I was wondering the same thing on my 05/E320

 

yes you can, open your hood and on the top of the headlights you can make adjustments using a socket or a flat head (use a socket)

there is two adjusters for low beams, one is vertical, the other horizontal, and the third controls high beams vertically i believe.

park in front of a wall with lights on so you can see the cut off, will be easier to adjust to the height you need them as well as seeing the cut off will make it easier to make sure headlights are aligned.

 

Thanks alot Crafty.
are A and B the low beams?
Btw- SICK RIDE BRO. I seen your post and pics...AWESOME

 

thanks!

(A) horizontal (B) vertical <-- low beams

(C) Vertical <-- high beams

 

*note*

if you have self adjusting headlights i'm pretty sure you can't manually adjust them, if you have the self adjusters i'm not sure how you go about adjusting those. sorry

 

I do not see 3 adjustment screw on my 06 E320 CDI. There is only one screw visible and it adjusts height of low beams. My high beams need to be lowered but I can't find any visible means of accomplishing the task. Even searched in my FSM and can't find the procedure.

John

 

The allen adjustment ("B" in the craftysince86 pic) should adjust both the high and low beams together at the same time. Counter clockwise is higher. At least that's the way it is on my 05 CDI. On my new to me car (two weeks now) the passenger side headlight was aimed way too low and gave poor light. It turned out the bulb was not inserted properly into the projector. It was actually quite tricky to put the bulb in and twist it into the locked position. In addition just inboard of the larger cap which covers the bulb is a small off-white cap which holds the projector in place. Mine had come loose and I had a struggle to figure the system out and put all the parts back to the position which they were designed to be in. Eventually I did so and the lighting is now fantastic. I started a thread on it here- you can see the pics of what I did.

 

Hangit,

There is an external interconnect gear drive between the high beams and the low beams that can be removed to allow adjusting the beam heights separately. It's cover is held in place with three T25 Torx screws (maybe T20, not sure). Crafty's headlights don't have the interconnect, but one of the bosses for the screws that hold the cover in place can be seen at the 7:30 position from adjuster "C". Just remove the cover and the interconnect will come out with the cover and you can then adjust the heights separately.

Also, on your car, there is a small cap (it is missing in the photo above) that covers the "A" adjuster in the photo above. It can be slid rearwards to reveal the side-to-side adjuster screw. The two height adjusters will take a phillips head screwdriver, you can see this if you look closely at the adjuster labeled "B" in the 3rd post. The adjuster labeled "A" above is for lateral adjustments of the low beam and a 7mm allen head wrench will fit that adjuster.

Mike

 

Mike;

I don't see the 3 torx screws you are referring to. I see the cover for "B" but only one torx screw that would be difficult to get to without removing a bracket or two. Please advise.

Thanks.

John

 

Mine has only one adjustment pin, which takes 1/2" socket, extension, and ratchet. Clockwise to lower beam, and counterclock for higher.

 

If you search my profile and threads I've started there is a thread about my headlight issues from just a bit back- maybe one month old. My passenger headlight was misaimed and I thought it was me- but it was that my bulb was not fully inserted into the projector. Next to the lowbeams bulb cap is a white cap which I believe holds mechanism which ties in the low beam to the high beam. Perhaps removing this cap and it's arm may allow you to change the up/down of one and not the other.

 

OK, I took a couple of pics of my old headlights to help you out:

Upper photo shows the back of the headlight.
Lower photo is a close-up with crude outlines.

The 3 Torx screws to remove are circled in blue. The bridge piece is outlined in yellow. The "single" elevation adjustment is in magenta. For orientation, red is the high beam and green is the low beam.

Remove the 3 torx screws and the bridge piece. You will now see another adjuster at the left end of the bridge that was hidden by the cover. This will be the vertical high beam adjuster. Without the bridge connector, the two vertical adjustments (high beam and low beam) will be uncoupled and you can now adjust them separately.

Mike :nerd

 

Mike;

I can reach the 3 torx screws on each assembly, but I don't believe there is enough clearance between the brace above the headlights and the adjustment screw to remove the plastic bridge cover.

When it warms up again here in WI, which will not be until May, I'll try!

John :crying

 

Thanks Mike. I'll give it a go today.

