Most of the time other drivers may flash you at night on the road because of your annoying headlamp beams. This can be a cause for accidents on the roads.
So in this guide we’ll look at how to align jeep headlights properly.
This procedure can be used to align headlights of all the jeep models including TJ, JK and Jl & gladiators.
Contents
Items and tools required
Measuring tape
Sticky tape(painters tape)
Enough space with 25ft distance
Wall or flat vertical surface
Thick blanket or clothe
#15 torx screwdriver (jk, tj)
T40 long head screw driver for jl
Before aligning headlights,
You have check the tire pressures are in proper amounts for all four tires (adjust tire pressures for on road driving)
It’s better if you have full gas tank
No luggage in the back. Put the things you always carry on the back.
If mud or snow accumulated largely on tires or on lights, clean them prior to doing adjustments of headlamps.
How to align headlights
There are a couple of methods to do this aligning. I’ll show you the two easiest and quicker ways to do this, because unlike other vehicles, jeep ride height is easily changed with the load due to the soft springs.
As an example after aligning your head lamps, if you upgrade your front bumper to a heavy bumper and put a winch you may need to align your headlights again.
That’s why it’s better to choose a quick and easy way to adjust your headlights.
Method No. 01
In this method we are going to set the headlight beam 3 feet higher from the ground.
Maximum 3 feet from the ground is a better beam height that can be set without hurting other drivers eyes at night.
Parking the jeep properly
- First park the jeep facing to the wall parallel to it.
- Then measure 20 feet from the wall on the ground and mark 20feet on the ground.
- Then take the jeep (face of the jeep) to the 20 feet mark. Jeep headlamps should face the wall.
- At this point jeeps both headlamps should be parallel to the wall with 20 feet distance from the wall.
- Make sure your floor is flat. Wall and jeep should be in the same plane without inclines or declines.
- All the four wheels of the jeep should be in the same level
Marking 3 feet on the wall
- Now from the drivers side of the jeep measure 3 feets from the ground and put a mark on the wall with the sticky tape.
- Then measure 3 feet from the passenger side of the jeep and put a second mark on the wall.
- Now stick a long tape joining two markers across the wall.
- Now this will serve as a 3 feet height indicator on the wall above the ground.
Adjusting the headlamp beam
After going through the above steps now you have a marker line on the wall 3feet above the ground level and a jeep parked facing parallel to that marker line 20 feet away.
Now turn on your head lamps and put it on a low beam.
If you have a TJ or JK
- Your headlamp adjusting screws positioned from the outer edge of the head lamps. You can find them using the below image
|
| Red circled areas shows the screw placements of headlamps |
- With using a #15 torx screw drive you can adjust the headlamp beam.
- When turning the screws clockwise headlamps turn up and out.
- With screws turning counterclockwise headlamps turn down and in.
- In jeep jk and tj models normally you can find just one adjusting screw per lamp from the outer side of the lamp
- But you can easily put another adjusting screw from the inner edge of the lamp and get more adjustments.
For jeep JL and new gladiators
- In jeep JL models, you can find the vertical adjusting screw opening up the hood.
- Behind the headlights you can find the little circular adjusting screw facing upward.
|
| Wrangler JL headlamp adjustment screw behind the lamp inside the engine bay |
- With a long head T40 screwdriver you can easily adjust the beam vertically.
- With turning the screw the clockwise beam goes up.
- Turning the screw counter clockwise turns the beam down.
Aligning the beam correctly
- Now you can adjust the beam to right about the 3feet line on the wall.
- Adjust both lamps to the 3 feet tape line on the wall.
- With this you have finished adjusting your headlamps and avoid annoying other drivers at night.
Method No. 02
In this method there are just a few steps different from the first method.
Measure height to the headlamps
- First park the jeep 20 feet apart from the wall same way in the first method.
- Then measure height to the middle of the headlamps from the ground.
- Subtract 2″ from the above measurement and put markers on the wall for this new sustracted height.
Aligning the beam.
Adjusting the headlamp beams is the same as the previous method.
Turn the screws of headlamps and adjust beams just below the markers on the wall.
Final word..
With one of the above simple methods, you can easily align your jeep headlamps in minutes.
When aligning the beam make sure your jeep is in the proper ride height.
If you frequently carry heavy luggage or equipment in your jeep, it’s better to keep those things in the jeep when aligning the beams. Because as I mentioned previously jeep ride height can change easily due to it’s soft springs.
If you think this guide may be helpful for someone else, share this with them. You just have to hit a share button below.