[Sandegov]

For all the folks who are not happy with their low beam throw:

Here is a brief of my diy fix that I did on a lazy Sunday morning

Problem statement:
I wasn't too convinced with the throw of my 700 on low beams at night and it din't help that M&M had no documentation on how to adjust the headlight focus neither did their ASC have an SOP and a headlight adjustment chart for 700.


Solution:
I went with a basic old school method that I had seen one of my friend do in US before his DMV inspection.At that time it dint quite register with me but on reading on it now it was pretty simple and straight forward :
1. Measure your headlight height from ground and mark a horizontal line on a wall at that height.
2. Pull your car back 25ft from wall and then adjust your light cut off to be at this line for cars whose headlights are 34in & below and for cars >34in adjust the cutoff line to be 4 inches below the marked line on drivers side and 2 inches below on passenger side.


Execution:
Spent a good 2 hrs on my 700 with the hood open and removed few panels out before I was able to identify and be fully convinced on the headlight setup and the possible adjustmemts in 700.

Headlights on 700 have three elements :
1. Low beam on the outer portion
2. High beam in upper half of the inner portion
3. High beam assist in lower half of the inner portion.

The back of high beam housing has two screws with a gear setup as shown in below picture - one for vertical adjustment and the other for horizontal. Which is for what can be found only with trial and error and there are no markings. My high beam I felt was good and I dint touch these.



The low beam housing comes with slightly diff setup and I have marked the ones for vertical and horizontal adjustment in the picture below.


These screws can be turned two ways - horizontally using the screw head or vertically using the gears. A philips screwdriver is what you will need for both (deep grooves for vertical option helps). Anticlockwise for going higher/right and viceversa.


With all this done
Step 1: I now pulled up the 700 to wall and measured the height of the headlight which was about 35in from ground and marked it with the long horizontal line.

Step 2: Checked the cut off line of low beam and high beam it was exactly at the marked line. This I did to mark factory setting incase I had to revert back.



Step 3: Pulled back the car 25ft from wall and turned on my low beam and set the leveller to 2. You can see that the cut off was too low almost below the half way from the marked line.

Step 4: Turned on the high beam and it looked ok to me at slightly above the marked line.



Step 5: Adjusted the lowbeam using the adjustment screws and lifted up the cutoff line to be just below the marked line and the end result as shown below.



A quick check later in the night and things were looking good:


Level 3/2 for city
Level 2/1 for highways
Level 0 for some mild revenge light passive aggressive style

In city traffic at level 3 and 2 it was cutting off nicely just below the rear glass of front Nexon upto about 5-6 car length

I think I have got my low beam setup correct now (may be a tad bit higher) or totally wrong too, a few night drives will confirm on it.

[swiftLife]

Originally Posted by Sandegov

Level 3/2 for city
Level 2/1 for highways
Level 0 for some mild revenge light passive aggressive style

In city traffic at level 3 and 2 it was cutting off nicely just below the rear glass of front Nexon upto about 5-6 car length

I think I have got my low beam setup correct now (may be a tad bit higher) or totally wrong too, a few night drives will confirm on it.

This is so informative and hats off to you for your effort!!!
So vertical reference is clear from the cut off and can be adjusted. How did you check if horizontal alignment was correct?

I can see you've used the leveler to tweak the level for city and highways, which is very thoughtful BTW, but the leveler is built to compensate for beams going up due to rear sagging from passengers load and/or loaded boot.

Now with level 2 as the recommended level, actually above recommended as the headlight height is above 34 inches.
So now when your car is loaded at the rear, won't it create a much higher low beam cut off which you won't be able to correct from the leveler too?

[Sandegov]

Originally Posted by swiftLife

This is so informative and hats off to you for your effort!!!
So vertical reference is clear from the cut off and can be adjusted. How did you check if horizontal alignment was correct?

I can see you've used the leveler to tweak the level for city and highways, which is very thoughtful BTW, but the leveler is built to compensate for beams going up due to rear sagging from passengers load and/or loaded boot.

Now with level 2 as the recommended level, actually above recommended as the headlight height is above 34 inches.
So now when your car is loaded at the rear, won't it create a much higher low beam cut off which you won't be able to correct from the leveler too?

Horizontal alignment was left at factory setting, we need a proper adjustment board from the manufacturer for this since its a LED unlike halogens which produce a well defined hot spot and can be aligned as diy.

My car is usually never loaded at all - max 2 adults+2 kids so the leveller is not of much use for this use case, level 3 should still come in handy for those very rare cases.

[IamNikhil]

Super stuff Sandegov!

I am also not happy with the headlight throw; will have to set aside some time and follow your tutorial. On a daily basis, in Mumbai, with just myself 1 or 2 adults, I have been setting the leveller at 2, but frankly setting the beam at any level has not given any concrete improvement.

[RGK]

Very good effort.

