I'm sure this is a common problem, and I was wondering if anyone had a fix they'd like to share. There are two adjustment screws on the back of each lens designed for aiming your headlights. One is this thumbwheel kind of thing, and the other is just a very long screw or bolt. Both of these enter into the back, which is plastic, and you guessed it, on a 15 year old car the plastic threads are pretty much stripped down to nothing with very little ability for adjustment. This wouldn't have been a problem except I had to replace the lens (with a used part) and now I have to re-aim it. Any tips?

 

go to the boneyard!

 

picture of the part? I may have saved it when I did my E36's

 

yup

 

1) working on the picture
2) boneyard is where I got the first replacement lens, which I had to replace again with one from a parts car (I had hoped to keep it intact for now), and that one had the same problem

I'm working on a possible solution, maybe involving some JB Weld or something. I just hate to have to spend too much time on such a ridiculous little problem.

 

Maybe once I go back to school I should make some metal adjusting screws on the lathe and sell them here.

 

sorry for the delay, buddy crashed his bike (pretty nasty). anyhow, I figured out a solution, simple but it works-


backside of lens and bracket. note adjust on upper left & lower right


15 years of corrosion. small wonder there was a problem.

'thread cutting nuts' from loews. works good because it grips the worn out corroded threads on the bolt.

 

I have one of those in perfect condition. PM me

 

take off the 2 metal caps from back of the lens, replace the stripped out plastic threaded insert with the threaded screw.



reassembled, straightened the beam, got my inspection sticker. on to the next project- ripping out the bose & puttin a decent stereo in

 

I'm sorry, one of what?

 

kudos on the problem solving!

 

thats a great fix, McGyver would be proud! seriously great fix!

 

One of the adjusters that is stripped. I removed them when I did my E36's and stuck them in a box.

 

thanks for the compliments. you might have noticed traces of jb weld in the photos. at first I was trying to use that to keep everything in place, but it was taking too long to set so I wiped it off and started over. but everything stays pretty tight in there as long as you get the screws torqued in good.

jonmandude, PM sent