New Headlamps alignment - Does this look wrong??

[Argonaut]

Hello all,

Recently needed to get new headlamps to get the car through its MOT. The cost of originals + fitting were astronomical and I needed some quickly so picked up some aftermarket angel eyes / halogen off of ebay. The garage fitted for me and aligned, however the trajectory of the beam did not look right to me. I went back to the garage and they re-set the alignment confirming it wasn't correct. The field of vision was much improved on the open road, however when I am in close proximity to another vehicle a very obvious shadow 'blind spot' is cutting across the right hand side of the vehicle ahead. Would appreciate it if anybody tell me if this is a fault with the lamp / bulb / fitting / alignment ...or simply a normal characteristic of this type of lamp?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1e1fldac8rtavnx/Headlamps%20Z4.jpg?dl=0

 

[patriot66]

Are they Sonar/2xcite headlamps ? If so have you checked the bulbs are clipped in properly ?

 

[kis]

Bloody hell! That doesn't look right!



For what it's worth, I've always found aftermarket poorer in quality. OEM's have been around for a decade or more (depending on the age) and sure most need polishing up to bring them back to former glory. But at 10 years old? It's to be expected really? But that's me.

 

[Argonaut]

Are they Sonar/2xcite headlamps ? If so have you checked the bulbs are clipped in properly ?

Hi Patriot66

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply
They are indeed 2excite headlamps. I was going to email Craig @ 2excite who I've found to be really helpful, but just wanted to gather some opinions first as it was my garage who fitted them for me whist doing a service and MOT along with a few other jobs. cheers.

 

[Argonaut]

Bloody hell! That doesn't look right!
For what it's worth, I've always found aftermarket poorer in quality. OEM's have been around for a decade or more (depending on the age) and sure most need polishing up to bring them back to former glory. But at 10 years old? It's to be expected really? But that's me.

Thanks for the reply Kis. I would dearly have loved to have the OEM's fitted, however my garage bill was already at £2000+ and they wanted £1100+ for the OEM pair. Had the car not failed MOT I would have had time to look into things a bit further, perhaps even restore the old lamps, but I was over a barrel unfortunately. The car does actually look a lot better without the 'ginger stripe' lights, and the new lamps are actually pretty good bar this close proximity issue. cheers

p.s thank you for posting the picture in the thread, I couldn't get it to show on my post!

 

[patriot66]

Are they Sonar/2xcite headlamps ? If so have you checked the bulbs are clipped in properly ?

Hi Patriot66

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply
They are indeed 2excite headlamps. I was going to email Craig @ 2excite who I've found to be really helpful, but just wanted to gather some opinions first as it was my garage who fitted them for me whist doing a service and MOT along with a few other jobs. cheers.

No problem I fitted the same Sonar 2xcite lights on my Z4 just over 4 years and have never had any issues with them. I went out and took these photos last night sitting in the car.
When I initially fitted them the beams were way-off and my local garage adjusted them on their MOT beam setter. I have fitted Osram Nightbreaker bulbs and raised the beams a fair bit since then. They passed MOT back in January and I haven't touched them since. There are 2 x 8mm adjuster nuts on the rear of the lamps, 1 is up/down and t'other is left/right. Aim your car at the garage door or a suitable wall and put some chalk marks in strategic places on the beam patterns. Then you can have a play around and always return them to their original positions if needed

 

[Argonaut]

Hi [ref]patriot66[/ref],
Thank you for going to the trouble of taking these pics, it's very much appreciated!
Also, that's an excellent idea about using chalk marks on the wall!
I will ask the garage to take another look before I start to mess with them myself as I did actually pay them to fit and set up properly - will report back here with the outcome. Cheers!

 

[patriot66]

Hi [ref]patriot66[/ref],
Thank you for going to the trouble of taking these pics, it's very much appreciated!
Also, that's an excellent idea about using chalk marks on the wall!
I will ask the garage to take another look before I start to mess with them myself as I did actually pay them to fit and set up properly - will report back here with the outcome. Cheers!

Hope you get it sorted.

 

[colb]

Have read elsewhere that oem lights have a manual lever on them to drop an internal flap down to cut the top edge of the beam for continental driving, as yours are aftermarket not sure they would have this feature but that cut off top right looks like a blackout blind or flap is deployed. Oem lights have this lever on the right hand side of the internals accessed through the wheel arch removable flap.