It is better for the car to be parked on a road (when there is very little traffic) and have the adjustment done. The adjustment done indoors will not replicate what is expected while driving on the road. I prefer the low beam to focus a bit more towards the left.

[BharathXUV700]

Originally Posted by Sandegov

For all the folks who are not happy with their low beam throw:




Execution:
Spent a good 2 hrs on my 700 with the hood open and removed few panels out before I was able to identify and be fully convinced on the headlight setup and the possible adjustmemts in 700.

Did you have to open up any panel in order for these adjustment screws to be visible or accessible?

[Sandegov]

Originally Posted by BharathXUV700

Did you have to open up any panel in order for these adjustment screws to be visible or accessible?

Not needed - I had a hard time initially figuring out the location of adjustment screws for high and low beam and opened one side panel in the process, you can avoid it and they are accessible directly if you look for the screws I have marked in my pictures.

[chaotic]

Great piece of info! Now to find out how to adjust the same on a hycross

In my car I find the low beam height sufficient, but the right headlamp is focused a bit too much to the left.

Thanks for sharing!

[supertinu]

Originally Posted by Sandegov

For all the folks who are not happy with their low beam throw:

Thanks for sharing Sandegov, very helpful. I also feel the need to raise the low beam cause currently even at level 0 it seems just good enough.

My high beams from factory came completely screwed up. I was able to adjust the high beams but the booster lights are still a problem cause they cant be turned on. Any tricks to adjust those ?

[Sandegov]

Originally Posted by supertinu

Thanks for sharing Sandegov, very helpful. I also feel the need to raise the low beam cause currently even at level 0 it seems just good enough.

My high beams from factory came completely screwed up. I was able to adjust the high beams but the booster lights are still a problem cause they cant be turned on. Any tricks to adjust those ?

My understanding is adjusting the high beam should take care of the booster lamp too, don't think they have separate adjustments. Do keep in mind that the booster lamp works only with high beam switched on and logically should be aligned same as high beam.

[supertinu]

Originally Posted by Sandegov

My understanding is adjusting the high beam should take care of the booster lamp too, don't think they have separate adjustments. Do keep in mind that the booster lamp works only with high beam switched on and logically should be aligned same as high beam.

Both lights are separate and have their own setting screw/gear. I had fixed the primary set on my own, but the booster ones are totally messed up. Left side is like low beam and right side is pointing to the right. I will try hit and trial hope its gets better. Else need to wait for 2nd 10K servicing. I had reported this during 1st servicing also and nothing was done.

[Sandegov]

Originally Posted by supertinu

Both lights are separate and have their own setting screw/gear. I had fixed the primary set on my own, but the booster ones are totally messed up. Left side is like low beam and right side is pointing to the right. I will try hit and trial hope its gets better. Else need to wait for 2nd 10K servicing. I had reported this during 1st servicing also and nothing was done.

Oh great - good to know that they have separate adjustments . Please keep us posted on your luck with the ASC.

[Mortis]

This is exactly how I adjust my headlights and use the leveller ! On 2 for normal city driving such that the hotspot is under the rear windshield of a car that is 15 feet away. 3 is just in case I'm blinding the occupants ahead. 1 and 0 are for fast city roads and the highway respectively.

Height beams are set to just above the lows on level 0. On the completely dark roads I can use the fogs + lows on 2 and high beams to light up the near, mid and far regions of the road.

[luckysidhu]

Thanks for sharing this comprehensive DIY guide.

I've got the Philips LED-HL (H7) Ultinon installed from Mahindra dealer from whom I've purchased the vehicle. They messed up the headlights. It's not giving me satisfaction till date.

Whole lighting experience is very poor. Have got it aligned multiple times but Mahindra dealership doesn't have any expertise on this.

Thinking to take it to some lighting expert who can help me with it. Meanwhile once I'll try this DIY to see if it makes any difference.

Simple message if you want to get the LEDs installed then go to a shop who does only lighting works. Don't get it installed from Mahindra dealership.

[Sandegov]

Originally Posted by luckysidhu

Thanks for sharing this comprehensive DIY guide.

I've got the Philips LED-HL (H7) Ultinon installed from Mahindra dealer from whom I've purchased the vehicle. They messed up the headlights. It's not giving me satisfaction till date.

Whole lighting experience is very poor. Have got it aligned multiple times but Mahindra dealership doesn't have any expertise on this.

Thinking to take it to some lighting expert who can help me with it. Meanwhile once I'll try this DIY to see if it makes any difference.

Simple message if you want to get the LEDs installed then go to a shop who does only lighting works. Don't get it installed from Mahindra dealership.

Can you please let me know your 700 variant, never knew we could upgrade the LED bulbs on 700 easily- for some reason I always assumed it was a sealed unit in 700.

My other car, a Nexon EV, comes with a projector setup with halogen bulbs and when I changed the bulb over to a LED one I realized that the orientation of the LED element when you fit it also makes a difference in the throw. Do check on this as well.