Mistake in Owner's Manual: headlight aim

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2004 EB Expedition; how do I adjust vertical aim of headlights. Owner's manual says to turn the vertical 10 mm bolt. This bolt just seems to secure housing to truck body (needs to be loosened in order to remove headlight housing). There is a horizontal screw protruding from the back of the housing (not mentioned in the manual). Is this the adjustment screw?
 

ELVATO

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I just loosed that bolt, and adjusted the headlights themselves by pulling them up a little, then just tightened the bolt again. It's a bit crude, but it gets the job done. It helps to shine the lights on a white wall so you can see how much you adjusted it by.
 

sam1174

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SOLUTION:

I know this is an ancient thread, but I was trying to figure out how to adjust the headlights on my 2004 EB and the long vertical bolt behind the headlight doesn't do anything for the adjustment, it just secures the headlight assembly to the vehicle. I didn't see any other threads in the forum that gave good instructions on how to adjust the headlights, so I figured I'd answer this question.

I noticed a long, skinny threaded rod that protrudes horizontally out of the back of the headlight assembly and discovered that it is actually the adjustment screw. The screw is on the back of the headlight assembly on the outboard side (near the side of the truck). It's maybe 3/16ths inch in diameter. The end of the screw is six-sided like it's supposed to accept a small wrench, but the smallest wrench I had wouldn't fit it, so I just used pliers. Turning the screw clockwise (as viewed from the front of the vehicle) aims the beam higher.

FOG LIGHTS: I also wanted my fogs to be brighter. I discovered that the 9005 high beam bulbs can be modified to fit the fog light assembly. The 9145 fog lights are only 42 watts and a 9005 high beam is 60 watts. The wiring can handle the extra current with no problem. I drove around for an hour this evening with my fogs on and didn't have any problems.

To modify the 9005 bulbs to fit, you have to use some snips to nibble away at a little of the plastic on one of the three tabs. If you stick the bulb into the socket you'll see what I mean. The edge of one of the tabs is too big. I'll try to post a picture later, but if you just try to stick it into the socket it becomes obvious which tab needs to be modified.
 

GAINMOB

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2004 EB Expedition; how do I adjust vertical aim of headlights. Owner's manual says to turn the vertical 10 mm bolt. This bolt just seems to secure housing to truck body (needs to be loosened in order to remove headlight housing). There is a horizontal screw protruding from the back of the housing (not mentioned in the manual). Is this the adjustment screw?

the single bolt behind the headlight assy is the adjustment bolt and serves as another security bolt to keep the light in place...at night...tighten that bolt and when it feels as if youre about to tighten it all the way...look at your beam (against a wall of some sort) and you will see you light move as it tightens...it will take a while but you'll feel it...when you feel it...look at the wall and you should see it move...i tightened mine without them being on in the daytime and at night can see that one side is off...just too lazy to fix...
 

ELVATO

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Both sam and bhsoulja are right. The manual states using the method soulja says, which moves the whole assembly up and down (somewhat). I've always had trouble getting to work right.

The way sam states is the way it should really be, since it leaves the assembly in it's place, and moves just the low and high beam reflectors. I used a small socket (try 7mm and under).
 

sam1174

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Here's a picture. This is the right headlight. The top of the picture is the right side of the truck. The front of the truck is to the left.
 

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Begotten

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Here's a picture. This is the right headlight. The top of the picture is the right side of the truck. The front of the truck is to the left.
s-l1600.jpg


Found this while trying to get an answer to this. I'm still having trouble getting mine aimed properly even adjusting both of these.
 

hammerhead fred

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So, just went through this with my father's 2004 expedition (installing a replacement set of headlights).
The rear 10mm bolt ONLY holds the headlight in place. It provides zero adjustment contrary to what the owners manual says.
There is no left/right adjustment for these headlights (unless you want to offset shim the top retaining bolts).

The small horizontal adjuster (photo above) provides UP/DOWN adjustment for both reflectors in the headlight bucket (they move together).
It takes a small MM wrench OR (for us old car people) imperial 5/32.
Drive it in and the reflectors move down pointing light toward the ground. Back it out and the reflectors move up.

Here's a video using the OEM buckets that I removed.
 
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