.
So, most folks adjusted them themselves after. Which, of course made things worse. Now you never knew what you were going to see next. One guy would be coming at you and you could hardly see him, and the next guy would be blinding you on dims.
I took my father's car out to a deserted stretch of highway in the woods. Adjusted the low beams to give a good view down the road with out being too blinding, and then adjusted the high beams to shoot level down the road and give max visual range. Four light system.
I also angled the right hand high beam slightly to the right to better pick up anything on the side of the road.
After a couple of tries, I had them set perfect. Low beams were kind to oncoming traffic, and high beams would show anything they were strong enough to reach.
Then, I went home, and drove the car up about 20 feet or so from the garage door. got out, and marked a spot on the driveway under the center of the front of the front bumper.
Turned on the headlight, and drew circles with a pencil on the door corresponding to the "hot spot" of all the light settings.
Then, every year, after they "fixed" the out of adjustment lights during the inspection, I would park at the same spot and reset them.
Worked great until one year I got careless. My mark on the concrete was just a scratch I had made with a nail, and I missed it. Parked over the wrong mark. Way closer that I should have been.
The next time we went out at night, it was nasty..
We met a semi on a curve with the dims on. They were about as high as brights should be. When he asked for dims, and my father hit the switch, you could see the poor driver sitting in the cab. Both lights were aimed that high.
We made sure not to use high beams again with anyone coming. We actually saw a pair of eyes in a tree once when we did. Coon I think.
Needless to say, I reset them that night when we got home.
For all the years we had inspections here, I never heard of anyone getting spot checked for headlight adjustment. I imagine if you set yours so they work good without being really annoying, they would tend to give you a pass.
J.
The closest I could find for Michigan is covered here:
hell the drivers side is zipped tied in right now.the screws fell out.too many trees i guess??
good info fellas
