Helms vs Haynes, 5th Gen HEADLIGHT Adjustment:

Please refer to page 12-9, pic 14.1a and 14.1b, of the Haynes Repair Manual for 5th gen Accords, and then go to page 23-164 of the 1994-1997 Accord Service Manual and look close and you will see the corner of the fender of the handmade drawing of the headlight adjuster location. Then compare the instructions for adjusting the headlights. These publications are completely opposite in what part of the headlight assembly is adjusted for vertical and for horizontal. So, which one is correct, or which one has the typo?

 

Easy solution would be to turn your headlights on and start turning one of the adjustment screws. If the center of the beam moves up. I would put my money on that being the vertical adjustment. If it moves side to side then that would be the horizontal adjustment.

You could probably save yourself some waiting time and answer your own question. By taking a minute and trying things out yourself rather than waiting for an answer on here.

 

^^ what GhostAccord said. I just go up close to my garage door at night, turn the headlights on, open the hood, & look around behind the headlight til I see a screw and just mess around with it to see if it'll go up or down.

 

I hear ya, guys, but guess what ... that's what I tried first. I could not discern any movement -- ergo, my post. But, it is the best idea I suppose, regardless. I tried it in the daytime though and perhaps it is harder to tell. I'll try again. Thank you.

 

It is difficult to play with it, what I suggest doing is covering one headlight with a blanket and parking close to like a garage door or wall to figure out what's what. Then park on a flat street and look out several car lengths ahead of you and try to aim the headlight to that spot.

It takes a LOT of tweaking to get it right.

 

^^X2 Did this 4 days ago after new brakes... and it definitly is a pain and takes alot. ull turn the screw tons before u notice much (atleast for me) as for the horizontal adjustment.. that is a huge pain as well seeing as u have to jam a philips head into some weird hole and have it mesh into this little gear.... When i did mine it took forever to make my passenger side light to center up, and then i took a step back and noticed that as u adjust it it literely moves the light (duh) and it was way out on the bumper and was not flush at all... so i just put it back and got over it cus it looks alot better sitting flush with my bumper... im not sure why my light is so off though... ha good luck its "lots of fun"


take note though when fixing horizontal adjustment for passenger side, you have to slide the little coolant overflow resevoir deal to get to it. It will slide straight up out of a grove thats on/ near the front of the battery.

 

bringing it up from the recent death.

instead of jamming the screwdriver into the awkward access hole, I just took that off-white cover off the adjustment mechanism. This involved unscrewing three long screws. after that i was able to use my fingers to twist the **** that's concealed by the off-white cover. The **** is connected to the gear, and it's a LOT easier to adjust, and makes it faster as well. Hope this helps.

 

Good to know, Thank you.