John :wink

 

I'm not positive, but I think it is used for those cars that have self-leveling headlights. Inside the headlight, the mechanism is connected to the vertical adjuster for the Low beams. I think it is only used when HID / BiXenon headlights are fitted to the car. I think some kind of servo motor replaces the white cover.

 

The hid lamps cannot be manually adjusted ?

 

I finally had a chance to attempt removal of the cover over the single adjustment screw. It is not possible to lift it over that screw without removing the headlight assembly from the car. If anyone knows how, please advise. Thanks.

 

It IS possible, I just figured out how the other night! Finally after almost four years of W211 ownership, I was able lower the high beams to where they should be! Why the factory had the high beams on US cars aimed so much higher then the low beams, I have no idea!

If you take a dremel with a drill bit attachment and make several holes in the top of the plastic cover around the perimeter of the high beam adjustment screw, you can then break off that section of the bridge piece by piece with a set of needle nose pliers, remove the three T-20? torx screws securing it and then lift the other side of the bridge up over the low beam adjustment screw and it pulls right out!

 

Maybe a little bit off-topic, but on start-up, when the xenon lights do their spiel with moving first down and then up again, do they actually adjust themselves based on the level of the car? That is, if the car is loaded (i.e. lots of heavy stuff in the trunk), do they compensate for it? This weekend I had the chance to drive a lot with the high beams on, and they seemed to point rather high. They didn't seem to go for distance, rather than height. The car was fully loaded, and I thought that they were shining way too high. As were the low beams, by the way, and a few cars actually flashed their lights at me, thinking I had my high beams on when I in fact had not. I've driven cars that had manual adjustments for the lights, but I thought the W211 xenons do that automatically. And if they do, is it done only on start-up or continuously; i.e. if the car is running and you load up the trunk, do the lights compensate for it?

Thanks,

Andy

 

Not sure why you had to cut up that high beam headlight height adjustment assembly. Was yours not adjusting the high beam because the gears in the assembly were stripped out? Did it not provide enough travel to get the beam pattern where you wanted?

Normally you just use a socket on the large plastic nut from above without having to damage the high beam headlight height adjustment assembly. Just want to clarify that folks don't go cutting things up if they don't need to.

 

The problem is that the aim of the high beams is so off (for US 211 owners with the standard halogen headlamps), that when trying to properly adjust the headlamps either the low beams will be too low or the high beams will be be too high.

Had the low/high beams been more closely aligned at the factory, the bridge connecting them would not have been a problem. There is no way to adjust the high beams independently from the low beams until it's removed. I was careful to not damage the headlight assembly or adjustment screws in the process of removing it.

As shown in Craftysince86's earlier post, European cars do not have the bridge installed.

 

I believe that he wanted to adjust the hi-beams independent of the low beams.

John

 

Okay, thanks for the clarification.

I didn't know that the high beam and low beam adjusted together on the non-active, non-Bi Zenon headlamps. That adjustment nut affects just the high beam on the Active Bi-Zenon headlamps. Low beam height is set via Star on those unless you want to shim the whole headlight assembly.

 

Makes sense. Good photos, thanks.

 

I followed his instruction and did this yesterday. But you dont have to cut up the bridge, just remove the 3 torx crews, then you can easily remove the bridge.....

 

I followed his instruction and did this yesterday. But you don't have to cut up the bridge, just remove the 3 torx screws, then you can easily remove the bridge.....

That's great, I'm glad it helped you!

I did not attempt to try and remove the bridge without cutting it up first (on my pre-facelift W211), as it did not look like there was enough clearance to lift it over the adjustment screw and the other member that tried, did not have any luck (maybe face lifted cars are different?).

 

I just made the high beam adjustment, without cutting off the bridge from the low beam adjuster. I drilled a hole in the bridge to reach the high beam screw, removed the 3 torque screws holding the bridge in place, then pried the bridge up to disengage the mechanism. Made the the high beam adjustment, then put the bridge back in place. Will check my beam throw after dark.

John:nerd

 

on a 06 E320 the WIS says adjustment of BiXenon with Active Curve is via Star, is this absolute?

 

Yes, that's correct. The fog lights and auxiliary high beams are the only lights you can manually aim on cars equipped with Bi-Xenons.